Please welcome guest Lisa Black whose forensic mystery series continues with it’s fifth entry:
Blunt Impact is the fifth Theresa MacLean forensic mystery and the first to be published by Severn House. Theresa has my old job as a forensic scientist at the coroner’s office in Cleveland, Ohio (now I’m a CSI and latent print examiner in Cape Coral, Florida). I’m also a bit claustrophobic, which is probably why I like to set my murder scenes outdoors. At the lakefront, in the park, on the observation deck of the Terminal Tower or, as in Blunt Impact, on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper under construction.
Theresa is not the butt-kicking gun-carrying bad girl of some TV shows. Nor is she the icy sarcastic genius who likes to point out everyone inadequacies. She prefers to do her work in peace and quiet, unobserved behind the lines—but of course this rarely works out for a good-looking redhead who’s usually found standing over a dead body. And in Blunt Impact she is caught in the knot of unlikely and conflicting human beings surrounding a tough but endangered little girl named Anna, better known as Ghost.
Ghost has a unique lifestyle, loved by her construction worker mother and disabled grandmother but constantly slipping out of her home to roam the back alleys of the large city, looking for the father whose identity has always been kept secret from her. Nothing all that bad ever happens—until she witnesses her mother’s murder, the beautiful young woman thrown from the 23rd floor. Ghost will not rest until she learns the truth, which means that Theresa cannot rest until Ghost is safe.
The building itself is in turmoil, torn by controversy over its purpose as a new county jail. Add in OSHA whistleblowers and missing money, criminal elements using the site for their own purposes and a homely but smart district attorney who becomes more interested in Theresa than the intrigue and Theresa has no choice but to hang on tight as she dangles over the abyss.
Blunt Impact will be available April 1, featuring forensic scientist Theresa MacLean and a series of murders surrounding a skyscraper under construction in downtown Cleveland. The first to die is young, sexy concrete worker Samantha, thrown from the 23rd floor. The only witness is her 11 year old daughter Anna, nicknamed Ghost. Ghost will stop at nothing to find her mother’s killer, and Theresa will stop at nothing to keep Ghost safe.
Also, Kindle owners can find a bargain in my new book The Prague Project, written under the name Beth Cheylan. A death in West Virginia sends FBI agent Ellie Gardner and NYPD Counterterrorism lieutenant Michael Stewart on a chase across Europe as they track stolen nukes and lost Nazi gold, hoping to avert the death of millions of people.
Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist in the Cleveland coroner’s office she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now she’s a certified latent print examiner and CSI for the Cape Coral Police Department. Her books have been translated into six languages. Evidence of Murder reached the NYT mass market bestseller’s list.
See her website at: http://www.lisa-black.com