STARKVILLE — What happens when psychology, a heart bypass and murder mix?
For author and Mississippi State University professor emeritus Mike Thorne, it’s three novels. On Thursday afternoon, Thorne spoke to the Friends of the Starkville Public Library about his books, “The $20,000 Renewal,” “Murder in Memory” and “Harper’s Bizarre.”
As a former professor in psychology, Thorne said he approached the field of psychology as a writer, and he approached the field of fiction as a psychologist.
“I didn’t much like collecting data and doing the research, but I really liked writing it up,” Thorne said. “And so I did. And then I liked writing textbooks. …And at some point, I got started writing some fiction.”
Thorne appears under two different names in his published works. In textbooks and scientific articles he has written, Thorne appears as B. Michael Thorne. In his novels and short stories, he is simply Mike Thorne.
Thorne said he was originally inspired to write his first fiction book, “The $20,000 Renewal,” after he had a heart bypass surgery in 1983. The character was based on his own real life experiences, as he took notes on how he felt even while on anesthesia and throughout his recovery.
Even though he wrote “The $20,000 Renewal” first, Thorne said he got advice to not release it as his debut novel and to instead write something more “commercial.” This advice led him to write his second book, “Murder in Memory.”
This book features a serial killer who implants false memories of committing murders in a fellow professor’s head, while he is committing the crimes.
The book, Thorne said, was well received by agents, though it was difficult to market, as it was not a mystery novel. The tension instead came from whether or not the killer would get away with his crimes.
“The question is, is he going to get caught?” Thorne said. “Is the chief of police, who is one of the main characters in there, going to be able to figure out… who it is?”
Thorne said he signed a five-year contract with New York literary agent Jay Garen-Brook based on “Murder in Memory.” But two years later, his contract was dissolved, as “Murder in Memory” was not picked up by publishers.
Thorne said that as he was waiting for the book to be sold, he wrote “Harper’s Bizarre,” a crime thriller novel set in the fictional town of Harper, Alabama that is filled with murder and strange occurrences, including a corpse going missing, deaths by smoke inhalation and a high schooler poisoning his family.
The murders in the book, Thorne said, are based on real murders that occurred in 1985 and 1987. However, he fictionalized many of the details, including the mental states of the killers. He also included the “rest of the story” from “Murder in Memory,” he said, though the other story’s ending is only about half of a page long.
Eventually, when Thorne’s books were not picked up by major publishers, he decided to self-publish his works. According to Goodreads, Thorne published “Murder in Memory” in 2017 and “Harper’s Bizarre” in 2023. Both are available for purchase on Amazon.
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