John M. Hardy Publishing Company

	Dead and Dying Angels
	by James A. Mangum

	ISBN: 0-9717667-2-X
	Binding: Hardback
	Length: 213 pages
	Date Published: 2005
	Price: $19.95

Dead and Dying Angels is narrated by Jamey Maxwell who is about to commit suicide when the novel begins. Maxwell is an ex-customs agent who has lost his wife and two daughters and, in an effort to escape his grief, has moved to the tiny village of Dos Cruces, Texas, "located exactly in the middle of nowhere." Maxwell lives there, running a small oil and gas business left to him by his father, when strange things begin to happen, mostly bad things. As Maxwell says, "Purgatory for some lost souls may look a whole lot like Dos Cruces, Texas."

Maxwell blames it all on a deal he made with God when he was nine years old. He now realizes it was a one-sided agreement – and not in his favor. After he is implicated in a brutal rape and murder, Maxwell turns all his attention to clearing his name and tracking down the real murderers. With a voice that is fresh and wry and a story that is absolutely engrossing, Mangum takes on many of the fundamental questions of life – love, redemption, hope, despair, grief, vengeance, guilt, and God – while Maxwell takes the law into his own hands. Only one question remains: is Jamey Maxwell an avenging angel or is he insane?

Awards...

Independent Publishers Book Awards (IPPY) – Honorable Mention in Mystery / Suspense / Thriller category.

Reviews...

"Dead and Dying Angels is an exquisitely dark parable about life and its aftermath. It is about planting the seeds of guilt and anger, and then reaping the harvest of hatred and revenge. It is about hope/despair...grief/guilt...innocence/evil... love/hate/insanity...an indisoluble deal with God...angels and devils walking the streets of Dos Cruces, Texas. It doesn't get any better than this."

– LUCIFER, The Fallen Angel

"Scrape away the crust of self-loathing, violence and vengeance and you will find a beautiful tale of undying love and strange redemption."

– MICHAEL, The Archangel

"This is a short, intense, nonstop book. His characters are fully defined and truly memorable."

– Ed Halloran, Rocky Mountain News

"Riveting debut novel."

– Eric Snider, Weekly Planet (Tampa)

"...when a novel opens with a man holding the barrel of a Smith & Wesson between his teeth, it's difficult to resist learning his story, discovering how he got to such a desperate place in life. Especially when he has a one-eyed dog staring at him, awaiting the verdict."

– Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express-News

"Hard-edged...gritty...intense...intriguing...powerful piece of contemporary fiction."

– Roy Hamric, Desert Mountain Times (Alpine)

"...more than a hard-boiled mystery. It's also a gritty, thought-provoking investigation of the nature of faith and responsibility."

– Rebecca Oppenheimer, The Towerlight (Towson University)

Film Rights Optioned...

Dead and Dying Angels was optioned for film by producer Bruce Gilbert a month before publication. "A few weeks ago, a writer friend of mine, who had randomly come across a reviewer's copy of the book, lent it to me," Gilbert says of how he first found out about Dead and Dying Angels. "From the first paragraph, I was captivated by the character of Jamey Maxwell. In the skilled hands of writer James Mangum, a transformation story unfolded in ways both fascinating and unexpected. I was transfixed and the moment I put the book down I decided to try and bring Jim's work to the screen."

Bruce Gilbert has been writing and producing for film and television for over thirty years. His films have garnered six Academy Awards, 25 Academy Award nominations (two for Best Picture), a Golden Globe for Best Picture, and the prestigious Humanitas Award.

Gilbert's career highlights include Coming Home with Jane Fonda and Jon Voight; The China Syndrome with Michael Douglas; 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda; and On Golden Pond with Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda. His film credits also include Rollover, The Morning After, Man Trouble and Jack the Bear. Gilbert's television credits include the series Nine to Five, the Emmy-winning mini-series The Dollmaker and the telefilm By Dawn's Early Light.

About the Author...

Former Sky Marshal, Special Agent, Federal Game Warden, Oil and Gas Mogulito, City Manager, Civil Rights Investigator, National Security Investigator, Now Folk Artist and First Novelist

Jim Mangum was born in Beeville, Texas, between World War II and the Korean War. He grew up in the small oil and gas towns of South Texas and attended Southwest Texas State University and Texas A&I, Kingsville.

Mangum's first job out of college was as a "Sky Marshal." "This was in the early 70's," Mangum explains, "when there was a rash of hijackings, mostly by Cubans trying to get back home. Richard Nixon decided to start a Sky Marshal program, and they were hiring just about any warm body they could get their hands on. I had never been on an airplane and never held a handgun. A month later I was riding aboard commercial airlines protecting the flying public from free trips to Cuba, etc. The program only lasted a year or so and then someone had the sense to invent metal detectors so at that time Sky Marshals became dinosaurs. They made a comeback after 9/11. I was very glad I was too old for the program."

When the Sky Marshal program ended, Mangum became a Special Agent with the U.S. Customs Service, working in Houston and El Paso. It was just as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was forming, with agents from Customs and Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) combined. Mangum worked all sorts of cases including drug smuggling, gold smuggling, weapons smuggling, and white-collar import/export fraud. His favorite case, however, was the great "pinto bean smuggling caper."

After five years with the U.S. Customs Service, Mangum and his wife became self-described semi-hippies until, "before we figured out what was happening, we had four children." Mangum re-joined the Feds, this time as a Federal Game Warden with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The job required him to be away from his family for months at a time, so after three years, Mangum joined his father and brother in a small oil and gas gauging business in South Texas. The tiny town they worked in was the basis for Dos Cruces in Dead and Dying Angels.

