What If and If Only--Annette Dashofy

DEBORAH CROMBIE: What a treat we have for you today! One of our favorite authors here at JRW has not only a new book, but a new series out next week. We know Annette Dashofy for her wonderful Zoe Chambers novels as well as her terrific standalone, Death by Equine. Now, with WHERE THE GUILTY HIDE, she brings us the first novel featuring fascinating new characters Emma Anderson and Matthias Honeywell.

But what sparks the first little flame of inspiration for a new series? Here's Annette to fill us in!

ANNETTE DASHOFY:  It took me several years to develop the characters for this new series. I had a setting and some basic ideas, but I needed more. I needed a theme or concept to motivate both the main characters and the story. I needed to figure out what drove Detective Matthias Honeywell and Emma Anderson, not only in book #1, but hopefully throughout books two, three, four, and so on.

The answer came from an unexpected source.

 In November of 2019, I visited the Flight 93 National Memorial. Shanksville, PA, is only an hour or so from where I live, but I’d never been there until my FBI Citizen’s Academy Alumni group set up a tour. I expected to be moved, but nothing prepared me for the experience of walking those sacred grounds and wandering through the museum.

 Note: if you ever go there, take tissues.

As I read the sequence of events that transpired on 9/11, listened to the recordings of the phone calls made by passengers to loved ones, viewed the personal items retrieved from the wreckage, emotions overwhelmed me. Especially when I thought of those who lost family and friends.

 I carried the heaviness of the day in my heart for weeks. And as so often happens to us writers, I began to work my way through my feelings by funneling them into the characters I was creating. For about thirty seconds I thought, what if my character had lost a loved one on that plane. Wisely, I dismissed the idea out of respect for all who did lose someone that terrible day. I didn’t want to minimalize what they went through. I can’t even fathom their level of grief.

But what if…

Those two words are the cornerstone of most of what I write.

What if Emma and her sister lost their parents, not in a plane crash, but in a traffic collision? What if Emma and Nell had refused to go on that car trip with their parents? What if they blamed themselves for not going along to share the driving chores which led to their father falling asleep at the wheel?

 If only…

 Two more words I embraced for these characters especially Matthias Honeywell. If only he’d taken the lead on the night his police partner entered the house first and made a tragic mistake, taking an innocent life, maybe—just maybe—the victim would still be alive. Maybe the guilt wouldn’t have driven Matthias’s partner to take his own life months later. If only.

As I fleshed out these two scenarios, I realized Emma, her sister, and Matthias were all victims of survivor’s guilt. Had they made different choices, those they cared about would still be alive.

Each dealt with it in different ways. Nell began numbing her pain with alcohol and drugs. Emma sought refuge in the arms of a man who turned out not to be the charming knight in shining armor she originally believed.

Matthias buries his guilt, compartmentalizing it along with other personal traumas from his past. Only his current partner in Major Crimes is aware of his unease around home invasions and heroes.

And even she isn’t privy to the deeper, darker survivor’s guilt he carries.

Alas, we don’t get to explore those secrets until the third book.

Readers and Reds, do you enjoy delving into the psychology of series characters?

DEBS: So interesting, Annette. My insights into my characters' psychology and backstories have tended to develop as I write, so I'm wondering if your ideas changed or developed differently as the characters came alive on the page. And I can't wait to meet Emma and Matthias!

USA Today bestseller Annette Dashofy is the author of over a dozen novels including the five-time Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic-turned-coroner in rural Pennsylvania. Her standalone novel, Death By Equine is the 2021 winner of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature. Where the Guilty Hide (One More Chapter/HarperCollins UK, January 20, 2023) is the first in her new Detective Honeywell series set on the shores of Lake Erie.

Here's more about WHERE THE GUILTY HIDE.

On the shore of Lake Erie, Pennsylvania, a body lays half hidden, the waves slowly moving it with the rising tide…

In the early morning mist, freelance photographer Emma Anderson takes pictures of the rocky coastline. She moved to Erie to escape a past that haunts her but the last thing she expects to capture is a dead body.

Erie City Police Detective Matthias Honeywell has been investigating a spate of home invasions but when one of the robbery victims turns up dead, his case evolves into homicide. Emma’s first encounter with Detective Honeywell leaves her shaken when he reminds her of her ex-fiancé-turned-stalker. Matthias misinterprets Emma’s anxiety and suspects she knows more than she’s letting on.

With the threat of another murder and no obvious leads, will Emma and Matthias overcome their mutual distrust and work together to capture a killer?