EpilogueHello there everyone, Sam the author here. If you’re reading this, I can only assume you enjoyed the story. I’m glad.I love mystery novels, especially those from the golden age back in the 1930s to the 1950s. Some of my favorites are Raymond Chandler and his Philip Marlow mysteries, Dorothy Sayers and her Peter Wimsey mysteries, and Dashiell Hammett and his various heroes / anti-heroes.When I set out to write the book that became ‘Wasted Life’ my first task was to figure out who my main character would be. I didn’t want to simply copy one of the classic detectives and make him gay. I wanted a man with nuance, with depth. I wanted a hard-boiled man. Someone for whom life had lost its luster. Someone who’d been living in the sordid world of crime for a large portion of his life.The next question I had to answer was the era to set the story. I am a big fan of early 20th century American history. I am fascinated by the World War II era. The rule of ‘write what you know’ is a good one. As such, I set the story in 1944.Once I had a middle-aged man in 1944, much of what would become Law Edwards fell into place.
