Thomas B. Sawyer

Logline

Archaeologist Matt Packard unearths a tomb in Utah containing fifteen ancient skeletons. The sixteenth has a bullet in its wingbone – and Packard is plunged into a web of vicious killers and people in high places desperate to prevent his discovery of the truth about JFK’s Assassination.

Synopsis

The Sixteenth Man consists of two parallel, intertwined, fast-moving stories that play out in alternating chapters, converging in the final suspenseful pages.

Archaeologist Matt Packard's story is set in the present. 

Reno Private Investigator Charlie Callan's takes place in 1963.

Dr. Matthew Packard’s relationships and his career are at crisis points when he’s almost killed in a motorcycle accident in Muleshoe Canyon, near Moab, Utah. The mishap results in his discovery of an ancient burial shaft containing sixteen male skeletons. Fifteen of them date back 100,000 years, dramatically older than any human remains ever found in the Americas. But to Packard’s surprise, he finds himself more fascinated by the sixteenth. It has silver fillings in its teeth, a bullet in its wing-bone, no I.D. The find triggers alarms from Washington, D.C. to Virginia to New Orleans and beyond, and quickly leads to the brutal murder of Packard’s assistant.

Infuriated, determined to find the killer, obsessed by the mystery of the Sixteenth Man, Packard is plunged into danger – and an intrigue that was set in motion by the long-dead Callan  – which involves the murder of the 20th Century.

In late 1963, Reno PI Charlie Callan accepts a garden-variety domestic surveillance case that promises to extricate him from the shambles of his personal and financial problems. The job takes him to Texas, where it abruptly becomes anything but routine. Charlie finds himself nearly broke, running from a murder charge. Worse, when he realizes to his dismay that he’s in possession of evidence which can blow open a monstrous national conspiracy, he is faced with a moral dilemma for which there is no right answer.
 
In the present-day story, vicious New Orleans mob enforcers and a mystery man from Washington, all with urgent, lethal agendas, descend on Moab – and Packard. He must outwit them – and solve the mystery of the Sixteenth Man. Along the way he receives unexpected help from an aging former showgirl who’s convinced the Sixteenth Man was her lover, and from a lovely young woman, Kate Norris, who believes the anomalous skeleton was her grandfather. While saving their own lives Packard and Kate fall in love, figure out how and why Charlie died, uncover the reason for a series of vicious murders that began long ago – and find the incriminating evidence Charlie possessed – evidence that has eluded the heavies for decades.

In the final days of 1963, the wily, pragmatic PI faces the unfortunate truth that if he attempts to expose the bad guys it will cost him his life – and justice won’t be served anyway. So, torn by that reality, plus escalating personal complications, knowing he’s probably going to be killed no matter what, he embarks on what he hopes will at least help his loved ones – an ingenious, daring, truly outrageous extortion scheme.
Driven by Packard, Charlie, and the shadowy people who will do anything to retrieve the evidence, these two suspenseful stories come together, both of them reaching their dramatic conclusions high on a narrow cliff in Muleshoe Canyon.

In the end, Charlie learns that even the most careful planning cannot compete with fate. And Packard learns a lot about himself, survival, almost everything about Charlie Callan – and the truth – most of it, anyway – of who killed President John F. Kennedy.

REVIEWS

This outstanding first novel...alternates two stories, at first seemingly unconnected: In the present, an archaeologist discovers some very old bones accompanied by a much newer set near Moab, Utah; in November 1963, a Reno private eye looking for divorce evidence becomes embroiled in one of the 20th century's greatest unsolved crimes. If many more thrillers this good appear in the books-on-demand format, the world of publishing will be turned upside down – or do I mean right side up?
        Jon L. Breen – Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

"...He'd been staring at nothing in particular. But then he saw it. Another skull – somehow different from the first one. Packard reached down, brought it up to eye-level, dusted the rear surface. 'Okay, I'm examining another cranium. This one doesn't appear to be as – wait a minute...' He had turned it so that he was looking into its face. 'This one, there are a few hairs attached. And the teeth – Christ, they've got silver fillings.'"

And that's just the beginning. Mr. Sawyer skillfully juxtaposes the modern day story of Packard investigating the Kennedy-era story of who the skeleton is to come up with a gripping and thoroughly plausible tale, replete with larger-than-life characters, a plot that transports the reader to the scene, and a denouement that makes the reader squirm with pleasure. There is romance galore, a touching family story, and general page-turning scenes. Several words come to mind which easily apply to this novel: blockbuster; a story that absolutely must be made into a film; a tragedy that fits in with the assassination of JFK; a historical mystery; the list goes on and on. Mr. Sawyer is a master who has graced us with a thriller/mystery that is eminently entertaining. I didn't want it to end, and can only hope he continues with this genre.
        Shelley Glodowski – Midwest Book Review

Thomas Sawyer has written a fine thriller complete with a complex plot and a stunning ending. His story is a hard-boiled private eye exploit, a suspenseful thriller and a chase that leaves you gasping. It is fast paced, and excellently structured. 
         Lillian Porter – Murder and Mayhem Book Club

For suspense it's hard to beat Tom Sawyer's The Sixteenth Man, a complex, brilliantly plotted thriller that brings a new dimension to the most compelling true murder mystery of the past century. Deftly juggling the JFK assassination with present-day, Sawyer kept me turning pages even as I wanted to slow down, spot the clues, and try to figure out where these parallel stories were going to intersect. I gave up and surrendered to the blistering pace.
       Pam Linn – The Malibu Times

This is one novel that will be as timely in another 40 years as it is now, and one that grabbed me from the first page and wouldn't let go. In alternating chapters, Thomas B. Sawyer tells two stories separated by more than 30 years in time. First story, set in 1963: Tracking an errant wife whose husband wants evidence for divorce, a private eye accidentally photographs a small group of men with rifles, one of whom is a dead ringer for Lee Harvey Oswald. Second story, set in present time: A dirt bike accident dumps an archaeologist near a rock fissure that leads him to a pile of skulls and bones. Fifteen sets of bones appear to be thousands of years old. The sixteenth skull still has some hair attached, and there are silver fillings in the teeth. Sawyer weaves these stories together so smoothly that hair on the back of my neck stands up when the story threads cross. The ending is a knockout...Sawyer writes: "...Causes. Effects. Paths crossing, tangents briefly met, then curving away. All of it so incredibly random, and yet – what – fated...?" I think: It's fiction. That it didn't happen. But what if? What if?
         Pat Browning – Dorothy L. — author of Full Circle and Absinthe of Malice