Frederick Schofield

Is this your first book?

In 2000, three of my novels were released by a small publishing house that sold more than 22,000 books before the publisher went belly up. A Run to Hell and The Boardwalkers have just been released in Second Editions. All my titles can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble when you search for “Frederick Schofield books" or use links on my author website. A limited number of new first editions sell at Amazon for as much as $900 to $1,000.

What are you best known for?

Hmm? Here goes. I am a proud U.S. Marine combat veteran.

After completing my education on the GI Bill, I practiced law. Some might argue too colorfully. For years, I represented more sex workers than any lawyer in Atlantic City, meaning I defended more hookers than any lawyer in the world. That drove me to write The Boardwalkers, a salty murder mystery and legal thriller set in the seaside gambling resort, involving a lethal clash between a Mafia boss and his trial lawyer . . . a conflict only one can survive. Think of it as the foundation for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire, Part II.”

A Run to Hell is the story of Lee Gunther, a cagy mob lawyer and his female counterpart Jaime Calero, a toughened immigrant FBI special agent.  Their troubled pasts draw them into a history mystery that reveals true-to-life back stories. 

Lee is driven by the Mafia assassination of Academy-award winning actress Grace Kelly, her prominent Philadelphia City Councilman brother, and brother-in-law, They were all murdered after she became Princess of Monaco. That aspect of the story comes from dual sources: clients, who were Philly mob "associates," and my father, who grew up next door to Grace and was the same age. My uncle was a best friend of Grace’s brother Kell, who was mob murdered with a brother-in-law on the same day, just 12 blocks and six hours apart.

Jaime's story follows the living legend of a Central American hero: physician-revolutionary Doctor Hugo Spadafora. His connection to dictator and drug kingpin General Manuel Noriega is her driving force.

Run covers the days leading to a joint CIA/FBI operation in Panama to take out Noriega. That story also comes home. At that time, my mentor in criminal law, Raymond J. Takiff, was one of three lawyers defending Noriega upon U.S. federal drug charges in South Florida.

In 2018, I spent three months receiving inpatient healthcare for combat-connected conditions. As I recovered from surgical procedures, I was encouraged to rework these stories. The result: I'm told that my writing style matured, plots tightened, and characters have more depth. Go figure.