If I Die Again

It is Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed in 1929, and Detroit police detective Patrick Quinn is gunned down by gangsters in a downtown skyscraper, only to awaken moments later in modern-day Detroit. Quinn finds he’s still a cop in this strange new version of the Motor City, but he has a new partner and a fresh homicide case to solve that feels all too familiar. What troubles Quinn is the question: if he is dead, can he still solve his own murder?

It was on a Tuesday in 1929 when the stock market crashed, a day of importance to Detroit police detective Patrick Quinn because it was the day he died, shot by gangsters in a downtown skyscraper. At the very moment he should have been dead, he finds himself in police headquarters outside the detective squad room, but 84 years in the future. Quinn finds himself in a strange new world that somehow is unsettlingly familiar—it’s the same town, same streets for the most part, same job—but different. There are women police officers, black police officers, telephones you carryt in your pocket, miniature motion picture screens on top of each desk. There are men with earrings and women with tattoos. He ends up with a new partner, former pro football player Wilson Dexter, who gradually becomes convinced Quinn is telling the truth, that he was a cop back during Prohibition and was gunned down in the line of duty. Together they have to solve a series of new murders that somehow feels familiar to Quinn, and they decide to solve the mystery of who arranged the murder of Patrick Quinn in 1929. Quinn finds himself helped along the way by an attractive and daring female EMT. Veteran crime reporter Tim Younkman weaves a story of murder and intrigue in two crime-riddled eras on the same streets separated by nearly a century. The protagonist Patrick Quinn must solve not only a new set of murders but must face the dilemma of deciding if he must return to 1929 to solve his own.

An award winning journalist for four decades, Tim Younkman has incorporated his experience and training into all facets of his works, from essays and short commentaries, to short stories and novels. A native of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and raised along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, Younkman has not forgotten his roots when he tells his stories or offers his views on local, national, and global events. He is a graduate of Muskegon (Mich.) Catholic Central High School and Michigan State University School of Journalism. His experience beyond his literary talents includes performing as a professional musician, a music instructor, a labor leader, a parochial school board chairman, a board member for the Boys and Girls Club of Muskegon and the Heart Walk of Bay County. In his youth worked in a paper mill, in retail businesses, and a public library. He sold newspapers, shined shoes, collected paper for recycling, and had a lawn care business. His news writing included crime reporting, covering state and federal courts, investigative reporting of government corruption and drug cartels operating in Michigan. He also has been an award-winning columnist commenting on everyday life and the important issues of the day. He has worked in Michigan for the Clinton County News, The Muskegon Chronicle, and The Bay City Times, and mlive.com. Now he brings that expertise to his own website, offering his views on all sorts of topics, plus presenting his completed works in both the realms of fiction and non-fiction. He has traveled extensively researching a variety of topics included in his writings. Younkman is the father of seven children and resides in Bay City, Michigan.