Dear readers, tonight with us is a reverend with an astrophysics background, who keeps running into situations that require a sceptic’s investigative skills.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I spent my boyhood in farm country—Appleton City, Missouri. It’s flat land in the heart of the state, north of the hills and the sinuous-shaped bodies of water known as the Twin Dragons – Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks. These are Bible-believing folk. When I was young, the area was sleepy, mostly family farms. In the years since, corporate interests have bought up huge tracts of land, and farming on a small scale doesn’t pay. Employment is better in the south, where the lake supports jobs serving the tourist industry. Branson is Missouri’s version of Nashville.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

My fondest memory of my childhood is my friendship with Bob Taggart, a boy of my own age. We hunted and fished together. Our faithful companion was his dog Brownie, who was in fact a succession of mixed-breed mutts to which he gave the same name. He pranked me a lot, thinking himself clever. One time, he took me into the basement of his father’s pharmacy and dared me to open a jar of what looked like disgusting medical samples and take a bite. I did, then he admitted it was fruit preserves. It was Bob’s dead body I found in the first novel, Preacher Finds a Corpse.

What do you do now?

In my teens, I had intended to enter the ministry. I studied at Harvard Divinity, then dropped out when I learned too much about Christian church history. I then undertook astrophysics at MIT. No answers there, either. I returned to the farm and got part-time work as a credit investigator for the local auto dealership and also as an occasional guest preacher. I later became pastor of the Baptist church, and because I have a curious mind and investigative skills, people come to me with problems no one else has any interest in solving. Because I was also trained as a skeptical scientist, some people think I’m an agnostic.

What can you tell us about your latest adventure?

The fourth novel in the Preacher Evan Wycliff series is Preacher Stalls the Second Coming, released on March 5, 2024. A crazed scientist knocked on my door with a bizarre warning – the Deep State may be planning to fake the Second Coming of Christ with advanced virtual-reality technology. Meanwhile, a faith-healing evangelist was luring poor and homeless people to a religious retreat with promises of ample food, then exhorting them to prepare for the End Times by starving themselves to death. I couldn’t ignore these unbelievable stories when a young woman from my church disappeared inside the cult leader’s farm.

What did you first think when… ?

The fellow who came to see me was Dr. Hans Gropius, a retired government research scientist who had worked on advanced display systems, including virtual-reality battlefield scenarios. He implied that he wonders, along with physicist Nick Bostrum, whether we are living in base reality or some metaverse created by an advanced intelligence. He insisted we can’t believe anything we see.

What was the scariest thing in your adventures?

In the second novel in the series, Preacher Fakes a Miracle, I foiled the plans of a nasty Russian mobster by faking an episode of demonic possession, convincing him he had betrayed his deal with Satan and would suffer in this life as well as the next.

What is the worst thing about being a minister?

In the third novel, Preacher Raises the Dead, I reluctantly took on the role of full-time minister. During Covid, I made compassionate visits to the sick and the dying. Those experiences became all the more grim when my new bride Loretta was in a car crash that left her in a long-term coma.

What is the best thing about it?

The best thing about Loretta’s hospitalization was that she recovered after many months. Then the problem was people started saying I was a faith healer.

Tell us a little about your friends.

One of my companions is the ghost of Naomi Weiss, who died in a war zone during my time in college. When I appealed to her for earthly help, she sent her living brother Leon to me. He’s an FBI agent. My dearest friend has been Fred Birchard, whom we call Birch, the saintly sexton of our church, as well as my mentor Reverend Marcus Thurston, retired pastor. I work closely with Sheriff Chester Otis—unofficially, of course.

Any romantic involvement?

I was in love with Naomi and deeply distressed when she was killed in a missile attack in Lebanon. Besides my flagging interest in my studies, that tragedy sent me back home to the farm. I didn’t know where else to go. I occasionally flirted with Coralie Angelides, waitress at the C’mon Inn, my hangout. In Preacher Fakes a Miracle, mobster Dmitri Churpov abducts teen Melissa Benton. In rescuing the girl, I became close to her sister Loretta, who was working as a cocktail waitress at the Twin Dragons Casino. After we were married and she recovered from the accident, Loretta took her role as pastor’s wife very seriously – but it stressed her so much she decided to leave me.

Whom (or what) do you really hate?

It’s difficult for a clergyman to admit he hates anyone. My nemesis throughout the series has been the unscrupulous investment banker Stuart Shackleton. But I would say he’s not evil. He’s amoral. I truly hate Frank Trusdale, aka Pastor Obadiah, who in Preacher Stalls the Second Coming was responsible for the deaths of more than a hundred of his faithful followers.

What’s your favourite drink, colour, and relaxing pastime?

My favorite drink is Jack Daniels bourbon, which I admit I abuse at times. Especially now that I’ve lost my church, lost my loves, and live in a shabby trailer. I’ve also abused oxy, which I began to take for chronic back pain. So far I have been disciplined enough not to use both at the same time. My favorite pastime is wondering why bad things happen to good people – then it’s back to Jack.

What does the future hold for you?

I don’t know whether Preacher Stalls the Second Coming will be my last adventure. I do hope that Loretta decides to return to me. She’s living in New Zealand with her ex-boyfriend, Mick Heston, the slick dude who managed the casino. Of course, at any time, one of my flock – or Leon – may knock on my door, bringing a problem no one else wants to solve.

Can you share a secret with us, which you’ve never told anyone else?

I am not an agnostic. I’m a perpetual doubter. God knows there’s a difference.

Gerald Everett Jones is a freelance writer who lives in Santa Monica, California. Preacher Stalls the Second Coming is his fourteenth novel. He has been a longtime board member of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC) and host of the GetPublished! Radio podcast. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There).

You can find Wycliff on the pages of his eponymous series, starting with Preacher Finds a Corpse, and the latest release, Preacher Stalls the Second Coming.

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