AUTHOR JODE MILLMAN WRITES LEGAL THRILLERS INSPIRED BY TRUE CRIMES

Jodé Millman is the multi-award-winning author of the Queen City Crimes true-crime inspired mystery series. She’s an attorney, a reviewer for Booktrib.com, and creator of The Writer’s Law School. Jodé lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, where she is at work on her next legal thriller. Find out more about Jodé and her books at her website. 

When Murder Comes Knocking!

As a crime fiction writer, it is not very often that the gnarled hand of murder comes knocking at my front door. I don’t mean a fictional murder. I mean a real, true crime murder.

 

Wait. No, I wasn’t the intended victim... but please let me explain.

 

Before I became a crime fiction writer, I was a family law attorney. My law practice was in New York’s Hudson Valley, an idyllic region of horse farms, robber baron mansions, and a bustling river with a very dark underbelly. In 1985, my business partner and I purchased a building for our law offices, which had been abandoned and in foreclosure for many years. During the vacancy period, the porch of our brick Tudor-style building had become a gathering spot for “the ladies of the evening.” Apparently, the women found it convenient to ply their trade across the street in an isolated parking structure.

 

Unfortunately, the ladies viewed our porch as their own office and created problems for us by soliciting our clients on the way into our office. Naturally, this was embarrassing, and they were quite persistent despite our requests to “move along, please.” My partner and I constantly called the police for help, but to no avail. Gradually, one-by-one the ladies vanished. We were relieved, believing the police had prevailed. However, one day, the headlines of our local newspaper revealed the more grisly truth.

 

To our shock, a serial killer named Kendall Francois had been arrested in connection with the disappearances of eight prostitutes in the City of Poughkeepsie. He had been soliciting these women from our front steps, had taken them to his home, and no one heard from them again. His killings had occurred over a two-year period, and ultimately, the judge found him guilty of seven counts of murder. Francois was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

 

As a crime fiction writer, true crime stories like this one are manna from heaven. My front office steps served as the actual scene of the crime and formed the basis for my multi-award-winning sophomore mystery, “Hooker Avenue.”

 

In my novel, my protagonists, attorney Jessie Martin and her estranged best friend, Detective Ebony Jones, are on the hunt of a series of missing prostitutes after a severely battered woman escapes from the clutches of a deranged John. The police have not investigated the disappearances because they have occurred throughout the Hudson Valley and there appears to be no connection between the cases. As a result, the cases have grown arctic cold. Only the unreliable witness, the surviving prostitute, can lead my heroines to solve the mystery of the missing women and seek justice against the man who brutally injured her.

 

Detective Jones, haunted by the memories of her own missing aunt, and Jessie, who seeks professional redemption, find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Ebony seeks to solve the crime, and Jessie seeks to protect her client, the survivor. The two childhood friends face a balancing act of conflicting professions, which creates an insurmountable tension in their personal relationship.

 

I am proud that Hooker Avenue was a Finalist for the RWA/KOD Daphne DuMaurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, a Finalist for the Silver Falchion Award, and a winner of the Best Police Procedural Clue Award. And it is part of the Clue Award winning The Queen City Crimes series.

 

Local crimes with which I possess a connection similarly inspired the two other novels comprising the Queen City Crimes series. The Midnight Call was inspired by my high school history teacher who murdered a student, and an internationally renown drowning on the Hudson River inspired The Empty Kayak. Each true Hudson Valley crime has formed the basis for mysteries emphasizing how tragedy affects the survivors in a small community. Further, how friendship can be tested by our dedication to our professions.

 

So, for me, when crime comes knocking at my door, I always answer.

 

Hooker Avenue

A Queen City Crime Novel, Book 3

 

Being a Good Samaritan can be deadly.

 

Single mom and attorney Jessie Martin learns that lesson the hard way.

  

During a violent spring thunderstorm, Jessie discovers an unconscious woman lying in a roadside ditch and dials 911 for help. Little does she know her compassion will propel her on a collision course with her estranged best friend, Detective Ebony Jones...and one of the most shocking mysteries in the Hudson Valley. 

 

The badly beaten victim, Lissie Sexton, is a prostitute who claims she’s escaped from the clutches of a killer. She’s also a client of Jessie’s new boss, and former nemesis, Jeremy Kaplan, and fearing for Lissie’s life, he hides her away from everyone. 

