Mystery author David Hagerty has completed the final installment of his Chicago murder mystery trilogy, “They Tell Me You are Brutal,” and he will be reading a passage this Sunday at Bookshop Benicia.

The reading is something of a homecoming for Hagerty, who worked as a reporter for the Benicia Herald in the early to mid-‘90s. Since then, he has been an instructor at Sacramento City College, the operator of a literacy program at Alameda County Jail and currently is employed at Diablo Valley College. Prior to all of that, however, Hagerty grew up in Chicago and experienced the chaotic political climate that served as the basis for his Duncan Cochrane trilogy.

The first book, “They Tell Me You are Wicked,” begins the saga of Chicago businessman Cochrane who makes a bid for the governor of Illinois, but his daughter gets murdered six weeks before Election Day. Cochrane vows to make fighting crime the center of his campaign. The plot is based on the 1966 murder of Valerie Percy, the daughter of Illinois senatorial candidate Charles Percy just a few weeks before the election. Charles won the election and served three terms in the U.S. Senate.

“It was a story that really resonated with me because it piqued a couple of my interests,” Hagerty said. “The first was crime, and the second was the intersection that it has with politics. Based on that, I conceived this series that would follow him in his political career and also follow him in his quest for justice with his daughter.”

The second installment, “They Tell Me You are Crooked,” was released in 2016 and focuses again on Cochrane, now serving as governor. One of his major projects is dealing with a sniper targeting Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, which really did experience a series of sniper shootings in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

As with the previous two books, “They Tell Me You Are Brutal”— released in January— was inspired by real events, in this case, the poisoning of Tylenol medication that killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982. In “Brutal,” Gov. Cochrane is investigating a saboteur lacing pain medications with poison. In the midst of it all, Cochrane also has to solve family issues with his teenage son who is prone to getting in trouble yet is needed for Cochrane’s re-election campaign. Hagerty said incorporating a more personal element into his crime novel was a bit of a challenge.

“The personal side to it is a little more painful and also a little more difficult to manage,” he said. “It’s not just a whodunnit. It’s really about personal resonance of crime, so I found I had to think a little bit more deeply about that than I would about a typical crime or mystery type of novel.”

Hagerty said the first book took about four and a half years to complete, including a break where he went to grad school, because of establishing the format and main characters. By the second installment, he said he had that down, and “Brutal” only took about a year to complete.

Ultimately, Hagerty hopes that readers will see his books as engaging mysteries but also opportunities for critical thinking in regards to politics and crime.

“Both parties and many political sides have used crime as a way to get elected, but I’m not convinced they have really contributed much in terms of public safety,” he said. “I want people to think about how crime is used by politicians for their own means as well as for public means.”

With the Cochrane trilogy now under his belt, Hagerty is now hoping to publish a collection of short stories set on a Navajo reservation in the early 1900s, all centered around a single character.

“Someday, I hope to be able to put them together into a collection, although they’re slow to be born,” he said.

Hagerty will read a chapter from “Brutal” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25 at Bookshop Benicia, located at 636 First St.

“I really hope it’s just a chance for readers to meet me and talk a little bit about the book, and if they have any questions about it or previous works that I’ve done,” he said.

For more information, call the store at 747-5155.

Sharing is caring!