Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Detective Delaney Pace Series by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Elise’s Thoughts

The Detective Delaney Pace series is a modern-day western thriller. She can be described as a vigilante with a badge. People should read all the books starting with Her Silent Bones, then Her Hidden Grave, Her Last Cry, with the latest, Her Forgotten Shadow. The character Delaney Pace is street tough, tenacious, intelligent, and steps up to the plate to become a mother to her two adopted daughters, Kateena and Carrie. As with all these books the crime thriller is based on the abuse of women and will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The plot is action packed, fast paced and a page turner. 

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the series?

Pamela Fagan Hutchins:  I have a friend that is a former ice-road-truck driver who must drive in horrific weather. My editor wanted me to write a tough female detective. I live in Wyoming, which is where my friend also lives. I thought how I could match a homegrown Wyoming tough woman that developed some special skills by being an ice-road-trucker and changes a career to become a Sherriff deputy. I chose Wyoming because I was already writing other books with this setting and knew readers wanted more Wyoming books.

EC:  What is an ice-road-trucker?

PFH: There are ice roads through Canada and the Dakotas where they are open a couple of months a year, in the very depths of winter. People use these roads to get across which would otherwise be water.

EC: Was there a common theme throughout the four books?

PFH: I like to think about the setting, the people, and the timeframe. I wanted to write books that included the modern West.  What would uniquely happen there, something culturally appropriate. I also look for a new way to kill people and how to solve the murder. I think of books in threes.  The first three books dealt with Delaney’s brother. The next three books will emphasize the impact on her regarding the loss of her mother.

EC:  Do you think your books are modern Westerns?

PFH:  For me, yes.  The characters have a rugged individualism, embrace their neighbors, and never shrink away from hard work in the Rocky Mountain West. They are cowboy-like. The setting and the culture are western.

EC:  Each of the books has abuse of women, please explain.

PFH: The way I approach the bad guys is to have them have a reason for the brutal way they treated women, and to make sure the crime was a balance between protecting sensibilities with a sense of fear. If Delaney was not a deputy, she would be a vigilante. The bad guys deserved what happened to them. I am not a fan of unlikeable protagonists and unreliable narratives. This is a western sensibility in that the good guys should retain their goodness, and the bad guys are bad.

EC:  How would you describe Delaney?

PFH: She is inspired by my friend who has mechanical aptitude, mental toughness, ruggedness, and a soloist.  She has knowledge of the area since she already grew up there. These help in her career as a deputy. Delaney is a risk-taker, calm in a crisis, direct, protective, prickly, has a sense of humor, sarcastic, stoic, defensive, and has a sense of justice. She is very outdoorsy.

EC: How has Delaney’s backstory affected her?

PFH: What drives her is being abandoned as a child after her mother left and her father was killed. This informs a lot of her life choices.  She has the attitude no one else will have a chance to hurt me.

EC:  How would you describe the two girls, Kateena versus Carrie?

PFH: Kateena is sassy, loyal, and proud of her Aunt Delaney. Carrie had to overcome abuse, has control issues, and is a “gamer.” She has become more of a live gamer, learning to drive the big rig. Carrie was originally a video gamer because it was an escape mechanism for her where she was able to control this imaginary world.

EC:  What is the relationship between Delaney, Kateena, and Carrie?

PFH: Kateena has this blood bond with Delaney.  She is almost the ulterior ego of Delaney. It is very easy for Delaney to relate what Kateena is going through. Delaney felt duty bound by honor and code to take in Kateena to make sure she was not deserted.  Carrie helped Delaney grow her heart. Delaney has become a champion of girls and the wrongs done to young women. Kateena and Carrie are recognizing each other as sisters, taking care of one another but also having their disagreements. The girl’s relationship with Delaney is based on love, emotion, and fear of loss. They come together with this trauma bond.

EC:  What about the relationship between Leo and Delaney?

PFH:  He compliments Delaney in solving a crime because he is the computer expert. He is smitten and in love with Delaney. They are well suited for each other. Because Delaney is afraid of being abandoned again, she is afraid of committing. They can relate to each other because both have moral ambiguity.  I want to make sure he is tough enough for her. Their relationship is like a ping pong game where she trusts him, then doesn’t; cares for him, but cannot show it; angry at him, but loves him; does not like his secrets but she has her own secrets. She never trusted anyone so that when something occurs, a bump in the road, she easily backs out. She is inconsistent toward him.

