Rage Against The Machine

Opening night of U2’s Pop Mart tour in Las Vegas in ’97. Great bands, great night. I can’t say I get to many shows in amazing venues these days. That’s why this one stands out all these years later.

One of the bands that stood out was Rage Against The Machine, a band known for songs about injustice. Their songs of protest, or rage if you will, focused on individuals, corporations, governments who consider themselves above the law. In retrospect, one of the reasons I liked the band was because I was intrigued by the message behind the songs, about people who think rules don’t apply to them.

This intrigue is reflected throughout the Fighting Darkness series. My debut novel, The Killer Trail, begins with a simple premise, as a runner finds a cell phone on a trail. As the story evolves, so too does the idea of people who consider themselves above the law. The most blatant form of this is personified through the psychopathic killer Ray Owens who dropped the cell phone and sets his sights on the protagonist Chris Ryder who found it. The stories within the series take place in a world of organized crime gangs and corruption in the justice and political system.

A glance at recent headlines in my local newspaper gives ample evidence of people who believe they live in a world where rules don’t apply to them. Gang drive-by shootings, harassment in the RCMP, Senate expense scandals.

A lot to rage against. And for a crime fiction writer, a lot to write about.