Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…
Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.
Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.
But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life just the beginning. And what Avery doesn’t realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .
Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will.
TWENTY YEARS LATER by Charlie Donlea is an exciting and intricately plotted mystery/thriller. A top-rated television news show host is on the hunt for her next big story in NYC, even as she has her own secret reasons for being there.
Avery Mason is looking for a story to grab her TV audience’s attention and keep her top rating as host of American Events. She looks into the first discovery of an individual’s identity from a new DNA bone technique from the Twin Towers disaster in many years. The woman Victoria Ford was accused of the murder of her famous married lover and has all the mystery, kinky sex, and betrayal to bring in top ratings.
Avery talks to the woman’s sister and listens to phone calls from Victoria from the North Tower. Victoria claims she is innocent and begs her sister to clear her name, but there is too much evidence against her so no one will help and with her death the case is dropped. Avery is introduced to the retired FBI agent, Walt Jenkins who investigated the murder twenty years ago, but he has his own agenda involving Avery’s life before her fame and in regard to her infamous father.
I love reading Charlie Donlea’s books. Everyone has secrets and there are always plot twists that throw everything you believe completely upside down. The beginning was a slightly confusing until the separate characters and motives began to come together and the varying plot threads and motives begin to take shape and when they do, the story took off and I could not put it down. I was surprised many times during the investigations and especially by both plot twist endings. I loved them!
I highly recommend this mystery/thriller and this author!
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About the Author
Charlie Donlea is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Some Choose Darkness, The Suicide House and Twenty Years Later. Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly). A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel––THE FIRM by John Grisham––and knew he would someday write thrillers. His books have now been translated into more than a dozen languages across thirty countries.
He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children.
OATH OF LOYALTY (A Mitch Rapp Novel Book #21) by Kyle Mills is another edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring Mitch Rapp. This series never disappoints, and I wait anxiously every year for a new story where democracy is on the line and Mitch and his team come to the country’s defense, but this time his family is on the line too.
When the current President of the United States is scared and backed into a corner, it leads to paranoia that a power-hungry CIA director is more than happy to exploit.
Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy has brokered a deal with the President which allows Mitch to live out his life as long as he remains out of the country and in plain view of surveillance. The new CIA director can use the truce as a means to get closer to the President and to increase his control he convinces him that Rapp has no intention of honoring their truce. They release the true identity of Mitch’s wife, Claudia, to her enemies from her past to keep him too busy protecting her to attack the President.
A shadow assassin known as Legion accepts the contract. No one knows who Legion is and no one can call Legion off. Mitch, his team and some old contacts and friends from his past must work together to stop Legion, protect Claudia, and take care of the threat the present administration poses to his family and friends.
Once again, Kyle Mills hit it out of the park! Mitch is feeling his age and wants to find some peace with his family and friends and leave the saving of the world to others, but it is not to be. The story takes readers all over the world and the tension level is high. I love how Mr. Mills not only writes an action thriller that always delivers but is able to also intertwine current affairs and even extrapolate on the current affairs to introduce nightmare scenarios that are believable as well as terrifying. I am looking forward to Mitch’s next adventure.
I highly recommend this political thriller and all the books in the Mitch Rapp series!
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About the Author
Kyle Mills is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, including the latest in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series, Total Power.
Growing up in Oregon, Washington, DC, and London as a the son of an FBI agent, Kyle absorbed an enormous amount about the intelligence community, giving his novels their unique authenticity. He and his wife live in Wyoming where they spend their off hours mountain biking and backcountry skiing.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille returns with a blistering thriller featuring his most popular series character, former NYPD homicide detective John Corey, called out of retirement to investigate a string of grisly murders much too close to home.
In his dazzling #1 bestseller, Plum Island, Nelson DeMille introduced readers to NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey, who we first meet sitting on the back porch of his uncle’s waterfront estate on Long Island, convalescing from wounds incurred in the line of duty. A visit from the local Chief of Police results in the legendary Detective Corey becoming involved in the investigation of the murders of a married couple who were scientists at the top-secret biological research facility on Plum Island.
Fast forward through six more bestselling John Corey novels and The Maze opens with Corey on the same porch, but now in forced retirement from his last job as a Federal Agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former lover, Detective Beth Penrose, appears with a job offer, Corey has to once again make some decisions about his career—and about reuniting with Beth Penrose.