 

Ebony is investigating a series of cold cases, and the missing women’s profiles bear a striking resemblance to Lissie’s. She’s willing to stake her career on the hunch that the battered sex worker is the key to solving the serial crimes. However, Jessie is the major obstacle to her investigation—she won’t give up Lissie’s location.

 

Jessie’s in a bind. She wants to help Ebony, but she can’t compromise her client, her boss, or her legal ethics.

 

To catch the killer, can Jessie and Ebony put aside their past? Can they persuade Lissie to identify her assailant before he strikes again on Hooker Avenue?

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MYSTERY AUTHOR KASSANDRA LAMB TALKS OPPOSITES ATTRACTING--IN FICTION AND LIFE

In her youth, author Kassandra Lamb had to decide between writing and paying the bills. Partial to electricity and food, she studied psychology. Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist and college professor, she spends most of her time in an alternate universe with her characters. She is the author of the Kate Huntington mystery series, the Marcia Banks and Buddy cozy mysteries, and the Co.P. on the Scene police procedural mysteries. She’s also written a guidebook for novice writers and writes romantic suspense as Jessica Dale. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

Opposites Attract...In Fiction and Real Life

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the two adages: “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Opposites attract.” Both can refer to romantic attraction. But which is true? 

 

As someone who has been an observer of human nature for many decades, I can say that ... it depends.

 

In some areas, it’s good to be similar. Values, goals, at least some interests, and even one’s sense of humor—it’s best to be on the same wavelength with those.

 

But with some personality traits, “opposites attract” applies. This is especially true for two traits: extroversion vs. introversion and intense vs. easygoing. With these two traits, if we are opposites, we tend to complement each other.

 

When I set out to write my newest series of police procedurals, I borrowed the protagonist, Judith Anderson, from another series (in which she was a secondary character.) I didn’t know a lot about her (see my post, How My Muse Revealed my Protagonist’s History with Flashbacks and Dreams.) I only knew that she was a good cop, a bit of a workaholic, and she had few friends.

 

So I wasn’t too surprised, as the series progressed, to discover she was a bit of an introvert. I also wasn’t surprised that she was a pretty intense person, passionate about her job and impatient with “nonsense” such as social niceties.

 

What did surprise me a little was her tendency to get anxious and restless when a case wasn’t going well. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, since I did thrust her into a new situation, way outside her comfort zone, by making her Chief of Police in a Florida city, hundreds of miles from her home state.

 

Enter stage right, her love interest, the sheriff of the adjoining county. Sheriff Sam Pierson has blue eyes, sandy hair, and an easy smile. And that was all I knew about him when my muse brought him on board.

 

Turns out he’s a bit more of an extrovert than Judith, and he’s very laid back. Which is a good thing. He tolerates her intensity, even taking it in stride most of the time.

 

But his easygoing nature is tested in Felony Murder, my latest book, when Judith informs him she has spotted him around town, when he was actually in his office in Clover County. He says he must have a doppelganger, and, at first, they both laugh it off.

 

But Judith keeps spotting this guy, who looks, and walks, and holds his head just like Sam. And he’s always talking to some woman (different women each time.) Plus, he’s wearing khaki, the color of Sam’s uniform.

 

Judith is not the most trusting person (because of her history,) so this is not a good scenario. Her old demons of distrust are stirred up, big time.

 

When I added this subplot to the story, I wasn’t exactly sure how it would get resolved in the end. Would they break up, at least temporarily?

 

Well, I should’ve trusted Sam. Here’s what this laid-back guy came up with...

 

“Are we good?” I went for a casual tone, but a lump had formed in my throat.

Sam looked at me for a long moment, his eyes soft. “I want us to be.”

I waited without saying anything, my eyes beginning to sting. I refuse to cry!

“Judith, I’m not going anywhere…but I’m disappointed that you don’t trust me more by now.” He paused, stared at the ceiling for a second, then met my gaze again. “I get it that you have trust issues, and I’ve tried to be patient with that. But…it hurts that you could think I’d play games like that, walk around town letting you spot me and then duck into the crowd.”

 

Mr. Easygoing hit just the right note with this speech, and without getting all that angry, as most people would. He is the perfect complement to Judith’s intense personality. 

 

I realized, after the fact, that I had modeled these characters a bit on my husband and me. We certainly prove the “opposites attract” adage when it comes to intensity. I’m the intense one, and he’s definitely quite laid back. That’s a very good thing, and probably the main reason why we’re still married after almost forty-eight years.

