Windham author publishes first detective thriller

By Kaysa Jalbert

Imagine if the well-known and beloved city of Portland, Maine was suddenly struck with a series of murders left for the local detective, his associates and an underaged bartender at Sully’s Tap to solve. Newly published author Philip C. Baker of Windham paints this macabre imagery in his first Maine-based thriller called “Hunger Hill.”

Windham resident Philip C. Baker has written
and published his first novel, a detective thriller
set in Maine called 'Hunger Hill." It is
available for purchase on Amazon and through
the Maine Authors Publishing Cooperative.
SUBMITTED PHOTO 

The novel’s setting is Munjoy Hill, an east end area in Portland popular for walks and panoramic views for real-life Mainers, but it is no place for relaxing and unwinding if you are a character in Baker’s crime thriller novel.

“The idea for a book in my experience is a collection of a million ideas,” Baker said. “They don’t all come at once. They start to seep into the imagination; before you know it, they are the inspiration for a story or your novel.”

Baker is one of many individuals who have become writers by creating novels out of the inspiration of their hometowns or states. The dear state of Maine can be thanked for its abundance of hypnotic landscapes and panoramas that animates one’s imagination, including that of Stephen King.

“I start writing in the morning and on an inspired day, I forget about lunch and work until the sun blinds me through my west-facing window in my office,” said Baker. “I carry a notebook to harvest ideas and inspirations, as they come to me during my non-writing times, so in essence, I’m always working on the book.”

The novel took two-plus years to complete, as Baker was limited to writing on weekends and around his customary life consisting of his profession as a sales manager, traveling with family, and caring for their rescued dogs.

“Now that I have Hunger Hill to sell, I find myself at events and on Facebook spending less time writing and more time running the business of peddling the book, a necessary evil.”

The new author says he didn’t have many expectations for this book, just hopes and dreams.

“I dreamed I’d finish Hunger Hill in a publishable format and therefore be able to share my ideas with people,” he said. “I’ve hoped I would leave something behind, a legacy of sorts. The expectation that I did not have was that I’d make money doing this. It’s a hobby that I plan to continue.”

Bill Bushnell of “Bushnell on Books” in the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel said about Hunger Hill, "This is a well-crafted crime thriller with loads of action, police procedures, plot surprises and a dramatic conclusion."

Baker says his family and friends are all very supportive of his writing, but not as ardent as his wife, Cynthia, who he says, has read the book more than any one person should be expected to. In addition, he has received support and help navigating social media from other fellow authors.

“Not only that, but I have fans,” said Baker. “A bartender at a restaurant I frequent grabbed her phone when she saw me. She had taken a picture of a page she loved and read back to me things that I had written. It was pretty cool.”

The front cover of “Hunger Hill” is a painting of a white car turning down a lit-up city street, the details may be familiar to Portland residents. The illustration was done by the authors niece, Elisie Bolduc.

Hunger Hill is the start of a series consisting of four books that Baker is progressively bringing to life, maintaining the same characters in each but dragging them to new settings such as Western Maine, Down East and “The County.”

Baker says his method for writing is unconventional.

“I get many questions about how I prepare; Do I outline? Do I write linearly? I do neither. I jump around and might even write the ending before much of the rest,” he said. “In all this jumping around, I have to keep track by outlining as I write, not as a predecessor to the writing process. It’s more like a Table of Contents and I’ll highlight it with colors to track changes to a specific thread for example.”

Philip Baker grew up in Falmouth, as the youngest brother of two older sisters on 14 acres of woods and fields. The Baker family owned a sailboat and went on vacation leaving little room for dull moments.

By the age of 10, Philip would ride his bike to the Portland Country Club where he would caddy for the members or “swells” as his father would say.

As an author, Baker is also a busy reader from a Dennis LeHane mystery to an Elmore Leonard psychological thriller. If it came down to being stuck on an island with just one book, Baker says he would choose “Catch 22.”

His first novel “Hunger Hill” is now available on Amazon and through the Maine Authors Publishing Cooperative. <