Inspired by, and based on the actual and still unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, The Maze takes the reader on a dangerous hunt for an apparent serial killer who has murdered nine—and maybe more—prostitutes and hidden their bodies in the thick undergrowth on a lonely stretch of beach.
As Corey digs deeper into this case, which has made national news, he comes to suspect that the failure of the local police to solve this sensational case may not be a result of their inexperience and incompetence—it may be something else. Something more sinister.
The Maze features John Corey’s politically incorrect humor, matched by his brilliant and unorthodox investigative skills along with the surprising and shocking plot twists that are the trademark of the #1 New York Times bestselling author, Nelson DeMille.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Maze by Nelson DeMille brings back the wonderful hero John Corey. It’s been too long between DeMille books. But the good news is that this story is typical John Corey with plenty of action and non-political correctness. It also has John hooking up with Detective Beth Penrose both figuratively and literally as a partner. It was a pleasure interviewing Nelson DeMille.
Now once again, Corey is in Long Island, since his forced retirement from his last job as a Federal Agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former girlfriend, Detective Beth Penrose, appears with a job offer, Corey decides to become a confidential informant for her, by investigating a private investigation firm, Security Solutions. They are suspicious that corruptness at the highest levels has been covering up the murders of nine prostitutes, a reporter, and a former police detective. With Beth’s help John goes undercover to unravel the maze of crimes from corruptness to bribery to murder.
As with all Nelson DeMille books readers get a fantastic murder plot filled with action. But they also get the bonus of great banter between the characters that is not politically correct. When not laughing at John’s jokes readers will be spell-bound with all the twists and turns.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Did you get any push back on writing John’s humor and statements?
Nelson DeMille:The Maze is my last John Corey book because of the politically correct crowd at the publishing house. There was some pushback on the John Corey character. They wanted me to make changes, which I would not make except for a few. Even though I moved publishers and had another editor who seems to be better with the John Corey character, there was still push back. I am not going to go through this again, a lot of nonsense. In fact, a book club of sixteen ladies, read the book and had no problem with John Corey. They are not easily offended. This is my audience and what they wanted to read.
EC: You always play on words?
ND: You are referring to these examples, Is Amy Lang a “receptionist in distress? Or a deceptionist out to entrap me?” And the other, “E and E meant escape and evasion, not encounter and engage.” The latter is from my Army days. Some guys in training tried to take down the guys who were after them. The former quote is having Amy as a wild card.
EC: Has Beth changed over the years since the first book, Plum Island, came out in 1997?
ND: Yes, Beth has changed. In the first book she was a goody-two-shoes, doing everything by the book. Now she is more like John, breaking and bending some rules. She, like John, wants to get at the truth and wants justice. Beth is pushing the envelope to get that, something she would not have done in Plum Island. She is more ruthless, goes rogue, and has lost faith in the system because the higher-ups are corrupt and somehow involved.
EC: Has John changed since Plum Island?
ND: Ninety percent of what I wrote about him is there. He is still a bullshit artist, a smart aleck, who likes to buck the system and authority. He does really follow rules and regulations. He has good instincts and is a danger junkie. He is not ready to go out to pasture. He seeks to become relevant again. If I ever wrote another John Corey, he would end up working for a private security firm to keep an American diplomat or businessperson in another country safe.
EC: What about the relationship between Beth and John?
ND: Emotionally they are lovers who are realizing they were made for each other. In many of my books, I enjoy superimposing a romance with the action. Maybe in my next life I will be a romance writer. Beth is more comfortable in her own skin in this book, more willing to stand up to John. I had her in a more powerful position than John, a Detective Sergeant, second in command at the Suffolk Homicide Police. The roles have reversed since the first book.
EC: The plot is based on the real Gilgo Beach murders?
ND: About ten bodies were dumped on the beach in Long Island., not far from the Hamptons. This happened eleven years ago. The grisly murders, all sex workers, believed to be the work of a serial killer or killers. It has captivated the public, stumped local police, and frustrated victims’ family members still waiting for an arrest. The Suffolk County Police have not even come up with a person of interest. They are stymied. It is a very active case with the Police Chief refusing to cooperate with the FBI. There have been a couple of documentaries about it. I fictionalized it and made it the Fire Island murders with a lot of the elements of the Gilgo Beach murders. I wanted to show how throughout America there is corruption at the highest level, and illuminate the society that it originated in. What I tried to do in the book is highlight how there is something wrong with the culture and society through the investigation of the murder.