 

I once asked him, if he could summarize me in one word, what would it be? He said, “exciting.” How gracious of him!

 

My word for him was “comfortable.” I brought excitement into his introverted, laid-back world, and he has always been my comfortable safe harbor.

 

Do you and your mate have some “opposites attract” traits that complement each other?

 

Felony Murder

A C.o.P. on the Scene Mystery, Book 4

 

All is not as it seems in Starling, Florida…

 

A phone call from a desperate teen, awaiting trial for felony murder, spurs Chief of Police Judith Anderson to re-open the case of a drug deal gone wrong. But her investigation finds more questions than answers. How did the white gang members involved end up with sweet plea deals, while the Latino kid with no record is charged with felony murder? Meanwhile, attempts on the mayor’s life and glimpses around town of her lover with various women divide Judith’s attention and trigger her old demons of distrust.

 

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AUTHOR SARAH BEWLEY'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH POLICE PROCEDURALS

Sarah Bewley writes, climbs rock walls, and takes boxing lessons. She says she was born young, grew old very quickly before entering her second childhood, which she found far more satisfying than her first. She’s worked as a licensed private investigator and now work in utilities security, which is physical protection for critical infrastructure. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

My Love Affair with Police Procedurals

I have always loved police procedurals—books, movies, television, it didn’t matter. If it was a police procedural, I wanted to read it or see it. Some of this may have been influenced by things such as seeing the movie Bullittwhen I was fifteen. Who wouldn’t love Steve McQueen chasing down the hills of San Francisco? Television had Columbo, The Mod Squad, and Ironside.

 

Best of all mystery novels – Ed McBain’s 87^th Precinct series in the 1960s, Tony Hillerman’s Navajo tribal police in the 1970s, Martin Cruz Smith and his Arkady Renko in the 1980s, and Michael Connelly’s Bosch in the 1990s. Police procedurals have gotten into urban fantasy novels in the 2000s with books such as Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series.

 

It’s been pretty much a lifetime love affair between me and this genre, so it probably isn’t a big surprise that when I decided to write a mystery novel, that’s where I went.

 

Burning Eden takes place in a rural North Florida county called Eden. You won’t find it on the map. It’s an amalgamation of several counties in that region. However, it’s based on factual information on how these rural departments are set up, and the fact that North Florida is an entirely different place from the Florida most people picture. It has no tourist attractions, it’s full of rivers and natural springs, it’s forested, and it’s barely populated. The primary jobs are in agriculture, cattle, and forestry. Poverty is rampant.

 

Sheriff Jim Sheppard is a fourth-generation sheriff of Eden County. In 1998 wildfires burned across North and Central Florida causing small towns to be evacuated and destroying forests and farms as it burned from the east to the west coast. This is the year of Burning Eden, and as if the fires weren’t enough for Jim to deal with, a local Pentecostal preacher has been taken from his home in the middle of the night. A few days later a body is found burned beyond recognition in a wildfire next to the local dairy. This body is too large to be the missing minister, and its neck has been broken.

 

This starts Jim on the trail of what appears to be serial murders, and somehow they are all connected to the disappearance of the preacher. Serial killers are not common in rural areas, where the population is .05 individuals per square mile. It’s hard to be anonymous in a place where everyone knows everyone, literally.

 

Jim is assisted by a department that reflects the population of Eden County. From Deputy Bobby Dale who is great at patrolling Highway 27, to Deputy Manny Soto, a former Army Sniper, to Sergeant Dee Jackson, who was Military Police in the Marines and is getting her Masters in Criminal Justice and has her sights set on someday becoming Florida’s first black female Sheriff.

 

Dr. Ryan Edwards is new to Eden County. He’s been brought in as the partner of Doc Markham, the only physician in the county. He rents the apartment above Jim’s garage and quickly becomes a friend and confidant of Jim and his son Michael. His view of Eden is very much like that of anyone who has never been to this region, and he finds himself falling in love with the place and the people who have offered him the opportunity to continue practicing medicine. 

 

Ryan Edwards is also a bit of my view point, as I moved to this area in my teens and fell head over heels in love with the beauty of the area. 

 

My three big loves in life – mysteries, police procedurals, and North Florida have combined into my first novel, Burning Eden.