EC:  Was the latest book a cliffhanger?

PFH:  Yes.  My editor talked me into this.  There was a whole other paragraph, but I took it out. I wrote book 4 as if the series was not going to continue, but there will be a book 5.

EC:  Next book?

PFH:  The title is tied into the plotline. Carrie and Delaney have forged a bond over the big rig where they have something in common. Leo is going to do something very shocking at the end of this book. This book has a raging wildfire.  Delaney and Carrie find a body where the fire swept through this house. It will be published in April.

THANK YOU!!

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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.

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Her Silent Bones by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for HER SILENT BONES (Delaney Pace Book #1) by Pamela Fagan Hutchins on this Bookouture Blog Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Fifteen years ago I watched my father’s murder.

Now, having never truly recovered from losing her father all those years ago, Detective Delaney Pace is devastated when her brother and sister-in-law are killed in a car crash. Packing up her life she heads back to the rugged cowboy town of Kearney, Wyoming. Her niece Kateena is just eleven years old and Delaney will do anything to keep her safe…

Now there’s another killer on the loose, and he’s already taken his first victim.

New to the local police force, when a body is found on a secluded mountain trail Delaney is called to the scene. Surrounded by imposing pine trees, a young woman lies still in the moonlight. Gazing into her dark, unblinking eyes Delaney’s heart pounds wildly in her chest as she recognises the victim. It’s her beloved sister-in-law: Kateena’s mother, Lila. But she died weeks before. Didn’t she?

There’s evil lurking in this town and I’ll stop at nothing to hunt down the truth and deliver justice. With Kateena traumatised all over again, when Delaney links Lila’s murder back to the place where her own father was killed she realizes she must face her own dark past to catch the man responsible. But little does she know that the killer has already made their next deadly move. Back at home, Kateena should be in bed sleeping soundly, but her room is empty. Kateena is missing…

Can Delaney uncover the truth behind the killings and save Kateena before it’s too late?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202526858-her-silent-bones?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=3u5UkiffHc&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out 0f 5 Stars

HER SILENT BONES (Delaney Pace Book #1) by Pamela Fagan Hutchins is an exciting and fast-paced new crime thriller/police procedural series featuring a tough and determined female detective in small town Kearney, Wyoming. This is a new to me author and a very promising start to a new series that I am looking forward to following in the future.

Delaney Pace returns to her hometown after ten years of ice-trucking to take care of her eleven-year-old niece, Kateena, who has been orphaned with the death of her parents. She goes to the county sheriff and gets her job back as an investigator. Right away she is thrown into a murder investigation with a new detective from California who is talented with computers, but out of his depth in the wilds of Wyoming and possibly hiding an agenda of his own.

With one woman dead and another missing, the killer then raises the stakes when he takes Delaney’s niece. Can Delaney discover the identity of the killer and rescue her niece before it is too late?

This is a crime thriller with multiple surprising plot twists that kept me turning the pages, especially in the last few chapters. The plot throughout moves at a fast rate with ever escalating stakes. The crime/killer plot in this book is solved, but there is an over-arching plot involving another antagonist and questions from Delaney’s past that are uncovered and still need answered in future books. So, there is a cliffhanger for that plotline. Delaney is street tough, tenacious, and intelligent and takes a beating in this story, but just keeps going. While others see her as intimidating, she loves her niece and bulldog and is willing to help others down on their luck. She is a complex character that surprised me on several occasions, and I am looking forward to seeing how her character evolves in future books.

I recommend this captivating start to a new crime thriller/police procedural series with a strong female protagonist, and I will be checking out other books by this author, also.

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About the Author

USA Today bestselling and Silver Falchion Best Mystery winning mystery/thriller/suspense author (and recovering attorney and investigator) who splits time between an off-the-grid lodge on the face of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains and a rustic cabin on Maine’s Lake Mooselookmeguntic with her husband, kids and grandkids, rescue pets and sled dog, and draft cross horses.

Writes for Bookouture and independently.

Host of Crime & Wine: Novelist Chats with Pamela Fagan Hutchins.

Social Media Links

Website: https://pamelafaganhutchins.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamela.fagan.hutchins.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PamelotH

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/pamela-fagan-hutchins