July 28, 2005

BostonCollege.edu

Mystery Novelist Strikes Again

By Brooke Leister / Staff Writer
Thursday, July 28, 2005

When Andrew McAleer was growing up in East Lexington it was not unusual to see his father seated at the dining room table, surrounded by manuscripts, pounding away on a manual typewriter.

His father John McAleer, a Boston College English professor and accomplished author, passed his love of mystery onto his son.

Andrew McAleer, who also teaches at BC and lives in the Lexington home where he grew up, recently had his third novel - "Bait and Switch" - published. The book is the second in a series chronicling cases of private investigators James Hillton and Sophia Blossom. Hillton and Blossom previously appeared in "Double Endorsement," and McAleer is working on the third book in his series.

All of his novels, which include "Appearance of Counsel," have been published by Protea Publishing of Las Vegas. They are available at Waldenbooks and Sundial Bookstore.

"Bait and Switch" is based on a crime case prosecuted in Boston many years ago. The matter was referred to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office by the then newly-founded Governor's Auto Theft Strike Force, created in response to a report labeling Boston as "The Stolen Car Capital of the United States."

McAleer, who practices criminal law and teaches a crime fiction course at BC, wrote his first manuscript at age 12, while he was a student at the former Adams School. It was titled "Super Spy for the FBI".
Throughout the past 10 years, he has devoted himself to his craft. While his first novel was published in 2001, he wrote several manuscripts, essays, short stories and poems before being published.

"It takes a really long time. One writer gave me some advice and said, 'You'll either write your first book over six times, or write six manuscripts before you get published.' I thought she was crazy, but she was dead-on," he said.

Like many aspiring authors, McAleer, 37, sent out numerous queries to established publishing houses. After five to six years, he was led to Protea Publishing by a friend. The small publishing firm publishes books for free, and McAleer is responsible for marketing. The publisher gets a sales cut.
"It's kind of like starting a business. Hopefully, this will lead to getting my books into a larger publishing house," he said.

McAleer, who is a member of the Boston Author's Club and Private Eye Writers of America, writes every day, whether for a manuscript, personal writings or for his law practice. He recently finished an afterword to his late father's Korean War novel "Unit Pride," which will be republished by Lion's Press this fall.

With his private eye novels, McAleer tries to keep the tone light and breezy.
"I want people to say, 'I had fun reading this. I had fun trying to solve this.' I would love to spend the rest of my life writing Sophia Blossom and James Hillton novels," McAleer said.

For more information on Andrew McAleer visit www.crimestalkers.com.