EC: The real-life police chief is somehow involved?
ND: Then-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was busted for the 2012 assault of a handcuffed suspect who swiped a bag of sex toys and porn from Burke’s trunk. The sordid incident was covered up by then District Attorney, but the chief eventually went to jail. The murders have not been resolved, and there are questions if the DA and Burke are involved personally.
EC: What about your bad guy, Steve Landowski?
ND: He is a control freak, a liar, cunning, and arrogant. He volunteered to be working for the Vice-Squad while working as a cop. Steve is a rough guy who lives by his wit. He enjoys the power to corrupt the people around him. He sexually harassed women, which shows how he does not think much of women.
EC: The role of the Maze?
ND: It was a figurative way to explain the case with multilayers of interlocking crimes and suspects. I put in this book quote, “a maze of twists and turns…crimes that ranged from simple prostitution to the corruption of public officials and law enforcement people to murder.” I also physically had a maze of hedges for the final scene of a shoot-out. All Corey books have one. It reminded me of the scene in the movie “The Shining.” The maze can be a creepy place. I know because I have been in one.
EC: What about your next books?
ND: The next book, Blood Lines, I am writing with my son. It will be out October of next year. It has the same main characters as the first book, The Deserter. Two members of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) will be back: Scott Brodie, a former infantry soldier in Iraq, now a top CID investigator is teamed with Maggie Taylor a former Civil Affairs E-5 in Afghanistan, who is working for CID. While Brodie is wise-cracking, arrogant, and someone who has trouble following orders, Taylor is a by the books person who tries to rein in Brodie. The plot has the murder of a CID in Berlin. My third book in this contract might be my last book, October 2024, titled The Explorer’s Club. It is a combination of “Indiana Jones,” “James Bond,” and “Around the World In Eighty Days” where the hero is trying to find an American woman possibly kidnapped.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
RED FLAGS (Locard Forensic Institute Thriller Book #1) by Lisa Black is an intense and intricately plotted first book in a new forensic thriller series featuring two female forensic experts and the Locard Forensic Institute.
FBI analyst Dr. Ellie Carr from the D.C. Evidence Response Team is called to the scene of a kidnapping. When she arrives, it is to find the missing baby belongs to her cousin, Becca who Ellie has been estranged from for many years. What Ellie discovers is her cousin is now a part of a D.C. power couple of lobbyists on the verge of making millions when their friend’s kid focused on-line gaming company goes public. Ellie has been all over the house and can find no evidence of a break-in.
Becca’s husband, Hunter hires the Locard Forensic Institute and Dr, Rachel Davies. Ellie is reluctant at first to work with Rachel, but in working the kidnapping, they begin to trust each other. As more children are kidnapped, Ellie and Rachel are in a race to discover who the kidnappers are and why they are focusing on the children of the gaming company involved in a Senate hearing on children’s’ on-line gaming regulations.
I always enjoy Ms. Black’s intelligent main characters and her detailed explanations of different types of forensic science. There is a lot going on in this book and while some is extremely interesting, especially the chat and ad regulations in children’s on-line gaming, there are times when the information, especially about IPOs slowed down the pace a bit. The plot is a web of several interconnecting yet different motives and crimes that all come together in an ending that surprised me. Ellie and Rachel’s professional relationship is realistically portrayed and paced throughout from standoffish and suspicious to understanding and the start of a friendship and partnership.
I am looking forward to following both Ellie and Rachel in their personal lives and on their future investigations in this new series.
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About the Author
Lisa Black’s books have reached the NYT bestsellers list, been translated into six languages and have been optioned for film. Perish was shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award by Putnam and Mystery Writers of America. Lisa will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
She is a certified crime scene analyst in Florida and a former forensic scientist for the Cleveland coroner’s office. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in more than fifty homicide trials.
She still aspires to drive Nancy Drew’s convertible and marry Ellery Queen.
