Longtime financial executive turned author, David Beckwith, has Greenville roots that reach as deep as a winter rye’s and an imagination that travels as far as the east is from the west.
Simply put, the Greenville High School class of 1965 alumni was seemingly destined to produce two works with completely different purposes — “A New Day in the Delta: Inventing School Desegregation As You Go” and a fictional crime “conspiracy” series with the latest book entitled, “A Cruising Conspiracy.”
The former was written to educate and the latter, to entertain.
Right off the bat, “A Cruising Conspiracy,” book number nine of the series, aims to entertain its readers with characters eliciting quick wit and exchanging playful quips.
“Does a trip down memory lane unearth fond remembrances, or are some cursed memories best left buried? Join Will and Betsy Black as they explore these issues on a two-week perilous journey that causes the past to meet the present as the present forebodes their future,” the synopsis says.
Will and Betsy, the protagonists of the series, are the alter egos of Beckwith and his late wife, Nancy.
The story behind how they enjoined to write the series is just as intriguing as the series itself.
Both were in financial services for what would be considered a lifetime for some and they were living in Vero Beach, Florida.
He had been doing promotions for “A New Day in the Delta” all over the south and figured he would propose an idea to Nancy while they were driving down I-95.
“Sweetheart, how’d you like to do something together?” he asked.
Nancy could not begin to imagine what Beckwith was referring to as they were driving down a jam packed interstate with traffic for miles.
He then asked, “How’d you like to write a book together?”
Nancy replied, “Yeah, maybe.”
He proceeded to elaborate on the idea of a series about a married couple who likes to solve crimes and are both financial services executives, likening it to the acclaimed comedy-mystery, “The Thin Man,” with tongue-in-cheek dialogue.
Although Nancy was only able to co-write the first book of the series and edit the second due to her cancer diagnosis, Beckwith maintained the adventure of Will and Betsy.
He and Nancy moved to Key West where she would spend the rest of her time until her death in 2010.
Beckwith said of the series, “Most of them either take place in Florida or the Caribbean and two of them take place in Jamaica. For the most recent one, I decided I was going to bring it back to Greenville.”
He continued, “It was the Greenville High School class of 1965 and I decided they were going to have their 40th reunion, but instead of going to Greenville like they usually do, we decided to get together and take a Caribbean cruise.”
Beckwith could not take complete credit for the title of the series as a Millsaps College buddy of his who taught writing suggested working the word “conspiracy” into the title.
“I just changed the kind of conspiracy from book to book,” he said.
The inspiration came from his reluctant acceptance of an invitation to join his best friend from the eighth grade, Dick Peterson, and his wife on their 50th anniversary cruise.
He accepted the invitation on one condition — he and the couple would not be joined at the hip.
They booked the cruise six months before departure and Beckwith spent that time writing a mystery story about a cruise ship centered around the GHS class of 1965.
Beckwith alluded to the plot being akin to that of Murder on the Orient Express.
“You’ve got a closed environment in the same way, except you’ve got a group that’s caught on the cruise ship and homogenous in the sense they’re having their high school reunion together and unexplainable things and coincidences start happening to the members,” he highlighted. “All of the characters have different stories…and you end up with multilevel mystery.”
Beckwith was asked why he endeavored to continue the “conspiracy” series.
His simple answer was “to entertain.”
“I spent 40 years and became a senior VP for one of the largest financial firms in the U.S., had an MBA, had responsibility for more than half a billion dollars, and spent 25 years teaching finance and estate planning at four different colleges. I was also married for 30 years to a lady who had a PhD in finance, was a college provost and graduate school faculty member, and managed half a billion dollars herself,” he said.
Beckwith shared that he is often asked why he doesn’t write about such topics.
One of the reasons is how much time he has already dedicated to that realm.
“When you get to be my age, 75, you get to a point where you are through saving or educating the world. At that point, your objectives turn to escapism, fantasy, and entertainment. I’ll let someone else carry the heavy load,” he said further. “Have you ever noticed that when you see octogenarians or older and they have a picture with young people, they always look like they want to bite a bullet while the young people are the ones beaming? Something is wrong with that scene. I want to be the one who makes them smile again after they read some of my over the top fun scenes in my books.”
About Davd Beckwith
Beckwith is a three-generation native of Greenville, with a BBA and an MBA from Ole Miss. He spent 40 years in the securities business, the first half of his career with Bache & Co. and its successors, the second half with Morgan Stanley. Beckwith started writing the Will and Betsy Black adventure series in 2010. After moving to Key West, he was tapped to write a book review column for the Key West citizen which he continues to produce on a weekly basis.
