Many people have the notion that sometime during their life that they could or would like to write a book on some topic. Most people keep this as some evergreen future opportunity and never move forward with an actual project. Chester County, Birmingham Township resident Jim Condelles recently brought his dream to fruition and published his first novel, “Last Bridge to Memphis,” a historical fiction piece set in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1980’s and featuring a middle-aged Elvis Presley who did not die from a heart attack in 1977.
Jim spent the early part of his career in television news. Like most people starting out in the business, he worked in several small market cities and eventually worked his way up to Memphis, Tennessee in the 1980’s. In August 1987, Memphis celebrated “Elvis Week,” a commemoration of the ten-year anniversary of Elvis’s untimely passing at age 42 at his home, Graceland. During that week, Jim explains, “Since I was the new guy, they sent me to do live reports all that week about Elvis. I did features stories at Sun Studio, interviewed Elvis’s martial arts instructor, and also family members and others connected to Elvis.”
Jim says that a few days after the Elvis week coverage was done, he got an envelope at the TV station containing a plain unmarked cassette tape. On it was a man with a southern accent who said a few words and then launched into a rendition of “Mystery Train,” a very early Elvis song. “I never found out who sent the tape,” Jim says. “And being a somewhat superstitious guy, I always wondered if perhaps this was Elvis contacting me from the great beyond saying he appreciated my reporting.” Based on this mystery, Jim developed a few pages of a concept of a book at the time. Unfortunately, he lost the original cassette tape during one of his job-related moves, but the concept remained and more importantly was in the back of his head all these years.”
Jim noted, “Fast forward to 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak, I’m sitting home like many other people with some free time and I had the urge to revisit the concept.” He did many hours of research on Elvis and Memphis during the 1980’s. Using this, he developed the novel ultimately titled, “Last Bridge to Memphis.”
If you’re looking for a good murder mystery with plenty of action, twists and turns, steamy romance and even the “King” himself, Elvis Presley, then look no further than “Last Bridge to Memphis.” The story is set in Memphis during the 1980’s and follows the tribulations of a local news journalist, Tom Cirone. Tom is an excellent journalist, but because of a personal tragedy as a youngster he has commitment issues affecting both his work life and romantic interests.
His life takes a particular turn when he happens upon the shooting of a police officer in town. He questions the official police account of the shooting and he works to find the truth about the incident. He is supported by none other than Elvis himself, who survived his heart attack in 1977, and lives on, but the ensuing scandal about his drug use had essentially derailed his career. Elvis has stopped performing and now works with the local police department helping to solve crimes. To maintain a low profile, he even uses the pseudonym Danny Fisher, a character from his 1958 movie, “King Creole.” Danny befriends Tom, the journalist, in his search for the truth.
As Tom works to uncover the truth of the case, he discovers hidden secrets of his news organization, the police force, Danny (aka Elvis) and finally, himself. The book is fast moving, full of interesting facts and facets about the time period, and most importantly, is highly entertaining. This is the perfect summer read, or a read for any season, for that matter.
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