 

Burning Eden

An Eden County Mystery, Book 1

 

It’s 1998. Wildfires are sweeping through North Florida, burning even the peat in the drought-stricken swamps. Sheriff Jim Sheppard has his deputies covering the county, watching for fires and trying to limit the threats to residents. When a Pentecostal preacher disappears during the night from his home, Jim takes the case himself to prevent stretching his department any further.

 

Dr. Ryan Edwards, formerly a well-respected physician in the George Washington University Hospital’s emergency room, has been hired by the only doctor in Eden County. Suffering from aphasia from an attack in a parking garage in Washington, D.C., he’s no longer able to be an ER physician, but he is able to provide medical care in a rural practice, where his skills are valuable and his halting speech is not an issue.

 

Jim and Ryan continue to work as the fires burn closer, but dangers neither expected threaten them both.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN TUCKER FROM AUTHOR GEORGE CRAMER'S NEWEST CRIME NOVEL

Today we sit down for a chat with Ben Tucker from author George Cramer’s newest crime novel. 

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was Ben Tucker, a reasonably happy teenager working on a 1930s sharecropper farm in rural Georgia. There were a bunch of us youngsters and my Ma and Pa. We didn’t have much, but we were happy. Then George kills off my Pa. I don’t much blame George because his Grandpa Cramer died much the same time and way, only in the northern part of California.

 

It wasn’t long before Ma remarried, adding even more mouths to feed. My big brother Jim decided to hit the road. I went along. We didn’t know much and were soon serving time in prison, where I was sexually assaulted.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

You’ll find it hard to believe, but next to reading, I most loved dogs my whole life.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

Having the ability to kill another human being, even if they deserved killing or in war.

 

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you? 

Few folks around can say they worked as a slave in a Japanese mine.

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

We didn’t differ much, but he had a couple of curious ideas about how to rob a bank. What’s he know? I forced him to do a bit more research than he wanted. Jim and I did the robbing the way we wanted.

 

What is your greatest fear?

Dying alone away from my brother.

 

What makes you happy? 

I love playing cribbage, especially with Jim. My Pa began teaching me the game when I was ten years old.

 

What would it be if you could rewrite a part of your story? Why? 

I know, George keeps reminding me there would be no story without a life of crime, but I was happy farming and wished that had been the life we led.

 

Which of the other characters in your book bugs you the most? Why? 

The lieutenant that Detective Smith worked for was lazy and useless. Even though Smith was after me, he deserved a better leader.  

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

It would be Noah. He’s not much to look at or brag about, but he is in the early days of his police career. Honest and hardworking, he could have a great career. I also liked Detective Collins. I wish her story could have been real in the 1970s.

 

Tell us a little something about your author.

George Cramer is an enrolled descendant of the Karuk Tribe of California. He enjoyed a forty-year investigative career in law enforcement and private and corporate investigations. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts / Creative Writing – Fiction.

 

As a licensed Private Investigator, George conducted thousands of successful investigations throughout the Americas and Asia. He kept his investigative skills honed by volunteering as an investigator with the San Leandro Police.

 

George’s short stories and poems have been published in numerous online and printed anthologies. His debut novel, The Mona Lisa Sisters, was released in 2020. This was followed recently by Robbers and Cops. Book 1 in the Hector Miguel Navarro crime series, New Liberty, is scheduled for release in late spring 2023.

 

When he isn’t riding the backroads of the U.S.A., George can be found working on the blog he’s devoted to the promotion of authors and their work. If you are an author, published or not, he invites you to write a guest post. Learn more about George and his books at his website.

 

Robbers and Cops

Robbers and Cops is the interwoven story of two criminals and detectives’ forty-year struggle to bring them to justice.

 

Brothers Jim and Ben Tucker embark on a life of crime that takes them from the swamps of Georgia to Oregon and beyond. Along the way, they brush against prohibition-era gangsters.

 

Working as a team, it isn’t long before they are on the run. Under assumed names, they enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps only to wind up on Corregidor as World War II begins. Wounded, captured, and surviving the Bataan Death March, they ended the war as forced labor in a mainland Japanese POW Camp.

 

Discharged and soon out of money, they return to what they know, robbing banks. Soon after, they are arrested, convicted, and sentenced to separate federal prisons for the next two decades. When released, the Tuckers having no other trade, immediately return to robbing banks. Release means nothing. Multiple police agencies join forces to bring them to justice.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITING TEAM OF HJ AND ALEXIA FORMAN

Today we sit down for a chat with police procedural authors HJ Forman and Alexia Forman.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels? 

