Reviews have praised her work as “well-crafted, compelling, and fast-paced,” and “an edge-of-your-seat ride” with “a spider web of twists and turns that will keep you reading until the end.”
Before she started writing fiction, LynDee was an award-winning journalist who covered everything from ribbon cuttings to high level police corruption. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines across the U.S.
Aside from books, LynDee loves her family, her readers, travel, and coffee. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she is working on her next novel when she’s not juggling laundry and children’s sports schedules.
TFx: Where did you come up with the idea for Hidden Victims, and what can you tell us about the plot?
LynDee: While I don’t really remember intentionally doing this in the early books, my Nichelle Clarke novels always hit on a different central social issue. Corruption, homelessness, medical crises, religion as a business… I always get to the end and find something that has worked its way into the story.
So with HIDDEN VICTIMS, I decided to roll with that and choose an issue I hadn’t explored before. I picked the environment, and then dug back through my dusty reporting files to find a murder I could weave around that.
But readers will see that once again, Nichelle and the story had their own ideas about how much direction I was allowed to have—the story took quite a few turns I didn’t see coming when I sat down last summer with a blank page, but I am very proud of the way it all turned out.
TFx: How did you choose the setting(s)?
LynDee: Nichelle’s stories are always set in Central Virginia, but this time I got to have some fun dreaming up her new office (a very hip loft space befitting an alternative weekly paper), and I got to learn and write about the Great Dismal Swamp—it spans a massive 112,000 acres of wetland, and houses more than 200 unique species of birds, but the vast majority of it isn’t publicly accessible.
Combined, that makes a fantastic setting for a mystery. I love the Suffolk area, and being able to send Nichelle out there was a lot of fun for me.
TFx: What are you reading now, and what good books have you read lately?
LynDee: I am thrilled to share this book birthday with my brilliant and talented friend Jennifer Hillier—I have been waiting for months to read her latest, LITTLE SECRETS, and am stalking my UPS guy on the map in their app waiting for my book as I type this.
Also of note on my recently-read list: Julia Spencer Fleming’s long-awaited (and boy was it worth the wait) HID FROM OUR EYES, Brian Shea’s BLEEDING BLUE, Heather Webber’s MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE (this one had been in my TBR for a while, but it was so good).
The book I’m most looking forward to seeing launch this year is S.A. Cosby’s upcoming BLACKTOP WASTELAND. I read an advance copy this winter. Shawn and I have been friends for years and he is one of the best in the business at unflinching narrative and flawed heroes, and I think this is going to be a next-level breakthrough novel for him. It’s gritty and tough, but really a hell of a story.
TFx: What are you working on now?
LynDee: I’m currently writing the third Faith McClellan novel, NO SIN UNPUNISHED, set for release in early 2021. Faith is about to be forced to put her political skills and connections to work in a race to save lives—whether she thinks they deserve saving or not. It’s a fascinating dynamic to explore with this character, and I’m having a blast with it.
Get LynDee's latest release, Hidden Victims, out now on Amazon.
A letter from a dead man catapults Nichelle Clarke into the biggest story of her career...if she can stay alive long enough to report it.
Nichelle Clarke needs a big break.
With a new job and a new boss, she’s under pressure to find a story that will send papers flying off the racks—and money flying in the door.
When she learns that the widow of a beloved athlete is entangled in the opioid crisis, Nichelle sets out to track her down. But the story takes a turn when her interview prospect becomes a suspect—for murder.
Detectives have found a dead body, along with a letter addressed to Nichelle. Determined to uncover the truth, she jumps into the race to find the killer—even as it turns into a police manhunt for the the now-missing widow.
But this story leads Nichelle deep into a mystery where nothing is what it seems, and the truth behind a brutal murder is just the beginning.
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