Unknown Contact

by Michael Sheeman

Overview

November 1989. Zack is a seventeen-year-old high school senior. His squad of best friends includes his girlfriend, Laura. It does not include Andrew who he's been forced into friendship with since birth because of the bond between their moms. On Friday November 10, 1989 Andrew sleeps over at Zack's house. Andrew's sleepovers usually involve pizza, video games and sleep. Not this time. This night will be an unexpected adventure that will literally include sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, though not in that order. That same night, Zack's house is randomly targeted in an attempted burglary. During the home-invasion-gone-wrong, Zack's mother is murdered and Zack is attacked, concussed and hospitalized. Zack wakes up to a life that will never be the same, and this new life does not include Andrew.

Today, Zack is a widower, finally ready to begin his next chapter when two things happen simultaneously. First, he receives a text from an Unknown Contact; a mystery admirer who seeks to slowly develop a deeper relationship with Zack while safely hiding behind the anonymity of their secret texts - for now. Second, he receives a letter from a law firm representing the man convicted of killing his mother more than three decades earlier. It claims he was wrongfully convicted based on fabricated evidence and false eyewitness testimony. Zack and Andrew provided that testimony. As he's compelled to face his past, Zack is forced to reconnect with the man he has had almost zero contact with for over thirty years: Andrew.

Before Zack can move on in his second act, exploring possibilities with his Unknown Contact, he must first learn the truth about that long ago night. Zack has never truly acknowledged his own actions and their lingering impact on multiple lives. What Zack remembers, what he was told and what actually happened seem to be vastly different things. Is it possible to remember something that didn't actually happen? Where does the truth lie and does Zack even want to know?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798985532289
Publisher:	Michael Sheeman
Publication date:	01/09/2022
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

I am proud to be a bookseller. Books are my passion and I am partial to psychological thrillers, particularly those involving missing or manipulated memories. Works such as: Before I Go to Sleep, The Silent Patient, Shutter Island and What Alice Forgot inspired me to write my first novel.

Writing Unknown Contact has been a privilege and a joy. I was born in Chicago, but I grew up in Lombard, Illinois – the obvious choice for the setting of my story. The characters and their individual personalities just jumped onto the page. I feel like they are real people out there actually living those lives.

I chose to write a story that features numerous LGBTQIA+ main characters because too often those characters are reserved just for stories about coming out, coming of age or struggling in search of acceptance. Those themes are important, but not the focus of my novel. Stories that are not specifically about the queer experience usually either don’t have queer characters at all, or those characters are relegated to comic relief supporting roles, like the “gay best friend”. I wanted to represent the diversity of the real people I engage with on a daily basis in a book that was about the that everyday world.

When I’m not writing, reading or matching my customers with their next great tale, I enjoy spending time with my family and my cat where I make my home in the suburbs of Chicago.