Please Welcome Poet, Novelist and Travel Writer William Graham

We are delighted to welcome author William Graham to Omnimystery News.

William has collected four short mysteries featuring detective Ace Sloan in Martian Darkness (March 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and he joins us today with a look at the origin of the stories.

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Photo provided courtesy of
William Graham

I am a published poet, novelist and travel writer. So why did I write Martian Darkness: Four Detective Ace Sloan Mysteries and why now?

The genesis of these detective stories is multi-faceted. First, I have always been fascinated with space travel since I was a child, having come of age during the glory days of NASA in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I have always imagined human colonies on the Moon or Mars. Second, I wanted these stories to be not just hard-boiled detective yarns set on Mars in the 22nd century, but also a commentary on the current social and political situations on Earth in the 21st century. In short, what makes the four novellas in this collection so unique and captivating, in my humble opinion, is that they shine a light on contemporary issues. 

I have always been a student of what are referred to as "social novels" in American literature. By that I mean works by authors such as Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser and John Steinbeck, to name a few. I wanted to infuse my Martian tales with this social realism sensibility while at the same time creating a new imaginary world on Mars. With these influences, I created the character of Detective Achilles "Ace" Sloan, an immigrant to Mars who solves crimes amidst the backdrop of social and political unrest in the burgeoning Martian colonies. Sloan is both a cynic of the human condition but also dedicated to helping the forgotten populace on Mars.

As you turn the pages of Martian Darkness, you will enter a unique world that is not often written about in contemporary fiction in any genre. I hope you will become a reader or a listener of these novellas.

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Poet, novelist and travel writer William Graham holds a BA and MA in English and a MS in Communications from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He lives in Stowe, Vermont.

For more information about the author, please visit his author page on Amazon or his author page on Goodreads.

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Martian Darkness by William Graham

Four Detective Ace Sloan Mysteries

Publisher: William Graham

Set in the Martian colonies in the 22nd century, this suspenseful and action packed collection of crime novellas finds Detective Achilles "Ace" Sloan confronted with the criminal dark side of Mars.

Brimming with intrigue, political turmoil and social unrest, these fast-paced, thought provoking crime stories will leave you breathless.

— Martian Darkness by William Graham. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.