Author: Gene Caffrey

A Word From the Author

I began writing the Owen Delaney novels after retiring from a career in law, business and real estate investing. As an inveterate reader, I had always wanted to write a novel and, when the time opened up, I decided to try. It seemed to me that a plot driven as opposed to a character driven story would be easiest to write; but I still needed a character to serve as protagonist. So I based the character of Owen on a friend from my twenties with shocking blond hair, a romantic temperament and some quirky eccentricities and who’d had what to me at the time seemed like fascinating life experiences. Until I started doing some research for Shock Treatment, I had no idea that a good few of these fascinating tidbits were completely made up. But that’s another story.

At any rate, as I continued writing, Owen grew into his own self and I began to like him, sort of. Sometimes he seems quite brave; other times just reckless, impulsive and self centered. What can’t be denied is that he is incessantly curious and introspective. Where these character traits will lead him is hard to say. But I see these books as being as much about Owen’s personal evolution as about the crimes he ends up solving. After all, in Sweet Caroline, he’s still in his early thirties. I’m in my mid-seventies and still evolving. We all just have to wait and see.

I hope you enjoy reading about Owen as much as I enjoy writing about him.

About Two Souls

I thought I’d write a few words about Two Souls, the second story in the Owen Delaney series. This book picks up our hero several years after the events that were described in Shock Treatment. Owen is now a married and settled young man teaching English Literature at a major University in Philadelphia. While the events of Shock Treatment are seven or eight years in the past, the memories of that adventure are fresh and powerful. When he confronts another puzzling set of circumstances, he cannot resist delving into them. So he…. No, you should read the story and find out what happens.

My goal for the book, in addition to telling what I hope is a suspenseful story, was to push Owen along a path that makes him more believable as, so to speak, a recidivist amateur sleuth. It will take a while for him to develop the ego and confidence to stagger through this process; and Sweet Caroline finds him further down that path. I’m not sure he will make it. Maybe I will like him more if he remains quirky and tentative. But I will be interested to find out how he turns out. I hope you enjoy the journey with him.

About the Author

Gene Caffrey is a retired Philadelphia lawyer and real estate investor who has had a life-long love of reading and sports. He has been married for nearly 50 years and is the father of two grown children. His familiarity with the diverse neighborhoods of Philadelphia and his near total recall of its characters informs his writing with a refreshing authenticity. He now divides his time between Philadelphia, Sarasota (FL) and his farm in New Jersey.