When One Man Dies is the debut novel from David White, a New Jersey native who teaches 8th Grade English at the Christopher Columbus Middle School in Clifton New Jersey. The Rutgers University alumnus (class of 2001) with a M.A. in Teaching from Montclair State University has been steadily working his way up the ranks of the detective story world and appears ready to have his character Jackson Donne stand alongside such legendary literary figures as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
What I love about White's stories is that he attempts to make New Brunswick, New Jersey not just a setting, but a living, breathing character. It's similar to the way Faulkner portrayed the South. And, simply by placing us directly on Easton Ave. in the second paragraph, White succeeds.
"I had been reading all of these detective stories set in big cities like New York and Boston," explained David White. "It was like what do I know? I don't know New York that well, but I knew New Brunswick. It's busy enough and it seemed like something that hadn't been done that often before - a small, college town detective. I just liked the atmosphere; it's a town that's alive at the same time.
"I wanted to give him enough of a past in New Brunswick where you can keep looking in and finding new parts of his past to use in new stories and novels and to have the past keep coming back to haunt him. I think that New Brunswick is such a small town that even though it's very transient with college kids going in and out there's enough of a connection that can keep happening."
The novel brings back Jackson Donne, a character White has used in several stories. When One Man Dies is about a hit and run that leaves Gerry Figuroa, a drinking buddy of Donne, lying dead on the street. Donne doesn't want to investigate the death but he has no choice. Meanwhile, an apparently routine divorce case takes a dangerous turn, and sinister connections to Gerry's death start to emerge. Just when it seems things can't get any worse, Donne learns that a bitter old enemy is mixed up in the whole mess. Bill Martin, his ex–Narcotics Department partner, has secrets to expose that could reopen the still-aching wounds of Donne's past. Permanently.
White has previously been published in publications like The Adventure of The Missing Detective and anthologies like 19 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories and Damn Near Dead: An Anthology of Geezer Noir. He is a winner and multiple-time nominee for the Derringer Award for best short story and was shortlisted for the 2005 storySouth Million Writers Award. His novel was published by Three Rivers Press, a division of Crown Publishing Group, and released at the end of September. The book is available online and in bookstores everywhere. White will be appearing at Borders Books in Wayne, New Jersey on October 18th.
His love for the detective/crime fiction genre came from his parents. They were both avid readers who passed their love of the genre on to him.
"They were always giving me Sherlock Holmes stories and Hardy Boys books when I was a kid," said White. "I just kind of got into it from there. Once I was in college and when I had free time to read stuff that wasn't heavy, I would read that."
Being published in magazines and anthologies is nice, but the real thrill for a writer is when he or she gets the chance to open up that first box of books. For White it was like getting a shipment from Amazon.com with his name on it. Something tells me there will be many more packages like that in his future.