What is Tom MacDonald reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Tom MacDonald, author of The Charlestown Connection.

His entry begins:

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

A native of Russian Poland (now Ukraine), Conrad's native language was Polish, and yet he is counted among England's great novelists. For twenty years he worked as a seaman, and during that time he sailed to the Congo Free State (only five years old in 1890) where he got his material for Heart of Darkness. He writes of colonial exploitation, mercenaries, hoarders of natural resources, and adventurers--Heart of Darkness is...[read on]

About The Charlestown Connection:

Amid the gloom of New England’s largest federal housing project, Dermot Sparhawk, a former all-American football star at Boston College, is stacking cans of food in the Saint Jude Thaddeus food pantry, when his godfather, Jeepster Hennessey, stumbles in with a knife in his back and dies at Dermot’s feet.

With the help of his Micmac Indian cousin and his paraplegic tenant and former BC teammate, Dermot sets out to solve his godfather’s murder.

Dermot tangles with the IRA, the FBI, and the Boston mob. He is forced to contend with Charlestown’s code of silence and the norms of the neighborhood where he grew up.

Feeling the fulfillment he felt when he was at the height of his football career, Dermot uses his Native American intuition and Irish good looks to help him uncover clues. During the investigation, Dermot stumbles upon information that leads him on a trail to a new mystery, one that could cost him his life.

Learn more about the book and author at Tom MacDonald's website.

Writers Read: Tom MacDonald.

--Marshal Zeringue