A Return To Normalcy

The Harley Basil series began with a short story I wrote titled “Sophisticated Seconds.” The first few drafts of the story did not even include the character Harley Basil. Many rewrites and a few edits later and Harley was born; along with the idea of making it a series. The story’s setting and main character is a product of my love for the novel The Alienist, by Caleb Carr. The Alienist is a book that I have read three times and picked up at least another half a dozen. To this day it is my favorite novel and I still vividly recall the first time I ever opened its cover (Memorial Day weekend, Chicago 1996) and for the next four days fell into its dark, fascinating world.

“A Return to Normalcy” is the first short in the HBC series, with “The Scientist” to follow shortly hereafter. It’s a series that when said and done will span a forty-year period, earliest being 1879—Harley’s youth, and cover three different continents while skillfully intertwining a network of complex, dark, yet likeable characters, all of them serial killers, all of them having a connection to Harley.