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Following his career in broadcasting and film and video production, C.J. published the mystery-thriller series, The Park Trilogy which included, “Olive Park”. “Olive Park” was awarded the Bronze Award in Popular Fiction (2012 E-Lit awards) and was also named one of the Top 5 Mysteries of 2012 (Reader’s Favorite) and was awarded Best Mystery of 2012 (Global E-Book awards). Rounding out The Park Trilogy - “Crimson Park” and “Angel Park”.
C.J. authored the short story collection, The Silver Moon and the Evening Tide, which includes Pushcart-nominated “Relentless”.
C.J.’s second mystery-thriller series, The Diamond & Stone Mysteries includes “Girl Number Four”, “Honey Suckle Rose”, “The Widow Black”, and the newest, “Rumor of Clowns”, “The Seventh Reel” and (coming in 2022) “The Over Under”.
C. J. has studied Creative Writing with Judith Guest (Ordinary People), Rebecca Hill (A Killing Time in St. Cloud), Gary Braver (Tunnel Vision, Skin Deep), and screenwriting in L.A. with David S. Freeman (Beyond Structure).
Writing "The Seventh Reel" started with a 'What-If'. What if one of the main characters had an unknown connection to a famous assassination? After that, I had to add the thousands of conspiracy theories surrounding the event.
Reviewed by Steve Leshin for Readers' Favorite
The Seventh Reel by C.J. Booth takes on a subject that most mystery fiction writers shy away from. When President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in the streets of Dallas in 1963, despite the official findings of the Warren Commission, the incident remains an unsolved conspiracy theory. The fifth book in the Diamond and Stone Mystery series begins in 1963, in a remote canyon in the Sonoran Desert of California where a man reaches to grab a dead pig’s head. How this leads to a deadly series of events in present-day Seattle and Los Angeles is the mystery that propels The Seventh Reel from start to finish. In a warehouse building in LA, Jimmy Smalley, a young man with visions of Hollywood fame and fortune, earns a meager living by going through 33 mm films of old movie outtakes and deleted scenes for processing to remove the silver component within the film. He finds a film that does not seem to belong with the other reels of a movie called Move Over, Zombie. Six cans of film are listed. Why is there an extra one? Curious, Jimmy views the film. What he sees points to the year 1963. As the story unfolds, more clues come forth about the origin and purpose of the 16 mm film. It seems anyone who sees it is in great peril.
The Seventh Reel is a well-written suspense thriller that keeps you guessing what happens next and who will be caught in a conspiracy dating back to 1963. C. J. Booth has a knack for dialogue and the give and take between the major and minor characters enhances the story with the historical and political background of the Kennedy assassination. The principal characters feel paranoid, and the reader is pulled in. I am reminded of the movie Three Days of the Condor. Feeling shadowed and helpless, one character comments, “Whoever it is, is vapor, shadow, invisible. It is the unseen hand that comes from the dark and grabs your neck from behind and twists. You never see it. You never know who or what it is.” Booth also makes good use of flashbacks to 1963 that blend in nicely with the present-day events. A good mystery that will keep you interested until the end.
