LAKE SAINT LOUIS • Mike Force and Chris DiGiuseppi have a relationship that transcends their police work together in Lake Saint Louis.

A few years ago, when Force was seriously ill with lupus, a chronic inflammatory disease, DiGiuseppi helped him pull through. Both men are devout Catholics, and DiGiuseppi prayed for Force and provided moral support. DiGiuseppi, the assistant police chief, also encouraged his boss, who always worked through his lunch hour, to start taking a break to eat.

Over their midday meal, the conversation wasn't the usual shop talk. They discussed the importance of friends and family and their feelings about untimely deaths or other injustices that still haunted them.

"You can look at the victim of a car accident or death or any of the numerous things we deal with and walk away from that and say this doesn't affect me, but I think it weighs on anyone in emergency response," Force said.

The two kicked around the idea of writing a book about these experiences. They thought maybe it would help other police officers or those who had lost loved ones in tragedies to explore their feelings.

"We always heard those common questions of why — why them, why now," said Force.

After one lunch, Force brought up the book idea again, and DiGiuseppi, who had never written anything other than a press release, revealed he had a draft.

"I told him I'd throw the notes over to him and see if we could use any of it," DiGiuseppi said. "After he read it, he said, 'We can work with this.' "

The two devoted nights and weekends to the project for the next few months, and early on, they made a deal.

"I told Chris if we ever come to an impasse and there's something important that we can't agree on, it would be his decision because he did start us off," Force said.

It never came to that though. After a friend who is an author read the draft, he offered to show it to his agent. Months of rewrites later, the police officers sent the book to 30 publishers and got a contract with Health Communications Inc., the company that published most of the Chicken Soup books.

"We really had no idea how the book would end up, which is a supernatural suspense fiction novel," DiGiuseppi said.

"The Light Bringer" will be released Friday, and on the surface seems to be a long way from the self-help book they originally had in mind.

The main character is police Sgt. Alan Crane, a jaded former Marine, who tries to make sense of the trauma he witnesses on the job. He discovers he has the ability to help people who have died cross over to their final destinations.

The book tells the stories of 16 people who die on Crane's watch. Readers familiar with crime news or the St. Charles County area might find some familiar sounding deaths and descriptions.

For instance, a scene at a cemetery is a nod to the murder of Mindy Griffin, 24, who was raped and killed in her Lake Saint Louis condominium in 1995. The cemetery is modeled after Our Lady Cemetery off Orf Road, where DiGiuseppi's brother is buried.

Other parts of the book also are fictionalized versions of real events that affected the authors personally or professionally. For instance, the first chapter describes a sledding accident that killed a 7-year-old boy. Force was involved in a similar crash as a child, and he dedicated the book in part to the boy who died.

Another scene depicts a military funeral, and Force, who served in the Marines for 22 years, spent a portion of that time commanding details that attended such burials.

Although the book poses theological questions, Force said it's based on faith, not a specific religion. The book deal includes two more novels in the series, and the authors already are working on both.

Neither say they expect to get rich off the work or even make enough money to retire early. They do hope that people gain comfort from the books and think beyond their mortalities.

HCI's editorial director, Michele Matrisciani, said she chose to publish the book because now more than ever people question why bad things happen.

"From wartime to economic struggles, we all just want to understand our role in it all," she said.