For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in the city of Highland Isle, near Kindle County, she has known that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. She has maintained a spotless reputation—until now. Three male police officers have accused her of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions to higher ranks. With few people left who she can trust, Chief Gomez turns to an old friend, Rik Dudek, to act as her attorney in the federal grand jury investigation, insisting to Rik that the accusations against her are part of an ugly smear campaign designed to destroy her career and empower her enemies—both outside the police force and within..
Clarice “Pinky” Granum spent most of her youth experimenting with an impressive array of drugs and failing out of various professions, including the police academy. Pinky knows that in the eyes of most people, she’s nothing but a screwup—but she doesn’t trust most people’s opinions anyway. Moreover, she finally has a respectable-enough job as a licensed P.I. working for Rik on his roster of mostly minor cases, like workman’s comp, DUIs and bar fights. Rik’s shabby office and even shabbier cases are a far cry from the kinds of high-profile criminal matters Pinky became familiar with in the law office of her grandfather, Sandy Stern. But Rik and Pinky feel that Chief Gomez’s case, which has attracted national attention, is their chance to break into the legal big leagues.
Guided by her gut instinct and razor-sharp investigative skills, Pinky dives headfirst into a twisted scandal that will draw her into the deepest recesses of the city’s criminal networks, as well as the human mind. But she will need every scrap of tenacity and courage to unravel the dark secrets those closest to her are determined to keep hidden.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Suspect by best-selling author Scott Turow turns the victim-harasser relationship on its head. This legal thriller exposes the vulnerability of the legal system where someone with an agenda can use it to their advantage.
The story has Lucy Gomez, the police chief of Highland Isle being accused by three male officers of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions. Unfortunately, it seems that any woman in law enforcement must gain respect by walking a fine line between camaraderie and respect. Now accused, she hires Rik Dudek as her defense attorney in the federal grand jury investigation. She insists that the accusations against her are part of an ugly smear campaign to destroy her career and reputation. Working alongside Rik is Clarice “Pinky” Granum, a licensed PI. Both she and Rik must sort through all the lies, secrets, and claims to find what is true and what is not.
This legal thriller has intense courtroom scenes and shows the process of how an investigation is conducted. Although more of a plot driven story than a character driven story readers will turn the pages to find the outcome.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Scott Turow: Pinky was a character in the last novel and jumped off the page there. Years ago, when I was a prosecutor, I conducted two police investigations of a police beating. After I left the US Attorney’s office I was hired as a Special Prosecutor to investigate a suburban police department of Chicago where officers were stealing recovered evidence. I have seen how the disciplinary hearings work and used my experience to write scenes.
EC: Why did you make the police chief accused of sexual harassment a female?
ST: I can remember a whippet little thrill when I thought of it. It seemed to me it would turn a lot of things on their head. I thought it was provocative and interesting. The law does not look different when the gender roles are reversed. Pinky says that she does not understand how a female chief can force guys six inches taller than her. The defense attorney and Pinky’s boss replies there would be no question if the sides were reversed. There is still an imbalance of power.
EC: To me, it does not matter the size of someone but their position of power in a company?
ST: She was the Chief who made overtures. It was not right. At no point does anyone tell her it was a good idea. The Chief does not think it was especially wrong. I do not think people would be as quick to accept that if she was a he. There is hypocrisy because she was supposed to think about it. She should not walk away from it. It was wrong. People will see what they are inclined to see. There is no universe on what she did is not a crime.
EC: How would you describe “The Ritz?”
ST: I have never written anyone like him before who is bad to the bone. He is Nietzshe-like. He is such an inscrutable human being. His gratification comes from proving he is the smartest guy in the room. He has feelings for his ex-wife but has no moral compass and enjoys the power over everybody. This is another demonstration of how smart he is. Lucy found a way to exert power over him, which really angers him.
EC: How would you describe the Chief, Lucy?
ST: She thought of herself as one of the guys, on an equal footing. As a female officer she had to put up with all the jokes and had to be thin-skinned. She is smart, defiant, kind, and a liar. I admire her but she is a mixed character. A reformer of a corrupt department who at times plays the system. People in the city of Chicago come into office and then get worn down by the corruption. This is Lucy. Her instincts after twelve years are less defined than they once were.
EC: How would you describe Pinky and will you write a series?
ST: I have no commitment to write another Pinky novel. She is brass, instinctive, never follows the rules, has her own internal sense of right and wrong. She believes that the ends justify the means. Pinky is coming to terms with the fact that she is different than anyone else, including not looking for a partner. The pandemic was a great time for her because she does not like to deal with people. She is successful at her job.
