“The way for a young man to rise is to improve
himself every way he can, never suspecting
that anybody wishes to hinder him.”
Abraham Lincoln
Decades of Deception
A Novel of Family Intrigue
Based on a True Story
PATRICK J. CALLAHAN
The journey to create this book has taken my family and me far beyond our imaginable emotional limits and tested every fiber of our patience and tolerance. Please read, experience, and share it.
I needed answers. An investigation into my parent’s past uncovered a tale of lies, deceit, crooked attorneys, forged records, prostitution, and police corruption. I fought to keep my sanity as the incredible story unfolded, and kept a daily journal of the detailed investigation.
The content was controversial and I considered the liability of telling such a tale. I decided to rework the true-life drama and transformed the memoir into a novel, and changed the names of the people and places. Only the names of my parents, wife, and children remain the same.
Incredibly, the finished novel is ninety percent fact and only ten percent fiction.
“The chronicle of Patrick Callahan’s life is unsealed at last. It will inevitably be made into the kind of suspenseful big-screen thriller about which some critic always writes, ‘This could never happen in real life.’ But it will be a movie. I will buy the first ticket.”
Rex Reed
Writer, Film & TV Critic
“Through Mr. Callahan’s impeccable and relentless research, this book Decades of Deception exquisitely chronicles his craps-shoot beginnings into a dysfunctional family and takes us through his childhood of frustratingly unanswered questions. A truly inspiring, personal work of how best to play the life cards you are dealt, while finding one’s own sense of what family is really all about.”
Bill Marx
Author of Son of Harpo Speaks!
A strange lady in dark glasses calls my name. I’m scalded in a hot shower and fall down a flight of rickety wooden stairs. I take a ride in a police car.
EXCERPTS
