Vanessa Hoffman, formerly of Germantown and now of St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., has written a gripping first novel, “Rear View Mirror,” which she calls a psychological thriller.

Hoffman, a graduate of Germantown High School and the University of Memphis, says she was a teacher in Tennessee and Florida for 15 years, but a writer all her life.

The daughter of Lydia Hoffman and the late Austin Hoffman, who had an advertising agency in Memphis, Vanessa grew up writing short stories, songs, and whatever crossed her lively imagination. Strangely, however, her novel's main character is based on an older man she met who was dying of cancer.

When she first met the man, he was fishing at the pier, and he began to tell her stories of his adventures, many of them, she felt, made up. But he was a fascinating story teller, and they became friends. When he learned he was dying, she and her mother took care of him, taking him in their home. It was after he died that she learned much of what he told her was true, and that he had been a chef on a cruise ship.

She told him, “When I write my book, you're going to be in it.” And he is. The dedication page reads, “To a special friend:

I told you I would do it, and I did it. May you rest in peace.”

The story plot is intriguing. “Imagine,” the book's blurb reads, “being separated from your twin at birth, only to learn about him years later. Your twin has 525 million dollars in accounts and assets, and you don't.” The book's protagnoist, Francis Cranford, is forced to become his twin in an elaborate plot by the Irish Mafia to collect an unpaid debt from the brother. The plan is to kill the wealthy twin and have the brother take over his ranch and farm. Then the Mafia will kill the brother, but once Francis gets a taste of the high life, he has other plans. This fast-moving adventure story will keep the reader turning pages, fast.

Hoffman began writing her novel in longhand, and then her fiancee, a trucker, invited her to accompany him on a run from Flordia to Texas. She got a laptop and wrote the novel as they rode. “Once it was started, it took just six months to write it,” she said.

Surprisingly, the first manuscript she sent out was bought by Dorrance Publishing in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Her second novel, “Domestic Ransom,” will be out by October, which is appropriate since that is Domestic Violence Month. She is working even now on her third book.

Hoffman will be in the Memphis area for book signings in late January or early February. Rear View Mirror by Vanessa Leigh Hoffman can be purchased at Davis-Kidd Booksellers, or through her website www.vlhoffman.com.

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Former resident writes first novel

Vanessa Hoffman, formerly of Germantown and now of St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., has written a gripping first novel, “Rear View Mirror,” which she calls a psychological thriller.