New crime novel set in Hampton Roads includes scenes in Fort Monroe, Newport News and Norfolk
When a former bouncer/debt-collecting hired thug from Phoebus wants revenge on his former criminal boss in Norfolk, his plan is to go in guns blazing.
That is until he meets a young woman with a sharper plan.
The story is fiction but moves through downtown Newport News, Fort Monroe and Phoebus, where author Hugh Lessig lives and has written the crime novel “Fadeaway Joe.” It was released last month.
Lessig worked as a reporter with the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot for 23 years covering various beats, including government and military, before leaving in 2020 for his current communications position at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Even though he left his full-time writing job, Lessig couldn’t stop writing and knew from his time reporting that the diverse scenery and communities of Hampton Roads were perfect for a dynamic story.
“Fadeaway Joe” tells the story of 65-year-old Joe Pendergast. A large man with an imposing build, Pendergast built a career on intimidating people. For years, he worked the door of Captain Maxie’s, a bar named after its owner, Maxie Smith, who ran illegal poker games in the back. When poker players couldn’t pay their debts, Pendergast was sent to collect the money. But he has developed dementia and can’t throw punches like he used to. Pendergast is fired — discarded — by Smith, who no longer sees him as an asset.
Feeling used, Pendergast devises a plot to leave his former boss — and likely himself — dead.
But Paula Jessup alters Pendergast’s plans. Pendergast meets Jessup, a street-wise young woman, who is running from labor traffickers. She hasn’t been trafficked before, but they are after her all the same. She’s in need of protection that Pendergast can provide, and he needs her smarts to formulate a better plan for revenge.
But can they trust each other?
Lessig hopes readers will want to find out.
“It’s a bit surreal to go into Barnes & Noble and see your book on the shelf next to these other authors, and I haven’t quite got my arms around it yet,” Lessig said. “But I hope I will.”
It’s been a long time coming.
Prior to “Fadeaway Joe,” he’d written two novels that were never published. The first one was science fiction.
“Science fiction was my first love. I was always going to write the great science fiction novel.”
He found a literary agent for the book, but the agent wasn’t able to sell it to a publisher.
A different agent took a look at his second attempt at a novel, and wasn’t interested but, Lessig said, “He told me that you should really just try writing another one.”
“Yeah. It was kind of tough love. It’s probably what I needed.”
Hence, “Fadeaway Joe.”
“It’s been described as noir, like a noir mystery, as opposed to a police procedural or English cozy with, uh, like you know, Colonel Mustard in the drawing room or that sort of thing.”
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
