Former Ledger Reporter Brings Book Tour to Scotch Plains Library

When "Faces of the Gone" hits the New York Times bestseller list you can say you knew Brad Parks when he was a reporter for the Star-Ledger.

And if you didn't know Parks when he reported on state issues including those impacting Scotch Plains and Fanwood, there is still time to make his acquaintance when he reads and signs copies of his new book at the Scotch Plains Public Library tonight at 7 p.m.

For nine years, Parks called Maplewood home while he reported for the Star-Ledger in Newark. Like many a writer, he was working on a novel on the side. Faces of the Gone features a protagonist remarkably similar to Parks. The book's main character, Carter Ross, is also a "skinny white guy" who writes for a major Newark daily newspaper — in this case, the Newark Eagle-Examiner.

"We play make-believe in the book that the newspaper business is fine," said Parks in an interview last week. 

But in real life, Parks saw the writing on the newsprint. By the beginning of 2008, he knew mass lay-offs were looming. Said Parks, "I thought, 'I can stick around and be the guy who shuts the lights out or I can strike out in a new direction.'"

Parks took the proactive option. His wife works as a school psychologist and had previously been employed at a boarding school. They decided to go the boarding school route again since such positions provide free on-campus housing. By July 2008, the Parks were headed for Mrs. Parks' new job and a new home in Virginia with their young son in tow.

Meanwhile, Parks said, "I had an audacious dream. What if I could write books for a living?" Parks had always had a long-term vision of himself retiring and then writing novels at age 60, but the realities of the newspaper business had him making the switch in his early 30s.

By 2008, Parks had completed his first Carter Ross book and had an agent. He had been shopping the book for about a year, but it wasn't sold. "I was going to bang out another book. We were literally two weeks from the moving van pulling up when the first book sold." (Faces of the Gone sold to St. Martins Press, which gave Parks a two-book deal.)

The fictional Carter Ross does differ from Parks in some ways, including living in Nutley and not Maplewood. Why? "Maplewood is so different than anywhere else in America that you can't write about it," said Parks, citing the town's diversity and relative racial harmony.

"Leaving Maplewood makes us appreciate it. It's been hard to leave. There is diversity in all forms--race, religion, ideas, talents. There's a lot of energy to the town."

Even though Carter Ross lives in a different town than Parks did, he does work in Newark like his creator. 

Parks came on board the Star-Ledger as a sports writer, a position that put him on the road and in hotels 100 nights of the year. In 2004, Parks was changed to the news desk where his first story was a Thanksgiving weekend quadruple homicide. Instead of being in a bland hotel room, Parks found himself in a trash-strewn vacant lot in South Newark, where "you could literally see the blood stains in the grass."

"It was a grisly, brazen crime. Four people were shot execution style." Nobody knew who or why, so Parks decided to fill in the blanks in his off hours and write "the story I couldn't write for the Star-Ledger."

Ultimately, Parks says the real-life crime had a much different resolution than the fictionalized version. In real life, no one was ever brought to justice. 

"What I made up and what the crime was were very different." Parks calls the book a form of escapism for him.

Despite the grim nature of a brutal quadruple homicide, Faces of the Gone isn't all gloom and doom. In fact, it's being reviewed as very wry and funny as well as smart and entertaining. Said Parks, "Reporters have this way of turning anything into gallows humor. Anyone who's spent five minutes in a newsroom will know that newspaper people can turn any tragedy into a joke. It's a coping mechanism."

Another winning aspect of the book is Carter Ross himself. "Carter is very self-deprecating," said Parks. "He doesn't think too much of himself. He can't beat up people with his pinky or turn his notepad into a bomb. He doesn't own or operate a gun. He has to think his way out of situations."

Parks freely admits that Carter Ross is his alter ego. "He's a total WASP. The stiffest white guy." Parks mined Ross' prep school sheen for humor and insights in the book as Ross goes into "98 percent minority neighborhoods of Newark" where he will  "always be a foreigner."

Already Faces of the Gone has been likened to Harlan Coben and Janet Evanovich. "Harlan Coben has been very gracious to me. He wrote a blurb for the book. Coben makes you feel good about successful people. He's really a great person."

In the books (Parks has finished a second and a third Carter Ross book), Ross is not married, leaving Parks with more fictional storylines to pursue. Ross' main love interest is the city editor for the Eagle-Examiner.  Her name is Tina Thompson. 

So, will Carter and Tina ultimately marry and move to a local Jersey town? Say, by the eighth book in the series?

Parks laughs. "Maybe," he said.