The Crime

For the 19th time, I received a first glance at the cover of the new book.

 

I’m certainly looking forward to putting the book out, and I’ve enjoyed watching my artist cover star work as well.

Chris always captures the mood of the story, and this cover once again makes the match.

This is an interesting story because I opened the vault for this one.

I wrote it during Covid, into my phone, as we watched shows. 

It was inspired by my love of all the books written by John Sandford, and to make the story work I knew that I needed a couple of things:

1). A fast-paced storyline - Sandford’s books always grab my attention quickly and hold me, as a reader, to the very last page.

2). Some mystery. A good crime story needs to keep the reader guessing along, but Sandford is a master at showing the good guys and the bad guys, as they navigate the story.

I found that to be a pretty natural thing to do.

3). The most important part of building such a story is in making the characters fully developed. Sandford’s characters - Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers - are like real people in my life. I have followed them for decades.

I did my best to make the good guys - and the bad guys - fully developed.

After Covid, I typed the story and then put it away as a finished product under the title, ‘The Crime’.

I felt like I had one more thing to do, and that was to come up with a more specific title.

I pulled the story up, and read it as though I were reading a brand new Sandford.

About halfway through I knew two things:

1). ‘The Crime’ would remain the title.

2). It grabbed me as a reader.

I found myself engrossed in the story, and I knew that two things were left.

1). I needed my artist’s touch.

2). I had to get it into the hands of my readers.

Off we go!