HJ had this idea for at least ten years before he finally put words to paper. It was during the latter part of his full-time academic career that he found time to start. Alexia, an essayist, was talked into joining HJ recently. 

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication? 

As it was self-published, it was not very long after HJ finished a final version of his first book. 

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author? 

Self-published.

 

Where do you write? 

HJ writes in his home office and Alexia writes at the kitchen table. HJ wrote his first novel while traveling by Amtrak between LA and Merced.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind? 

Depends on HJ’s mood. If there is noise, he drowns it out with Bach or Mozart.  Alexia needs quiet.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?  

Except for our dog Muffy, none of the characters are real. Although it is very rare for someone in academia to commit murder, the plot is based on an actual problem in academia, unfair reviews.

 

Describe your process for naming your character?  

The name of the masculine main character, S.T. Jude, was based on the Catholic saint for performing impossible feats. HJ thought it would be fun to have a fiery red haired female main character, like the cartoon character Brenda Starr and named her Cindy Firestone.  As the biomedical research community is very diverse, some ethnic names were used. 

 

Real settings or fictional towns?  

Some are real and some are not.  

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has? 

The male main character is a coffee addict.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk? 

Alexia gets up very early (about 5 am,) to work while HJ stays up until midnight.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours? 

Alexia would have liked to have been born into a different family, one that was not ruled by an abusive father. HJ would rather not talk about it.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?  

People with Dunning Kruger Syndrome. That’s where someone without expertise in science argues that their opinion is as accurate as the facts presented by an expert. 

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves? 

A satellite phone, water and chocolate. 

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

Alexia – babysitter, did it once and retired. HJ – delivering newspapers, particularly in snow.

 

What’s the best book you’ve ever read? 

Alexia: Encyclopaedia Britannica.  HJ: The Winds of War by Herman Wouk.

 

Ocean or mountains?  

Both of us prefer ocean.

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?  

Both of us are city people.

 

What’s on the horizon for you?  

Travel again, please St. Jude. More writing.

 

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?  

HJ Forman was born and raised in New York City. In the latter part of a long and successful career as an award-winning academic biomedical scientist, he began writing mysteries. He is willing to admit that a small percentage of the inhabitants of academia are unworthy of admiration. He’s also finding retirement to be a myth since he’s busier than ever and barely fits in time to watch football games.

 

Alexia Forman, a proud Philadelphian, went from painting pictures with oils to painting them with words. In her long history as an academic librarian, she also discovered how academia mirrors the rest of society.

 

Learn more about the Formans and their book at their website.

Toxic Vengeance

Bodies of respected, highly educated men and women are dropping in different parts of the country. Why are all the victims poisoned even when they die by different means? It takes fiery redhead police detective Cindy Firestone from a Washington, D.C. suburb to spot a connection. She brings the case to the attention of FBI Special Agent Steve Jude, who recognizes her intelligence and enjoys her packaging. Together, they investigate the many suspects and learn about the world of academic science, which most outsiders assume to be sedate. How wrong is that!

 

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INTERVIEW WITH JUDITH ANDERSON, CHIEF OF POLICE FROM AUTHOR KASSANDRA LAMB'S C.o.P ON THE SCENE MSYTERIES

Today we sit down for a chat with Judith Anderson, Chief of Police from author Kassandra Lamb’s The C.o.P. on the Scene Mysteries.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I had a good life in Maryland, as the head of a homicide unit in the Baltimore County Police Department. Granted I was frustrated with the bureaucracy, and some recent events had made me, let's say, a bit discontent.

 

But then Kassandra took advantage of that discontent and maneuvered me into chucking everything and moving to Florida. Granted, the chief of police position in the small city she invented was very enticing. I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into, though.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself? 

My self-reliance. I can take care of myself in just about every situation.  

 

What do you like least about yourself? 

Um, I guess sometimes I'm a little too independent. I have trouble letting people in.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you? 

That's easy. I'm not even two weeks on the job down in Florida, and she sics a serial killer on me. 

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

I haven't before, but I was just a secondary character in her other series about Kate Huntington, the psychologist I've consulted with on some cases. Now that Kassandra is focusing on me, I need to pay closer attention to what she's up to. So I can object when she's about to land me in a mess.

 

What is your greatest fear? 

Boy, you ask tough questions. I suppose my greatest fear is having to admit that I can't handle something.

