A World Full of Stories

Wassaic, N.Y., resident Terrence McCauley has an entire fictional universe swimming through his head “in a big soup.” As ideas rise to the top, he grabs the nearest device — his phone, his iPad, his computer — and starts to write. 

That’s how he completed his latest novel, “A Murder of Crows,” which was recently published by Polis Books. It’s a spy thriller that follows James Hicks, who is part of a clandestine intelligence agency known as The University, as he hunts the most wanted terrorist in the world.

The book is a sequel to McCauley’s “Sympathy for the Devil,” which introduced readers to Hicks and his group.

“The first book made people want to learn more about The University, who Hicks is, and what happens next. That’s the reason I wrote ‘A Murder of Crows,’” McCauley said in a recent interview. “I explain more about what The University is, its origins, and talk about a lot of the bad choices Hicks made in ‘Sympathy for the Devil.’”

McCauley works in the government relations industry, but writing is both his hobby and his passion. He won TruTV’s national “Search for the Next Great Crime Writer” contest in 2008 for his first novel, “Prohibition,” which is set in 1930 New York City and tells the tale of an ex-boxer as he searches for who is trying to undermine a gangster’s criminal empire. “Slow Burn,” his other novel set in 1930s Manhattan, follows a corrupt NYPD detective as he investigates a murder/kidnapping case that could tear the city apart.

Everything McCauley has written — including these four novels and numerous short stories — is set in the same fictional universe. “It helps keep me grounded,” McCauley said.

This doesn’t mean that all of his work is required reading — the ties between the books are loose, such as characters in one novel being mentioned in another.

“This is not like ‘Games of Thrones,’” he said with a laugh. “I want to write something that’s for everybody. If you’re in the mood for a 1930s book, you can read ‘Prohibition’ or ‘Slow Burn.’ If you want a modern-day spy thriller, read ‘Sympathy for the Devil.’ And in ‘A Murder of Crows,’ I summarize everything so you’re immediately caught up.”

McCauley is constantly writing. He has ideas for a sequel to “Slow Burn” that will set up The University in pre-World War II America; a sequel to “A Murder of Crows,” which he could see extending into a series of eight or nine books; and a standalone Western that features the patriarch of a wealthy family from “Slow Burn.”

How does he find the time to write?

“I write at night after work and on the weekends,” he said. “You’ve always got time to do it. On your lunch break, or when you’re waiting for your kids after soccer practice, on your way to school or work, after work, get up early. Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

“A Murder of Crows,” published by Polis Books, is available widely. For more information on Terrence McCauley and his novels, go to www.terrencepmccauley.com.