Welcome to Eastmon City: Why I Wanted the City to Feel Like a Character

When I started creating Depth of Justice, I knew I didn't want the story to take place in a city that existed only because the characters needed somewhere to stand. I wanted the city itself to have a personality. That's where Eastmon City came from. 

Eastmon is fictional, but there is a lot of Detroit in its DNA. It's a city of old neighborhoods, police stations, bars, businesses, street corners, families, criminals, firefighters, detectives, and regular people trying to make it through another day. Some parts of the city have seen better times. Other parts are fighting their way back. There are good people in bad neighborhoods and bad people sitting in places where they're supposed to be doing good. That's important to Depth of Justice, because I never wanted the world to be divided neatly between heroes and villains. 

Rico Rodriguez enters that world from the law-enforcement side. Joey "Two Times" Williams rises through another side of the exact same city. Their paths are very different, but Eastmon shapes both of them. That's one of the ideas at the heart of Depth of Justice. Two people can walk through the same streets, meet some of the same people, experience the same city, and come away from it headed in completely different directions. 

Then there's Detective Tommy Gunnz. To a young cop like Rico, Tommy represents what a detective is supposed to be. He's the kind of cop whose reputation reaches you before he does. But reputations are interesting things. The person everyone else sees and the person underneath aren't always exactly the same. That's something I wanted to explore throughout this story rather than simply telling readers who these characters are. 

And Eastmon has plenty happening beyond Rico, Joey, and Tommy. There are stories moving through the streets whether the main characters notice them or not. Rumors travel. Criminal organizations make moves. People sit around bars talking about what happened that morning. Local news reports become conversations. Detectives chase leads that seem meaningless until suddenly they aren't. 

Sometimes something as ordinary as a penny can become impossible to ignore. 

That's the kind of city I wanted Eastmon to be. 

I wanted readers to feel that if they turned down a street that wasn't mentioned in the chapter, something else would still be happening there. Somebody would be working. Somebody would be arguing. Somebody would be committing a crime. Somebody would be investigating one. Somebody would be sitting at a bar telling a story that may or may not be true. 

That also means Depth of Justice isn't only about solving a mystery. The mystery matters, but so do the people surrounding it. Friendships matter. Families matter. Loyalty matters. Bad decisions matter. Sometimes a decision that seems insignificant when somebody makes it can follow them much farther than they ever expected. 

That's why one of the ideas I've attached to my writing is: 

Stories where every choice has consequences. 

Depth of Justice: Book One is only the beginning of Eastmon City. There are characters whose stories have barely started, relationships that will change, questions that won't have easy answers, and parts of Eastmon readers haven't seen yet. 

For everyone who has started following along while I build this world, thank you. 

And if you're entering Eastmon City for the first time: 

Welcome. Keep your eyes open. 

— Tommy Bayless

Author of Depth of Justice