A recurring question from readers over the years has been how the idea for Eyes of the Predator, my first novel, came to little old me, a generally buoyant, cheerful, and happy soul (for the most part). It is, admittedly, a dark story. After reading it, some have queried my wife whether she sleeps with one eye open, lying inches away from the brain that envisioned such a dark story.

So, here’s the scoop. Like most of my stories, ‘Predator’ spent some years in the boiling and simmering process inside my head before I began putting actual words on a computer screen. (No, I don’t use pen and paper, pencils and tablets, or typewriters. I can actually keyboard quite proficiently for an old guy, thank you).

I was living in Atlanta in 1965. The city was rocked by the abduction and presumed murder of a young newlywed at Lenox Square, a large shopping center that has evolved into a huge upscale mall and shopping district in the Buckhead area. Although her body was never found, her bloodstained car was. The incident was covered repeatedly in the media for months.

You should understand that Atlanta in 1965 was a different world from the sprawling metropolis of today. In some parts of the city, mothers still left their babies in strollers outside stores while they went in and shopped. It did not occur to anyone that someone would harm a child, or, for that matter, a young newlywed walking across a parking lot.

The airport—called then simply Atlanta Airport—was not international. To fly overseas you had to first fly somewhere else.

The Atlanta Braves would not come to the city from Milwaukee until 1966. There were no NFL Atlanta Falcons.

The tallest building downtown was One Park Tower, also called 34 Peachtree Street. It stood a dazzling thirty-two stories tall. Today, it is the 29th tallest building in Atlanta. As of this writing, the tallest is the Bank of America Plaza at 1,023 feet, three times the height of the old One Park Tower building, and no doubt taller buildings are currently on the drawing boards.

As young teenagers without a driver’s license, we rode the bus downtown, went on dates and walked around the city, completely at ease and without parents worrying about our safety. I would not be so free and easy about that today.

In short, Atlanta was then a somewhat quiet, backwater city, and the disappearance of the young woman made a deep impression on the minds of many people, including me. The idea that people could just disappear permanently was deeply disconcerting.

In those days, no one had ever heard of Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy. I remember that even in school (Yes, believe it or not, I was young enough to be in high school) teachers and students were in shock that such an occurrence could happen in 1965. We talked about it, and it remained a dominant news story for months. When a new lead was announced by the police, the media coverage would increase again for weeks. The city was truly traumatized, and Atlanta joined the ranks of other big cities ... with big-city crime.

Time passed, and in the seventies and eighties, I was a police officer in the Atlanta area. Periodically, someone, almost always a young woman, would disappear from some parking lot. The ending was never good for them. I met some very bad people, almost always men, and witnessed the ongoing patterns of abuse responding to domestic violence calls. In a very real way, I became aware that some people live lives of terror and fear right under our noses.

I also became aware of the fact that there are human predators in the world. Like other predators, they seek weakness and vulnerability in their victims and the opportunity to exercise their will. I also learned that for many, if not most, the driving motivation behind their terrible acts is power, the ability to control and inflict pain on others. Sex for many of these predators is secondary and another way of controlling and inflicting pain.

So, the story evolved in my head until I knew it was time to write it. I realize that Eyes of the Predator may be somewhat intense for some readers. I apologize for this. It tells a story that, while not a retelling of actual events, is intended to be realistic and ‘true to life’. By that I mean the story is not based on any single case or event, but it is a composite sketch of predators and their victims.

A parallel plot in the book is the parental abuse of the main female character. Again, this plotline is not based on any one actual story. It is intended to paint a realistic picture of abuse and the desperation that drives some young people to do desperate things in their efforts to escape their personal hell.

In any event, I realize the story is rather dark. Truth be known, I found writing some passages to be deeply disturbing, but as the characters acted out on my computer screen, they took on their own lives and acted for themselves. I simply recorded the action as I saw it.

I hope you enjoy the story. In the end, that is all that it is.

Best,

Glenn