When his father died suddenly, Mangum and his brother were left with the business and started buying gas wells that were too anemic for big companies to deal with. They did all right for a few years but when the price of natural gas plummeted 80%, Mangum returned to the Feds, this time working as an investigator with the Office of Federal Investigations. He did national security background investigations at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington state, one of the three original sites of the "Manhattan Project" which resulted in the invention of the atomic bomb. "I cannot begin to tell you how scary it is that these sites exist. Before I started glowing in the dark, or more importantly, before my small children started glowing in the dark, we moved back to Texas."

Back in Texas, he worked as an investigator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and moved on to being a City Administrator (Manager) in three Texas towns – Devine, Castroville and Eldorado.

Officially "retired" from public service, Mangum now lives in Shiner,"the cleanest little city in Texas," home of the Shiner Brewery. He is a writer, "rescuer of wayward homes," and professional folk artist, making carved and painted patron saints, angels, Nativities, Noah's Arks, and carousel animals which he creates and displays in his gallery/garage.

A Conversation with the Author...

Q: Is Dead and Dying Angels. the first novel you've written? How did you come to write it?

JM: Yes it is. There is some irony in how Dead and Dying Angels. (DDA) came about. When the paperback of The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller came out, my wife brought it to the beach. I had nothing to read, so I picked it up and read it in several hours. When I finished it, I turned to my wife and said, "I can write a novel." Years went by and I found myself in a job with little to do and access to a computer. I wrote DDA there. The ironic part is my publisher, John M. Hardy Publishing, published the sequel to The Bridges of Madison County – A Thousand Country Roads. Due to the success of this novel, he decided to publish more fiction. I believe my contract was the first one signed with John M. Hardy after A Thousand Country Roads was published. So, in large part, I owe the start of my writing career to Robert James Waller.

Q: Jamey Maxwell, your narrator, has such an original voice. How did you come to create him?

JM: Jamey Maxwell is pretty much an autobiographical character. 80-90% of the novel, including the characters, is based on my life, jobs and experiences. After Mike Hardy of John M. Hardy Publishing read the DDA manuscript, his first question to me was, "This book sounds like it may have been painful and exhausting to write. Do you think you have another one in you?" At the time I wasn't sure. I've come to find out, however, I have lots of novels in me.

Q: You were a special agent and criminal investigator for the U.S. Treasury Dept., the U.S. Forest Service, and Dept. of the Interior, among others, for most of your professional life. What attracted you to these professions?

JM: My career path was pretty much determined by my first job out of college as a Sky Marshal. Since the Sky Marshal program was under the Treasury Department, I was fortunate to know several people who moved on to become Special Agents with the U. S. Treasury Department (Customs Service). I got hired and worked as a Special Agent for another three years or so.

After dropping out of the government workforce for a short time, I found out that U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Department of Interior) was hiring twenty Special Agents. Because of my background in federal law enforcement, I was one of the twenty hired. I later found out there had been over 6,000 applicants for the position, so I felt really fortunate. And I was really lucky when my first assignment was "babysitting" six whooping cranes hatched by surrogate sandhill crane mothers. Their wintering grounds were south of Albuquerque where I was stationed. Later, I was part of a peregrine falcon protection detail on Padre Island. I wore cutoffs and flip-flops and drove up and down the beach looking for peregrine falcons all day. It was a dirty rotten job, but someone had to do it.

Q: In addition to being a writer, you're also a folk artist. What kind of work do you do?

JM: Most of my folk art is religious in nature, Hispanic in style, woodcarvings and paintings. I attribute it to my upbringing in the Catholic church, although I pretty much ex-communicated myself by the time I was five years old and had spent a year in Hell, otherwise know as First Grade in Catholic school. But I do love the carvings and paintings found in Catholic churches.

Q: You clearly have empathy for Mexicans. How have you worked this into your novel?

JM: I am glad that came through in the book. Growing up in Pettus, Texas, we were one of just a handful of Anglo families attending the Catholic church. I became good friends with all the Hispanic kids at church and at school. I was in junior high when John Kennedy was running for president. We had mock debates and an election. I was shocked and saddened at how vicious other kids I thought were friends were about Kennedy's Catholicism. And, of course, that spilled over to all the Catholics in our class, most of whom were Hispanic. At that point, I began to identify with minorities. And I've always loved the underdog, the downtrodden.

Also, as a Customs Agent I spent a lot of time in Mexico, mostly in Juarez. I dealt with illegal immigrants, poor people just trying to survive. I have seen lots of poverty and suffering, and a lot of dignity and kindness against almost impossible odds. So, I respect the Hispanic culture. And it is not by accident that I choose Hispanic religious folk art as one of my creative outlets.

Q: Can you talk a bit about Dead and Dying Angels. as the first book in the Dos Cruces trilogy? Have you finished the second book yet?

JM: Dead and Dying Angels. was written initially as a standalone book. I'm not sure where I got the idea for the trilogy, but I've just finished the second book, The Vinegaroon Murders, and have had wonderful feedback from those who have read it. And I like it a LOT. It flows well from DDA and Jamey Maxwell is evolving in mysterious ways.

I've started on the final book in the Dos Cruces trilogy, Stalking Azazel, and I'm excited about it as well. Each book in the trilogy has a different narrator, a different angle.

I have stumbled on some fascinating material regarding the "lost books of the Bible", especially The Book of Enoch, which will be pivotal to the last two books of the Dos Cruces trilogy. The Vinegaroon Murders and Stalking Azazel include angels, demons, soulless creatures – all based largely on things alluded to in the Bible. These are things 99% of religious folks are unaware of, amazingly. Of course, the "lost books of the Bible" cover all of this in great depth.

But, in the end, the trilogy is about a messed-up guy, who has had his butt kicked by life, trying to do the right thing. Albeit, often in the wrong way. To me, Jamey Maxwell is the quintessential flawed human being.