 

What makes you happy?

Okay, that one's easy. Locking up bad players gives me great satisfaction.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

Well, Kassandra hasn't filled in all the details yet, but she's given me this rather dark back story, with a wife-battering father and an unstable, suicidal mother.

 

Ha, I guess that's why I'm so cussedly independent. But if I was doing the writing, I'd give myself a more pleasant childhood. *shrugs* Of course, then I might not be me. Not sure how I'd feel about that.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why? 

The mayor of the city of Starling. He and the City Council Chair hired me. Councilman Hayes is a sweetheart, but Mr. Mayor, not so much. He's always screaming about "optics." Politicians are definitely not my favorite people.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

I can't imagine trading places with any of them. I like being the boss. But I wouldn't mind trading personalities with one of my detectives. He's very easy-going. I wish I could roll with things as easily as he does.

 

Well, maybe I'd be willing to trade places with Sheriff Sam...Sam Pierson. He's the sheriff of the rural county just north of Starling. Most of the time, his job is a lot calmer than mine. He's been, um... *cheeks flushing* ...a good ally.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

She's a Maryland native, as well, who has moved south for the warmer climate. Now she has half her characters doing the same thing. I guess she likes Florida.

 

But online she hangs out at her website and she blogs on her small indie press's website. 

 

What's next for you?

I'd liked to get a bit more settled into this new job and city before another big case comes along. But something tells me that Kassandra isn't going to give me much of a break. She said she wanted to write police procedurals partly so she didn't have to make up reasons why an amateur sleuth keeps getting involved in murder.

 

And Starling is just southwest of Jacksonville---a big city with all the usual big-city problems. Those problems tend to spill over onto my city at times. I've heard rumors that there's a sex-trafficking ring operating in the area, and I have a bad feeling they're going to bring trouble our way.

 

Lethal Assumptions

A C.o.P. on the Scene Mystery, Book 1 

 

Judith Anderson’s no-nonsense attitude and confidence served her well in her climb to homicide lieutenant in the Baltimore County PD, but that confidence is shaken when she finds herself one step behind a serial killer—just eight days into her new job as Chief of Police in a small Florida city.

 

With a leak in her department, she doesn’t know whom to trust. If she makes the wrong assumption, the wrong decision, it may be her last. In a race to save lives, she’ll draw on every talent and instinct that made her a star in Baltimore. But will that be enough this time?

 

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DEBUT AUTHOR HOLLIE SMURTHWAITE ON THE GENESIS OF HER PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE NOVEL

Award-winning debut author Hollie Smurthwaite writes paranormal romantic suspense. In past lives she’s been a massage therapist, belly dancer, and office manager. She lives in Chicago with her husband, son, and too few pets. Learn more about Hollie and her books at her website. 

The Genesis of The Color of Trauma

When I first started writing, I blithely wrote into the sunset with no care to the direction or destination. Publishing and marketing never entered my thoughts—only the story I wanted to write. I love books with magic and the paranormal, so I infused the story with the supernatural. Romance played a small role, then began to take over the novel. At one point, I submitted a thirty-page sex scene to my critique group. Oops. I edited it back, but clearly, the relationship took priority. I finally had to admit that it was a full-on romance. With elements of a thriller. And the paranormal. And a smidge of police procedural. Yep, I’d written me a hybrid genre novel.

 

The Color of Trauma is a paranormal romantic suspense novel. The seed of the story came to me as a premise: what if some people could experience other people’s memories? As a novelist, it’s my job to raise the stakes. So, I took that concept and blew it up into a world where my protagonist not only experiences others’ memories, but has the power to remove them. The caveat is that memory surgeons have to hold those memories inside themselves. 

 

From that concept, I thought about trauma and if a person might recover if they forgot what had happened. More importantly, what would happen, psychologically, to the person holding all those terrible memories? From there, I conjured my first main character, Kiera Brayleigh, who, as a teenager, was coerced into the business of memory surgeries. She is a hot mess. I love the complexity of a character who is both giving and bitter at the same time. Kiera helps a lot of women, but she’s not happy about anything. She’s seen the worst of humanity.

 

Since a romance needs two people, I had to find her foil. Dean is someone who has also seen the worst of humanity but as a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department. Where Kiera’s empathy is focused on victims, Dean spends his time in the heads of the criminals he pursues. 

 

The lives of these two main characters intersect when Dean catches the lead detective role on a serial killer case with only one living victim. Unfortunately, she’s in a coma. If only there were some way to access her memories . . .

