Some might think law enforcement and romance are a contradiction in terms. I hope to dispel that notion. For as one reviewer of my most recently released detective story, HARMFUL INTENT, put it…Deputy Sergeant Dawson Hughes gives new meaning to the term southern comfort.
HARMFUL INTENT is the first detective novel in my new couples series and is action filled and sassy all at the same time with liberal use of humor. The idea of a “couples series” in detective fiction is kind of new and by its very nature, lends itself to romance. Still, these are first and foremost detective stories where the murder mystery and the chase to catch the killer is the main element.
The first three novels in this series will feature Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels, lady PI and Dawson Hughes, a former Army Ranger now a county deputy in west Texas. Ronnie is impulsive, a competent private investigator, and endearing. Dawson Hughes is the perennial stalwart detective, a true blue guy. There will be three more sets of law enforcement couples…twelve novels in all. Many of these novels will be high stakes, featuring crimes with national security implications.
Ronnie and Dawson take it very slow in the romance department and in fact sometimes spar with each other. However, senior-citizen characters Hoot Dagney and Bertha, who are one of the main comic interests in what has been called a zany , seat-of-the-pants detective story, move faster in the romance department. Bertha is a widow and though Hoot’s backstory is not delved into, at the opening of the story he is a bachelor. I strove to write two characters who would tickle the readers’ funny bones and warm their hearts. Yet the reader would have the utmost respect for the two characters’ strong Christian beliefs. I can’t tell you the number of readers who have said they were charmed and delighted by Bertha and Hoot’s love story.
DEADLY DESIGNS, the second novel in this series, will come out this summer. Ronnie and Dawson team up to find a geeky radio broadcaster’s missing runway model wife and young daughter. They fear the woman and child were taken by Islamic terrorists as revenge against the husband’s pro-Israel, conspiracy theory broadcasts.
About HARMFUL INTENT:
Sweet, askance romance, warm intimacy, sophisticated themes presented tastefully.
Betrayal runs in private investigator Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels’ family. So, why is she surprised when her husband of one year cheats on her? The real shock is his murder, with the local lawman pegging her as the prime suspect.
Ronnie Ingels is a Brooklyn bred private investigator who travels to west Texas, where her cheating husband is murdered. As she hunts the killer to clear her name, she becomes the hunted.
Deputy Sergeant Dawson Hughes, a former Army Ranger, is a man folks want on their side. Only he’s not so sure at first, he’s on the meddling New York PI’s side. As the evidence points away from her, he realizes the more she butts in, the more danger she attracts to herself.
About Nikki:
Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.
Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chairman, a reader’s choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series, set in the mid-1940s has won awards and garnered critical acclaim. Her new contemporary whodunit, HARMFUL INTENT released under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press finaled in the Grace Awards 2014. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), Christian Indie Novelists, and John 3:16 Marketing Network. http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
Leave a Reply