NEW BRITAIN – By day, city detective Brian Shea deals with some of the New Britain Police Department’s most heart-wrenching cases.

As a member of the Youth Bureau his job is to investigate crimes against children, primarily focusing on sexual assaults.

But in the early morning hours and in the time after his family has gone to bed, Shea has spent months feeding his other passion as he penned the story of three individuals at the breaking point whose lives intersect with potentially calamitous results.

His first book “The Camel’s Back” was released on Amazon.com Thursday.

It’s an action thriller that he hopes will appeal to a wide audience, the 44-year-old detective said.

“I tried to make my characters very real and the problems that they deal with very real,” said the former teacher and Naval officer who joined the New Britain Police Department in April 2013 after stints in the Wethersfield Police Department and the Georgetown, Texas, Police Department.

The book plays out as the lives of the three main characters collide, giving the reader a view of Shea’s experiences as a Navy lieutenant, urban teacher – he taught in the Frog Hollow section of Hartford from 2008 to 2011 – and police officer with a twist.

After he’s fired following a controversial shooting, officer Declan Enright takes the harrowing step of becoming a bank robber in order to support his family, including his three-year-old Autistic daughter. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Nicholas Lawrence takes a transfer to the agency’s bank robbery unit in New Haven to care for his mother with dementia. Khaled travels from his small village in Iraq to find closure of an unimaginable loss that haunts his daily existence.

“The real genesis of the story started when I was in the military in 2001,” Shea said. “I started thinking about what makes a terrorist?” he offered as a tease into Khaled’s role in the book. Shea pointed out that U.S. military targets are often hidden in places in foreign countries such as schools or highly populated, so casualties would be high if they were struck.

“What if that happened to me?” Shea said speculating on how he would feel if he lost a loved one because of a military strike. “How would I react to that? Khaled wasn’t born into this hatred, he suffered a tragic event. I don’t think people will necessarily like him, but they may understand a piece of him.”

Shea had been toying with the idea for years but it wasn’t until his teenage daughter challenged him to write the book in August that he went for it, getting up each morning between 4:30 and 5 a.m. to write before going to work and then spending more time writing after his family went to bed. He finished in October.

“It sounds like a terrific story,” said New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell. “I’m not surprised coming from someone like Brian. He’s very intelligent and probably one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He’s got such a varied skill set and he brings so much to the table, he’s a terrific police officer, investigator and teacher. I’m sure he’ll bring that type of excellence to his writing.”

Shea is already set to start work on the second and third novel in the series, “The Lion’s Mouth,” and “The Rabbit’s Hole,” which will be published later this year. He also is working on adapting “The Camel’s Back” as a screenplay.

“I think the readers in Connecticut will enjoy the launch point of the book, which opens in Wethersfield,” Shea said. “It is an action thriller but at its core, it’s a story about people.”

For information on how to purchase the book, visit www.brianchristophershea.com or Amazon.com.

Running by the old GISD stadium at San Gabriel Park every morning got Georgetown police officer Brian Shea thinking. What difficulties would a few cops face trying to protect a large group of people during a small-town terrorist attack? The hypothetical question became a scene in his first novel, a suspense thriller called Camel’s Back, which features three intertwining stories of a father of a boy with autism spectrum disorder, a fired cop, an FBI agent and how they deal with chaos after a tragedy. Mr. Shea now works as a detective in Connecticut, but Georgetown was the inspiration for the novel’s “dramatic plot twist” at a football game between the Georgetown Eagles and the Hutto Hippos. To the author, a terrorist attack in a small city like Georgetown is scarier than one in New York or Washington, D.C., because “we can always distance ourselves from big cities.” The book explores how people react when they reach their breaking points, like one of the characters who turns terrorist after a tragedy, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Mr. Shea came up with the idea while in the military and wondered what creates terrorist extremists. The novelist decided to create a believable terrorist, different from the unrealistic versions he’s often seen on the screen or the page. “I think movies and books and TV do them an injustice and make it seem like it’s just a crazy person. I looked into how that person was created,” Mr. Shea said. “I tried to humanize the terrorist, to make him a real person who deals with life’s issues. People may not like the terrorist, but I think when you see what brought him to that point in his life, he’s not born into some natural born hatred of the U.S. It was a tragic event that happened to him.” Mr. Shea’s road to writing started as a cartoon artist. His dad, a “huge reader,” inspired him to plunge into the writing world. “He had a huge influence on me,” Mr. Shea said. The Sun even gets a mention in the novel when a character reads the news of Georgetown. Mr. Shea’s next book in the series will begin in Austin and probably have another tie to Georgetown, the author said. He’s also working on a screenplay adaptation of the novel. Camel’s Back targets readers age 18 and older with its sometimes violent content. Parents who read the novel can share it with younger people, as the book focuses on people’s reactions more than the violent parts. Camel’s Back is available on Amazon for $13.95 as a paperback and $4.99 as a Kindle version. Two more books will follow in the series.

On a typical day, Brian Shea is at the New Britain police department where he works as a detective specializing in crimes against children.

"I always wanted to do something in my life where I would help people," said Shea.

He is a father, a husband, a former teacher, Navy officer, and now, as of March 15, a self published author.

“I would average like four hours of sleep a night for a chunk of that process," said Shea.

