For his fifth published book, Marietta native Joe Dixon decided to go back to his roots, setting the suspense thriller “The Marietta Misdirection” in his hometown. Writing under the pen name Thomas Kifton, Dixon said while his books aren’t a series, he always leaves the door open for a sequel, meaning Marietta could once again be one of his settings someday.

In the meantime, the book can be found at the Antique Mall of Marietta, 135 Second St., and through online retailers including amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Question: What is the book about?

Answer: It’s a fictional tale about missing people. It takes place in Marietta, Ohio-Marietta is the backdrop. They’re re-doing a theater called the Cosmopolitan-we know it as the Peoples Bank Theatre. When they knock out a back wall in the basement, out pops a bunch of bodies. They’re missing people whose cases have never been solved.

As they research more, they find out they’re connected to drugs and drug trafficking. It’s a suspense thriller to find out who’s behind it. They bring in a detective from Columbus and it’s his first case and he’s in small-town Marietta…in over his head. They think all the deaths are cold cases when suddenly a woman is found dead…and they realize it’s tied in. They have to solve it before it happens again.

Q: Is this the first book you’ve written?

A: It’s my fifth but the first four were international stories. This is the first that’s set in Marietta. Even though I changed the name of places, people who live here have told me they know right away what I’m writing about. People who know Marietta will recognize the places.

Q: Why did you decide it was time to use Marietta as the backdrop?

A: I’m a big fan of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury and “Murder She Wrote” and they use settings of Castle Rock and Cabot Cove. It’s always centered around a New England town. I think Marietta has a New England-type feel. It may sound from the story that I’m putting Marietta down but I love Marietta. The picture that’s the cover of the book with the fog downtown, I took that. I think Marietta has this feel of being mysterious and majestic. It’s always had this really neat aura about it.

Q: Are you a full-time writer or is this something you do on the side?

A: I’m a corrections officer but I do consider myself a full-time writer because I’m writing all the time. I’ve been a writer since 2007 and I would like to do this as a profession.

Q: How did you discover your love of writing?

A: It goes clear back to the third grade. I had a teacher who gave us an assignment of writing short stories. I wrote one about a nightmare I’d had. It really grabbed everyone and I realized it grabbed everyone and it went from there.

Q: Are you working on anything else at the moment?

A: I’m always writing. I have an index of short story ideas that’s close to 300. I laugh when someone talks about having writer’s block because if you look around, there’s always something to write about.

Q: Do you mostly write about crime-related topics?

A: I have a couple of science-fiction based books, an international murder mystery and a good old-fashioned murder mystery. This was going back in that direction for me.

Kate York conducted this interview.

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Joe Dixon

¯ Residence: Marietta.

¯ Age: 37.

¯ Occupation: Corrections officer/writer.

¯ Education: 1998 Warren High School grduate.

¯Family: Wife Julia and dog, Roxie.

Source: Joe Dixon.