KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Marilyn J. Bardsley.
KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY publication date is February 24, 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Running. Always running.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Billy Murphy, Charleston’s police chief, asks his long-time friends in Savannah, former FBI profiler Danie Callahan and her husband Cal, former Atlanta medical examiner, to help him solve the bizarre murder of a wealthy woman. No sooner do the Callahans and Magic, their spoiled canine prince, reach Charleston, known since colonial times as the “Holy City” for its religious tolerance, another wealthy woman has been killed and posed in a sexually-shocking pose.
Based on her extensive experience investigating sex crimes, Danie convinces Charleston’s mayor and police chief that the killer is acting out violent fantasies that are escalating in intensity. They discover a third victim dead on her yacht and realize that this case eerily mimics a notorious one from the past. The killer is working on an exact schedule from decades ago which sets up the race against time for police to stop him before he murders the next woman.
Serial killers can take years of investigation before police solve the case. Almost immediately, Charleston which depends heavily on tourism feels the impact of these high-profiles murders. In the midst of a city in panic, an ambitious politician and a TV news host notoriously unfriendly to law enforcement publicly question at length every decision Chief Billy Murphy makes. Worse yet, the killer has decided that Danie is his next victim.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Often when husband-and-wife investigative teams appear in fiction books, there is only one point-of-view. For example, Nelson DeMille writes his John Corey series from the husband’s point of view. The reader knows his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, only through the description her husband provides of her comments and actions. Compared to John Corey, his wife, at least to me, seems less substantive as a character. In KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY I wanted to give equal time to Danie’s and Cal’s point of view on all issues. Of course, this goal was made much easier with Detective Mark Gado as a co-author. While I had written extensively on serial killers for Time Warner’s Court TV Crime Library website, I had no personal experience in law enforcement. Detective Gado’s twenty-nine years on the New Rochelle, NY police force brought a heavy dose of reality to the story.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY is a fast-paced thriller with a robust set of unique characters, plenty of conflict, and a stunning suprise ending.
The model for Cal was actor Harrison Ford: handsome, well-built, highly educated, and protective. The character of Danie was autobiographical: serious, workaholic, and strong-willed.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
A film version of KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY would benefit from an actor like Aaron Eckhard as Cal Callahan and an actress like Rachel Weisz (Denial) or Natalie Portman (Black Swan) as Danie.
When did you first decide to become an author?
In 1998, I began my “life of crime” and started the Crime Library website by contracting excellent writers that had real day jobs in the crime-solving world: detectives, criminal psychologists, forensic professors, law librarians, newspaper crime reporters, and authors of novels and nonfiction books on crime. I wrote many of the stories about the most notorious killers and mini-biographies of Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and J. Edgar Hoover.
I sold the rights to the Crime Library to Time Warner’s Court TV in 2000 and managed that business until 2008. During those ten years, the CrimeLibrary.com website with over 750 novella-length stories of crimes, criminals, forensics, and criminal psychology was the premier crime site on the Net.
After my decade managing the Crime Library, my husband and I started Crimescape, a joint true crime book publishing project with RosettaBooks in New York. We now have 21 Crimescape books. Crimescape has now added fiction to it product line. My two new novels, THE AMERICAN SWEENEY TODD and KILLER IN THE HOLY CITY with Mark Gado, are Crimescape books Number 20 and Number 21.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
Writing, thinking about what I’m going to write, or marketing Crimescape books are always on my mind.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
The actual research, writing, and rewriting is about 12-15 hours a week.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part about indie writing is that I am in control of the marketing. The downside is the tens of thousands of dollars required to develop the marketing tools (author platform, social media management, advertising, etc.)
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I would consider going traditional with my novels with a publisher willing to engage in or share sufficient marketing activities. Arthur Klebanoff of RosettaBooks, a highly innovative publishing pioneer, has been an excellent partner in the Crimescape.com nonfiction books.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
The joy of creating stories with memorable characters is what motivates me and provides the incentive to make those stories successful. Writing is both a demanding and entertaining activity for me.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
I most admire Daniel Silva who writes the Gabriel Allon thrillers about a top Mossad operative who is also a celebrated restoration artist.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I sure wish I had written Ken Follet’s The Eye of the Needle, the Nazi spy thriller with a romantic twist.