Mystery Novel Month: Gravedigger's Open House by Frank Scully

All Mike Johnson wants is a little time to think, but he is about to find out that life is what happens while you’re making other plans. It delivers what is available. What you do with it depends on your character and attitude. Fortunately for Mike, attitude comes naturally.

It’s a rule of nature that trouble gravitates toward the person with the time and ability to handle it. Mike does not want any more trouble in his life but won’t shrink from it when it comes. And it does – from two directions. Real Estate agents are being killed, and his next door neighbor, who also happens to be a real estate agent, is entangled in a major league real estate scam. While looking into the murders, he discovers the dead agents and the scam are tied together in a twisted scheme of lethal revenge that almost ensnares Mike and his son and daughter in a web of big money and dead bodies as he follows the clues from Southern California to Phoenix and Las Vegas. Slick con artists, racist killers, beautiful strippers and a nutty neighbor keep Mike occupied as he wrestles with the question of what to do with the rest of his life. As the chase progresses, he discovers as much about himself as he does about the cons, the crooks and the crimes that have always been so much a part of his life.

Along the way he collects more bruises and broken bones than he does answers, but it isn’t his nature to quit no matter what the obstacle or the risk. Soon he is in so deep, he becomes a suspect in several murders with his picture on the front page and both the police and the killers hot on his trail. His only hope of salvation is to get the evidence that will prove his innocence.

Inspiration behind Gravedigger's Open House by Frank Scully

I knew after writing Dead Man's Gambit that I wanted to use Mike Johnson in another book. And I wanted it to be in a story where he could really let loose. I wish I could say that I knew exactly what story I was going to tell when I sat down to start Gravedigger’s Open House, but I didn’t even know the title of the book at the time. All I had was a general idea. It is often as much of a mystery to me what is going to happen as I hope it is to the readers.

What I did know is that Mike had moved from River County to the Sacramento area and was at loose ends not knowing exactly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life after the events in Dead Man’s Gambit knocked him out of his comfortable rut. In my mind I ran through a number of scenarios to construct around him. Nothing fit until I hit on the little old lady aspect of the neighbor. Once I had her and her son, Buster, in place along with a few of the other characters, the story began to develop on its own.

Some of the story and bits and pieces of the characters came from my own experience in real estate while most came from my imagination. Murder, blackmail, and revenge beget revenge, murder and blackmail in a big money scam. It was easy enough to get Mike entangled in it and the story wrote itself after that.

I don’t write from an outline. I do establish the primary characters early on and have a general idea of the plot and setting but after that it is all “seat of the pants” writing. The characters acting in the events dictate where the story goes. Often it takes off in directions I never anticipated. That can be quite an “aha” moment that leads to more revisions that improve the storyline in order to keep the characters true to themselves and to the plot. In order to do this I have to be able to bury myself in my characters and the story. It has to be real to me in my mind.

I enjoy getting into Mike Johnson’s character and I hope readers enjoy him as much as I do.

PURCHASE GRAVEDIGGER'S OPEN HOUSE AT: 

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Frank Scully was born and raised in a small town in North Dakota and received a Bachelor’s degree in History with Phi Beta Kappa Honors and a Juris Doctor degree in Law from the University of North Dakota. He then served more than five years as a Judge Advocate General Corps Officer in the U.S. Army in the U.S., Vietnam, and Thailand. After that he attended the prestigious Thunderbird School and received a Masters in Business Administration with honors. In his professional career he has worked as an executive with large aerospace and defense manufacturers and also owned his own small business.


Depending on the vagaries of the universe he has been well off at times and broke, but never broken at other times. Blessed with an understanding wife who gave him twin sons, he has remained through it all a dreamer whose passion is writing stories that will entertain readers.


Visit Frank online at www.frankjscully.com.