Vincent H. O’Neil

The good folks at the Cranston Herald ran a front-page article about EXILE TRUST, complete with a full-color image of the cover. Here it is:


Exile continues for Cranston's O'Neil


Wed, Jun 25 08
By MERI R. KENNEDY

Vincent H. O'Neil, author of the award-winning mystery “Murder in Exile” and its sequel, “Reduced Circumstances,” has a third novel coming out. Entitled “Exile Trust,” it is the third installment of a Florida-based mystery series starring the amateur sleuth Frank Cole.


Though a Yankee, Cole moved to the small town of Exile, Fla. when his software business went bankrupt up north. In “Murder in Exile” he is new to the area and doing background checks for insurance companies when a hit-and-run he is investigating turns out to be no accident.


In “Reduced Circumstances,” the penniless Cole takes a second job as the night dispatcher for a taxi service that gives a ride to a teenager that ends badly during spring break.


“Exile Trust” takes up where its predecessor left off during the same weekend, as Frank's college buddy from New York comes to visit.


O’Neil, of Cranston, first published with St. Martin’s Press in 2006 after winning the publishers 2005 ‘Malice Domestic’ competition.


“It was well received, with favorable reviews from the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and The Library Journal, among others,” said O’Neil.


St. Martin’s Press published “Reduced Circumstances” just one year later in July of 2007 and “Exile Trust” is set to be released later this week.


Employed by Fidelity Investments in Boston, O’Neil writes copy for the advertising department. His other job is writing novels, which is his passion in life.


O'Neil has led an interesting life. Raised in Massachusetts, he graduated from West Point in 1985 and served for nine years in the U.S. Army Infantry. After earning a master's degree in international affairs from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, he worked for seven years as a risk manager for Fleet Bank in Rhode Island. He was laid off along with most his department when Bank of America bought Fleet, but just a few weeks later he won the St. Martin's Press competition and his publishing career took off.


“I have submitted the fourth book in the Frank Cole/Exile series, and hope St. Martin's will decide to publish it,” said O’Neil. “It is called “Contest of Wills,” and involves a missing will, an apparent suicide and a Tallahassee law firm that hires Frank as one of its in-house investigators.”


O’Neil has enjoyed bringing Frank Cole along for this journey into publishing, and said he plans to continue to use Cole as his literary protagonist.


“Although writing is a lot of work, it helps that I have an emerging main character living in an interesting place,” he explained. “Much of the fun of writing Frank Cole is his reactions to the people and events around him. While he does eventually figure things out, he is frequently flummoxed by the odd individuals he meets and the tricks that lay in his path.”


O’Neil said he would someday like to write full-time. He has written several unpublished books in other genres such as political thrillers, science fiction and even military history non-fiction.


“Regardless of what happens, I will keep on writing because it is so much fun and basically because I have to,” said O’Neil. He often describes the need to write as an urge to get the stories constantly going through his mind onto paper.


For authors like O’Neil, his writing takes on a life of its own. He spends hours developing the story but O’Neil said that most people can write, although they may not have tried.


“I think anyone who can tell a joke at a party can write. Every joke has a beginning, middle and an end, just like a book. If you can hold people's attention long enough to tell a joke, you can write,” he said.


O’Neil is looking forward to upcoming book signings in the area where he will be able to meet his readers and introduce the mystery series to newcomers.