 

That was the genesis for the story. I worked out the details as I wrote. My goal was to delve deep into the minds of the victims, to give them a voice and to see how trauma affects far more than just the victim. Friends, family, and society are all changed by violent acts. I also wanted to show that people can come back from even the most horrible experiences. And everyone, no matter how broken, is worthy and able to love. Of course, it takes a good deal of work to get there, but that’s the fun of reading a novel: hitching a ride on the character’s journeys. 

 

I hope the book ends up appealing to those who like all the different parts: paranormal, romance, suspense, and police procedural. Regardless, I loved the freedom and adventure of writing the story I really wanted to tell. 

 

The Color of Trauma

The Psychic Color Series, Book 1

 

Experiencing another's past could end her future . . .

 

Kiera is a memory surgeon. With her gift of removing and holding other’s traumatic memories, she’s helped dozens of women but hasn’t helped herself. Now Dean, a Chicago homicide detective, is asking for even more: for her to look into the memories of a coma victim to help him catch a serial killer. 

 

Clues and romance unfurl, but as Dean and Kiera get closer to each other, the killer gets closer to Kiera. 

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BLACKBIRD WRITERS SPOOKTACULAR #FLASHSALE THIS WEEKEND ONLY!

The Blackbird Writers and friends are having a Halloween flash sale and giveaway this weekend with 50+ free and discounted books including cozy mysteries, mysteries, suspense, thrillers, paranormal, crime fiction, and more. Books for all ages. But the sale ends midnight October 31st. Check out all the titles their website.

A Stitch to Die For, the 5th book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is one of the books available. If you haven't grabbed your copy yet, after midnight the price goes back up from .99 cents to the regular price of $4.99. Don't miss out on this spooktacular Halloween offer!

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--CRIME FICTION AUTHOR LUKE MURPHY ON RESEARCHING MURDER

Luke Murphy is the international bestselling author of The Calvin Watters Mysteries and The Charlene Taylor Mysteries. Murphy played six years of professional hockey before retiring in 2006. His sports column, “Overtime” (Pontiac Equity), was nominated for the 2007 Best Sports Page in Quebec, and won the award in 2009. He has also worked as a radio journalist (CHIPFM 101.7). He is also a teacher and lives in Shawville, QC with his wife and three daughters. Learn more about Luke and his books at his website. 

Crime Research

A lot of people ask me about where I get my book ideas from, and to be honest, there isn’t one sole place where I retrieve my ideas. I’m constantly listening, speaking with people, observing behavior, and monitoring stories in the news. The majority of my ideas stem from a story I’ve heard or, even though my books are fiction, something that has happened in real life.

 

I always knew that I wanted to continue the Calvin Watters series. Calvin has become such a fan favorite character since I published the first book of the series, Dead Man’s Hand, in 2012. People seem to have a soft spot for the Vegas leg breaker turned private investigator. So writing a new Calvin Watters novel was priority number one.

 

Since I started writing crime novels, I have had many personal chats with my family doctor (he is one of my main resources). We are constantly talking about methods of death, and ways in which people can be murdered, without any proof or evidence left behind (I know, creepy, right?). Sometimes my mind even scares my own wife. LOL!

 

My doctor happened to mention a rare case he’d heard about surrounding a famous American heiress and socialite from the seventies and eighties—Martha Sharp "Sunny" von Bülow. Her second husband, Claus von Bülow, was convicted in 1982 of attempting to murder her by insulin overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. A second trial found him not guilty, after experts opined that there was no insulin injection and that her symptoms were attributable to over-use of prescription drugs. 

 

But it got me thinking. 

 

Once we discussed this case, I started researching the story and it proved to be a very interesting idea. The story was dramatized in the book and movie, Reversal of Fortune. Sunny von Bülow lived almost 28 years in a persistent vegetative state, from December 1980 until her death in a New York City nursing home on December 6, 2008.

 

This got the wheels turning, and the thinking process kicked in.

 

I took this idea of insulin injections and ran with it. In my opinion, it was such a remarkable case, that writing about it became a fun fascination. Of course, as a fiction writer, I had the creative freedom to use my imagination and add to the story. But there were endless possibilities here, and I was able to follow through in developing an entertaining book. Or at least, I hope it’s entertaining for readers.