EC: What was the relationship between the Chief and Pinky?
ST: Pinky hero-worshipped her and wanted her approval. She wanted the Chief to be of a certain ideal and she was not. Pinky is shocked that the Chief cares what Pinky thinks of her, but she is very honest with her.
EC: How about Rik?
ST: He is the most uncompromised character of the book. He is a good lawyer and dedicated to his client. He does not sell himself out. He is a good boss. As a younger person he fell on hard times. He is a good guy. He knows that clients have done wrong, do not tell the truth, and are trying to hide it. They undermine their lawyers with their process.
EC: Chapter titles as sentences of first paragraph?
ST: This is the first book in which I did it. If you go through my books readers will not find it. It felt right here, to move the reader from where they were in the last chapter to where they are going in this chapter.
EC: Any movies/TV shows on the horizon?
ST: David Kelley who has optioned the book before this, for TV, sees it as a series. Suspect was also optioned by him. Apple TV Plus is remaking Presumed Innocent, in which David Kelley is involved with J.J. Abrams. This is green lighted and is in production now. They were very faithful to who my characters were. Even though I was the architect of that universe, Kelley had the characters doing things I never expected. The writer is always the last to know. There will be changes. It will be eight episodes and the shooting starts in January. I would guess that it will go on the air in 2023.
EC: How about your next book?
ST: I am working on it. It will be out probably two years from now. I want to get further down the road before I talk about it. This is my own little playground and I do not want to allow anyone else in until it is more fixed.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie delves into secret organizations, hidden agendas, and how someone can take back control over their life.
At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite Dan’s concerns that the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado.
Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world.
Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. The favors she must provide in return seem benign. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Nicole questions if joining Panthera Leo was the biggest mistake of her life and wonders how to extricate herself from the group.
Readers will be reminded of the problems women face at work, the Me-Too movement, networking, marriage, blending private and public lives, which are all part of this thriller.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Catherine McKenzie: I received an email many years ago inviting me to a women’s networking group with different professions. I was told I was recommended by someone although they would not tell me who. I thought if I decided to do it everything would then be made clear to me. However, I did not keep that email. I did not go partly because my husband said it was crazy. Some of the professions are intricate to the plot.
EC: What is the theme?
CM: Feminism is a theme. There is still a long way to go with the old boys’ network. It is underground, but still there. They are less overt now. I put in this quote, “If you need anything you come to this group. To your Pride… women don’t need to fight for their dominance; they join willingly to achieve the best result for all.” This is the mantra of the book. There is a stereotype that women are competitive with each other. This is because usually there is only one woman around the board table. If another woman comes in, they are perceived as a rival. I do think men pit women against each other. Everyone is socialized to be super critical and observant of women’s behavior. I do not think women are cattier or more aggressive around other women.
EC: How would you describe Nicole?
CM: A hard worker who is super smart. Mono-focused. She has put everything into her career without many friends. She wanted to be the best for her job. After her dreams were not realized she felt very vulnerable. She can be self-centered and insensitive at times. She does like her comforts.
EC: How would you describe the husband, Dan?
CM: He goes along to get along. He is a good person. Dan is OK with being second fiddle in their relationship and allows Nicole to take control and make decisions. He was the direct opposite of Nicole. Very easy going and laid back, charming, cautious, and kind. What I did in this book and other novels is to put women in the roles occupied by men and vice-versa.
EC: What about the LEO organization?
CM: It has CULT vibes. The women in charge of it use some of the techniques of a cult to control the others. They become all the people in Nicole’s life and discourage her to go outside the group. They do the providing. They are manipulative, dominant, demand loyalty, and obedience.
EC: You were brave for bringing up Covid-19 in this story?
CM: I struggled with it. I wrote it in 2020 but knew it was coming out in 2022. I thought about my different options: do I pretend it never existed, or do I consider it over. I thought that I was not going to skip over it entirely. I did want it to exist.
EC: Any movies or TV shows on the horizon?
CM: This book has been optioned for a TV series. My book, I Never Tell was also optioned. Nothing has been announced yet.
EC: The next book?
CM: It is titled, Have You Seen Her, about a search and rescue worker in Yosemite. It will be out in June next year.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