This book is the first of a three-book fiction series based on some of his own life experiences. It chronicles the lives of three very different characters as they face off against a terrorist who is as unique as he is deadly.

“Hopefully I can reach a wider audience, and talk about some real issues," said Shea. "Maybe open some dialogue.”

It's a dialogue that Shea hopes will be shared by all.

“Not just police and military," said Shea. "I want it to appeal to the general masses.”

The title, The Camel's Back, draws on instances that prove that the straw really can be the thing that breaks it all.

“Instead of looking at the acts that people do, if we can focus on the what creates those, and how people end up in those positions, then we may have a better understanding of how to prevent them," said Shea.

Shea often finds himself getting lost in his writing. He said it has helped him detach from the traumas he has accrued at his job, that focuses primarily on child sexual assault and abuse cases.

“This became my outlet," said Shea. "I think it was a huge cathartic experience because it lets me in a fictional way kind of tell some stories.”

And with the start of each new chapter, Shea hopes to shed light on the heart that beats behind the badge.

“Each of us are individuals outside of this office," said Shea. "We all have families and lives and passions that extend beyond the day-to-day of what we do.”

Shea's book is available on Amazon, and his next book is scheduled to be released on the fourth of July.

Wethersfield is no stranger to being a setting for a literary work – think “The Witch of Blackbird Pond.” Now one can find the town’s latest incarnation on the written page in the opening scenes of a new self-published suspense novel called “The Camel’s Back” by resident Brian Shea. The book is about how different people from different backgrounds are all at a breaking point in their lives and how the straw that finally broke the camel’s back – hence the title – sets in motion consequences that put people who would normally never be together, together. The main characters include a police officer who was recently fired over a controversial shooting and is trying to find a way to stabilize his family situation, including taking care of an autistic child. There is also an accomplished FBI investigator who transfers from Texas to Connecticut to care for his aging mother with dementia, with the support of his law enforcement partner, and a man who leaves his home in Iraq to bring closure to a haunting event. What makes this literary journey unique is the personal journey of its author. Shea is a former Wethersfield police officer who is currently a detective with the New Britain Police Department. He is assigned to the Youth Bureau, which primarily handles sexual assault cases involving minors. Over the years, Shea’s duties have also included serving with the Shooting Task Force and the narcotics unit, as well as in educational roles as a field training officer and an academy instructor. Add to this military experience as a naval officer, moonlighting as an editorial cartoonist for a small Texas newspaper on top of police patrol duties, and a fifth grade teacher in Georgia and in Hartford, and you’ve got quite a varied outlook on life. It’s a life that includes two years of international travel as the son of a government employee. “People should wait until they’re 40 to write because then they have enough life experience,” Shea, 44, said as he paraphrased Len Child, who is known for the Jack Reacher action series. “I always felt I had a bunch of stories to tell. I kicked this idea around for a long time. I wanted to show things from a different perspective,” he said. His oldest of three daughters urged him to start writing, and so he did, relentlessly. “I have a ridiculous worth ethic. I don’t sleep much. I write from 4:30 to 7:30 in the morning and then go to work and then come home, spend the evening with my family and then, when everyone went to bed, I’d write some more,” Shea said. His goal is to write four to five hours each day, adding 1,500 to 2,500 words to the novel. Most of what happens in the book is inspired by his real-life situations. For instance, there’s an armed stand-off in the story. In real life, Shea got the guy to drop the gun. “But in the book, I flipped the script and played the ‘what if’ game,” he said. Other questions followed like, “What starts somebody down an extreme path?” One of the characters in the book helps answer that question. As for the back stories of all the characters, he’s tried to be what he calls a life observer, having lived in 12 different places before moving to town in 2009. When asked if he was any of these characters, Shea half-jokingly said, “Every one of these characters is me. Writing this book is like having multiple personalities. “The biggest piece of me [in this book] is [being] a dad. I want my girls to see that whatever they have a drive to do, if they put the work in, they can do it,” he added. All of this writing, including the decision to self-publish, is a huge undertaking and Shea appreciates the support he’s received from family and friends. He credits his wife, Korinna, who is an educator, with being an excellent editor although it was a bit reluctant, initially. “I annoyed her until she would edit my work,” he said. “I followed her around with my computer while she did her makeup and she finally said leave it with me.” 4 5 Police officer pens a thriller by Sarah Barr Staff Writer Author Brian Shea is a former Wethersfield police officer. He is now a detective with the New Britain police. “I always felt I had a bunch of stories to tell... I wanted to show things from a different perspective.” – Brian Shea Photo by Sarah Barr Now that the book is done, the promotional chapter of this journey begins. Shea plans to do book readings and signings in all of the towns and cities used as backdrops for his thriller, including Wethersfield. He was asked why he chose to use this historic town, including the cove and the Silas Deane Highway near the police station, as a focal point. “I hope when people read it they get that good New England small town feel bur realize that anything can happen anywhere,” Shea said. What happens in the book, you’ll have to read for yourself. What happens after this book? There are two more planned for the series for later this year and Shea is already adapting his own screenplay. Even if Hollywood calls, he puts it all in perspective. “I’ve gone to enough book readings to realize that authors are regular people. They put themselves on the line and hope people will like their work. I’m a regular guy putting himself out there.” WL