 

Finders Keepers

A Calvin Watters Mystery, Book 4

 

To beat the streets…

 

Calvin Watters spent three hard years on the Vegas streets, working the depths of the red-light district. When a string of escort murders surfaces and the LVMPD has no answers, they realize that there is only one man they can turn to for help.

 

…you have to know the streets.

 

Calvin vowed to never return to his former life, but this new case pulls him back in. As he hits the streets, his honed survival skills kick in, and the PI must call upon his past experience to outwit a worthy opponent.

 

Caught in the crosshairs.

 

When Calvin killed Derek Baxter, he added fuel to an ever-growing fire inside Baxter’s longtime sniper partner, Jackson North. Now North is out for revenge, but how far will the hitman go to leave his mark on Calvin’s life? 

 

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AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DONNARAE MENARD

Today we sit down for a chat with author DonnaRae Menard who writes in a broad spectrum of genres, including cozy mystery, suspense, police procedural thriller, fantasy, and children’s books. Learn more about her and her books at her website.   

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

I realized I wanted to write in the seventh grade when I was writing non-flattering reviews of classmates. I've been writing ever since.

 

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

It took me eight years once I got serious.

 

On April 28, 2008, I was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous carcinoma During treatment, my doctor kept asking me what I wanted to do and had never done. What was I going to do when I got better? Recovery was slow, but once I got going, I chased every rainbow going to book signings and lectures, and I took classes. Then I met Harriette Sackler and Bruce Robert Coffin. One believed I could do it, the other said he'd meet me again when I did. I couldn't wait.

 

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

I'm a hybrid, though I recently pulled the procedurals to re-work them.

 

Where do you write?

I have a designated space in the spare bedroom, but I'll write anywhere words find me.

 

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I like sixties music or traditional Christmas Carols while I'm writing, until I get to the red line, then I lock myself away.

 

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

For the cozies I draw a lot from real life, 50-50 from my own. The procedurals and fantasy are my brain just out there. I have to admit, I have some weird dreams.

 

Describe your process for naming your character?

A character is a fishing expedition--too weird, too tame, just right.

 

Real settings or fictional towns?

I pick a town; I go looking for a street map. I don't have a problem adjusting terrain for what I need. In the fantasy, it was like a game, I built as I went.

 

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I can be driven, not seeing housework, living on Cheerios and ramen, then one day it's OMG, I gotta clean this place up and eat a real meal.

 

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?

My characters have a tendency to be focused and unable to let go until they find an answer. Oh, and in an upcoming book, my protagonist works for a funeral home.

 

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

If I could have written any book, it would have to be The Viking’s Woman. I read it when I was in my twenties. It was a cross of everything I love--foreign places, exotic women, daring men, and adventure.

 

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?

I'd go back to when my children were young. I was the breadwinner and missed so much. I envy my youngest daughter her relationship with her children.

 

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

People who don't use turn signals.

 

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Ooh, on a desert island I'd like a deck of cards; a long, sharp knife; and a long-legged dog.

 

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

The worst job I ever had was with Jo-Page Attractions. I didn't know I'd be cleaning out the candy apple machine and the latrines.

 

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

The Legend of the Seventh Virgin by Victoria Holt

 

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean

 

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Country girl

 

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

I’m an eclectic individual; I learned all sorts of crafts because I wanted to, traveled around the US using my thumb, and have had many jobs. My writing is like that, sometimes my head is exploding with what I want to do. I'm sure many writers feel the same way. I can only hope when someone says they are believed in, each writer will savor the moment. 

 

Murder in the Meadow

An It’s Never Too Late Mystery, Book 1

 

After 10 years gone, Katelyn Took returns home in 1974 to find the grandmother who raised her has been killed in the farm meadow. Gram’s will leaves Katelyn ownership of the now dilapidated farm but includes a stipulation regarding seventeen cats. Then there's the confused old woman still living in the farmhouse. Katelyn doesn't want to stay, but the longer she does, the more drawn into finding Gram's killer she becomes.

 

The anger she felt towards Gram fades, replaced by grief and loss. Katelyn takes a temporary job working beside Grandpa's friend. She develops a romantic interest in the Deputy Sheriff, and just when she decides it doesn't matter because she's leaving town, a stalker makes her a target. The need to run is constantly challenged by the anger at having what’s hers yanked away. Is she going to stay? Continue her new romance? What about old friends who are new again and rallying around her? What price is she willing to pay to be a big city girl?

 

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