J. M. Van Dyck

The 

SYNOPSIS

A hidden past has the power to consume you slowly,

or to destroy you all at once when it catches you.

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll turn deadly in 1977 when a popular teenager, Tee DeLuca, is murdered because he’s rumored to be gay.  A varsity football player is sent to prison.

Years later, Maria DeLuca is a self-destructive motivational speaker struggling to be a better person. Her estranged husband is a dying con artist with a lifetime of carefully spun secrets. He summons her and a few high school friends to his bedside, and together they finally uncover the missing pieces of the night Tee died. Everyone is a little guilty, but only one of them is a murderer.  When the smoke settles, Maria is face to face with her hidden past.

Set in Levittown, America’s original master-planned community, The Illusion of Secondhand Smoke explores loyalty, love, and the mistakes that define us.

FROM THE AUTHOR

This was a fun book to write because Maria and her friends brought me deep into their lives. I set the story in Levittown (America’s first planned communities) because I love the juxtaposition of a master plan with the scattered fragments of their lives. I also like the contrast of a suburban nirvana with teen angst–the paradise lost, shall we say.  I was raised in Levittown and have always wanted to set a story there because of its texture. Many people don’t appreciate the texture of a suburb, especially of the original ones that represented the American Dream. They think of “little boxes,” conformity and lack of imagination. In reality, I think it’s just the opposite. A custom-built house might make you appear unique, but many of the lives between the walls are one-dimensional. When your home looks the same as the one next to it, it’s almost a guarantee that the life within is rich.  That’s where my characters come from.

PRAISE FOR THE ILLUSION OF SECONDHAND SMOKE

“The Illusion of Secondhand Smoke” is an insightful novel with quite a story to tell, highly recommended.” -Midwest Book Review  (The Mystery/Suspense Shelf)