Travel writer Genie Clarke arrives in Rome seeking inspiration, but her trip turns deadly when she overhears two mafia operatives discussing a secret "Project." Before she can escape, she's attacked and left for dead. Awakening in a hospital-alive but hunted-Genie finds the police unwilling to believe her. Only Detective Leo Angelini takes her seriously, uncovering ties between her assault, a murdered woman, and a powerful criminal network.With the threat escalating, Leo moves Genie into hiding, where she becomes both key witness and prime target. Cut off from safety and unsure who to trust, Genie must outthink the conspirators determined to silence her.From Rome's bright piazzas to its shadowed alleys, she faces a terrifying fight for survival-and an unexpected connection with the detective risking everything to protect her. She Knew Too Much is a lean, suspenseful psychological thriller about fear, courage, and the price of knowing too much.
ENJOY AN EXCERPT:
Even though characters come out of my own head and you might think I’m directing the action like a puppeteer, in fact, for the characters to be realistic, at times they have to do something unexpected. Unexpected, even by me—in the sense of “unplanned.” In my new thriller, She Knew Too Much, the two main characters are an American travel writer named Genie Clarke who gets into trouble in Rome and a Polizia di Stato Detective, Leo Angelini. Leo and Genie are obviously attracted to each other, but will they get together? I didn’t decide that beforehand, I let them work it out. They were both so preoccupied with keeping Genie safe from the mafiosi pursuing her and stopping the plot the mafia is trying to hatch, a relationship between them was never a slam-dunk. As in real life, a lot can interfere. That’s actually a good example of how I work. I don’t impose actions or “solutions” on my characters. I develop the characters themselves, and when they are thrust into a situation, I ask myself, “what would a person like this, with their unique attributes, do in a situation like this?” In fact, the ways they surprise me are one of the joys of writing!
If by “hijacking the story” you mean do certain characters sometimes gobble up too much space and reader attention, that does sometimes happen. I had to cut back certain characters in She Knew Too Much because I needed to expand several others. But those characters were interesting on their own. I turned their backstories into three short stories, all of which have been published. I especially liked the character Amit Madoor, a Moroccan man who is a criminal fence in the novel. In the short story, you learn about his first big gig—the theft from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—a crime that in real life has never been solved, as you know. A pretty impeccable credential for a life of crime! Readers of the novel don’t need all that background information to see what a skilled operator he is! But because I know it, I can push those aspects of his character and personality forward.
It takes a bit of writing for me to get to know my characters well enough to understand how they will behave in certain situations. Then the job is to set up believable scenarios that let them be who they are, for better or worse. In She Knew Too Much, several characters do the worst possible thing or come to the worst possible conclusions at every turn. These hapless people are fun to write too! One is a brilliant biomedical scientist who knows so much about brain research and yet has no insight whatsoever into other people. So, of course, he’s always putting his foot in it and baffled by others’ reactions to him.
I hope your readers take the opportunity to read She Knew
Too Much. I think they will find it a fast-moving story with touches of
romance, humor, and a big dose of humanity. I welcome their responses. Thank
you for inviting me to share these few words.
Thank you for featuring SHE KNEW TOO MUCH today.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the chance to tell your readers a bit about She Knew Too Much and its at-times unruly characters! It was quite fun to write.
ReplyDeleteAn Amazon reviewer just gave this book the best headline: "A sophisticated action thriller with a deep heart." Wow.
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