One of the most agonizing experiences for an author to endure is a rejection from an agent or editor. After laboring over a manuscript for years, starting over requires true dedication. For would-be, struggling mystery writers, I recommend reading Caitlin Rother’s author notes and acknowledgments at the end of her new book, Hooked.
Rother was already a respected journalist with several true crime books to her credit when she wanted to transition into writing novels. She’s brutally honest about feedback she received from best selling author Michael Connelly. “Michael told me I didn’t know enough about police procedures, and it showed.” He tempered that observation, telling her she did know how to write and create compelling characters. He offered guidance and “I took his words to heart and kept writing.” It took Caitlin 17 years to have her first mystery, Naked Addiction, published. (Connelly gave her a blurb for the book’s cover.) She began working in 2008 on Hooked, the sequel to Naked Ambition, but somehow the book wasn’t coming together. She finally nailed it and nabbed a two-book deal, with Hooked published on February 1 and the followup, Staged, scheduled for June 16.
Caitlin’s hard work has paid off. In Hooked, San Diego Homicide Detective Ken Goode, who made his debut in Naked Addiction, is back on the job, this time investigating two suspicious deaths in La Jolla. (Goode deals with the tension of his job by catching waves, earning the nickname “the surfer detective.”) Dr. Simon Fontaine and his daughter, Victoria, are found dead in their seaside mansion. Both worked for Vitaleron, a biotech company developing a new sex drug. Simon was found on the back patio, a gunshot wound to the head, while Victoria, who had a history of drug use, had needle marks on her arm with hypodermic needles nearby. Did they die by suicide or were they murdered?
High profile deaths mean extra media scrutiny. (Hooked is set in 2015, before the internet was flooded with photos and videos from conspiracy theorists, watchdogs, and influencers.) Goode’s competition is Katrina Chopin, an investigative reporter recently hired by the San Diego Sun-Dispatch. Even before they meet at the murder scene, the two cross paths in a bar and share a drink. There’s a physical attraction, but they also share a tragic history having lost loved ones. Caitlin’s brother, Francis, died from a drug overdose, while her mother and father, both federal judges, were gunned down in their driveway. She’s come to San Diego hoping to investigate her parents’ murders. Goode lost someone, too, but before he can go into details, he’s called to the scene of the Fontaine deaths and explains to Katrina that he’s a homicide detective. She doesn’t have time to tell him what she does, but knows she will soon be using him as a source.
Katrina’s investigation becomes complicated since the Sun-Dispatch is owned by Vincent Batrelle, whose two sons, Alex and Michael, were both involved with Victoria. In fact, Victoria was pregnant and Alex was most likely the father. The Batrelle trio all become suspects in the deaths of Simon and Victoria, but Katrina is warned by her editor, Linda, to keep the Batrelle names out of her stories, something she knows she won’t be able to do. And when Vincent summons her to his home, asking her to find Alex who has disappeared, she knows her job has become difficult and dangerous.
Connelly was right that Rother creates compelling characters. Even after the killings are solved and the guilty captured, we want to know more about Katrina and Ken. Luckily, Staged will be published in time for a good beach read.
Naked Addiction
Hooked
Staged
Caitlin Rother
Top Bigstock photo by bonandbon
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