The Worst Kind of Truth by Frank Zafiro

Posted: September 22, 2022/By: achristay@aol.com

Please welcome Frank Zafiro author of The Worst Kind of Truth

Frank Zafiro will be awarding Winner #1 a box set of River City series 1-3 (Kindle version) AND Winner #2 a surprise package of out-of-print versions of Zafiro titles (paperbacks) – US Only. International readers may substitute digital version of any title in the author’s back catalog to two randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.

The Worst Kind of Truth

by Frank Zafiro

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GENRE: Mystery (police procedural)

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INTERVIEW:

What or who inspired you to start writing? To start writing? No one. I’ve always identified with being a writer, much like a musician might always feel that way about music. But a lot of writers have inspired me to keep writing, and to improve my craft!
How did you come up with ideas for your books? Crime fiction is such a rich environment that it is never a challenge to come up with an interesting idea to play with. That said, it usually starts with either premise or character. A “what would happen if” question occurs to me, or a compelling character does, and I want to learn more about him/her. If I’m lucky, both premise and character occur!
What expertise did you bring to your writing? I had a career of more than two decades in law enforcement. This helps with the technical side of police work, as well as having encountered a lot of interesting people and situations.
What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio? That I also write mainstream work under my real name, Frank Scalise. My most recent release is June’s A Baker’s Divorce, which is a humorous and heartwarming tale about an aging rocker.
As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans? Lots of books! Seriously, in addition to continuing the River City series, I’ll be working five other series up to either three or six titles each (that doesn’t count two other series with completed arcs). These are in various subgenres—private investigator, hard boiled, action/thriller. My Frank Scalise persona has a couple of novellas coming out, too, including a family saga. Eventually, I’m moving into another of my favorite genres, fantasy, with a four-book arc.
If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your leading roles? Such a fun question! I’ll restrict it answering for just one character, Officer (now Detective) Katie MacLeod, who really is the core of the series. Like most of my characters, I’ve spent more time describing her inner self than her physical self. This has allowed readers to decide for themselves what she looks like. A friend of mine once suggested that he saw Rachel McAdams when he read Katie. Once I saw her in the second season of True Detective on HBO, that became my visual template for her, too.
Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing? I don’t, but I have two things that take the place of one. First, Colin Conway (my co-author for the Charlie-316 series) and I edit each other’s work. And secondly, I have a group of beta readers that I bring into the process a little earlier than some writers do. As to helping or hindering, it is all help. The only thing that even approaches a hindrance is just the time factor—the time I spend editing Colin’s work, or waiting for responses for from my beta readers. I don’t begrudge this at all, though. I enjoy Colin’s writing a ton. Plus, he is doing the same deep critique of my work, so it is only fair. And my beta readers are providing their insight for free (well, they get an early read and mention in the acknowledgments, but you know what I mean).

8. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing) The best advice came from Gary Provost, who encouraged writers to find another one or three colleagues to act as support. Not just in technical matters, but in emotional ones, too. Because, as he so aptly put it, “Sometimes another writer will understand what the rest of the world will not.” The worst advice wasn’t anything specific, but rather those pieces of advice that are absolute, or that proffer that there is only one “right” way to do something. Things like your writing process, for example. My thought is that what works for you is the right way… for you. And if we’re talking marketing or publishing, that landscape changes far too quickly for absolutism.

9. Do you outline your books or just start writing? I used to just start writing with a vague idea of premise, character, and a compass direction. But then I co-authored fifteen of my forty-plus novels. When you’re working with another author, you can’t just sit down and go. You need a road map. And as we worked on and perfected that process, I saw the value in outlining my solo work as well. At present, I would characterize my outline as a series of bullet points with varying amounts of detail. Plot points, scenes, etc. That still leaves a lot to discover once I dive into each moment, however.

10. Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book? Sure! The next River City book (yet untitled) is taking shape. It will feature Katie again, this time investigating a pair of missing persons cases. But the book I’ll be writing before that is the fourth Stefan Kopriva mystery. Kopriva is a River City character who (spoiler alert!) leaves the department early in the series. His story in this series picks up about ten years later. The Stefan Kopriva mysteries are more a private investigator-style than a police procedural, though Kopriva’s police knowledge certainly helps him… just like his history with the department hurts him. In this new book, the first since 2015, his long-absent mother, who abandoned him (he was raised by his maternal grandmother), returns. In addition to the mystery that results, it will be an emotional ride for Kopriva. This one should be out in late 2022/early 2023. The next River City will follow that.

11. What is your favorite reality show? I don’t watch, or much care for, reality TV. But it is my wife’s guilty pleasure, and so I am exposed to Housewives from various cities, chartered yachts, Kardashians, and people alone in the woods on a fairly regular basis when I traipse from study to kitchen…

12. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series. The most satisfying thing is that the characters become like old friends. They really do. And following them on their long journey is satisfying and emotional. For example, the River City series opens in 1994 and this installment is set in 2008… fourteen years of shared experience that resonates. That’s why I always suggest that even though each of these books stands alone, the best approach is to start with Under A Raging Moon and take that journey from the beginning. Certain events carry much more weight if you do that…

13. Anything else you might want to add? Other than to say thanks for hosting me? 😊 I think the only point I’d make is for anyone who might be hesitant about The Worst Kind of Truth due to the crime Katie investigates. To be clear, no sexual assaults are depicted on the page in The Worst Kind of Truth. The events and the subject itself are discussed frankly, though, as you might expect in a police procedural. That discussion tends to be professional and a little more clinical than if I had shown the actual assaults in progress (which wouldn’t have worked for story reasons, anyway). Other than that, just another thanks to anyone who gives my work a shot. I am truly grateful.

BLURB:

Detective Katie MacLeod has her hands full.

It has been four years since her promotion to detective, and after paying her dues in property crimes investigations, she has made it to the Major Crimes unit. This is where the highest profile cases land—homicides, robberies, serious assaults, and sexual assaults.

Katie catches two rape cases almost back-to-back. One victim is a prostitute with an unknown suspect… who Katie fears may be gearing up for more assaults. The other victim is a college student who has accused her boyfriend, a popular baseball player, of raping her at a party.

Both cases have their own set of perils. Katie juggles her time investigating each one, encountering many obstacles—a lack of evidence in one, and wondering how to parse conflicting statements in the other.

As she battles past these difficulties, Katie faces another fact… that both cases hit home with her in very different ways. Solving them becomes more than just a job for her, but something deep-seated and personal… something that may exorcise some of her own demons from the past.

Or will they consume her?

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EXCERPT:

The woman in the emergency room hospital bed glanced away from Detective Katie MacLeod to fidget with the edge of the blanket. She looked down at her hands, avoiding Katie’s gaze. Her greasy brown hair with blond highlights hung limply past her shoulders. The state identification card she’d given Katie only a few minutes prior stated she was twenty-seven-years-old and five-foot-five. Not tall, Katie thought, but not tiny, either. Even so, she seemed smaller to the detective at the moment. Thinner, too, than the weight listed on the state ID.

“Nicole?” Katie asked gently. “Do you remember what happened next?”

Nicole nodded but didn’t speak.

Next to the bed, Crystal Docking took Nicole’s hand. Crystal was even thinner than Nicole, with sunken cheeks, black stringy hair, and dark eyes filled with anger. “He raped her, okay?” Crystal snapped. “She already told the nurse, who called you. Why does she have to say it again?”

On patrol, and even during her first year or two as a detective, Crystal’s interference would have frustrated Katie. She was a professional police officer, trying to accomplish an important task. People who got in the way of that were obstacles to her getting the larger job done. To make matters worse, hers was a job that usually had high stakes, so impediments had consequences.

Maybe it was her years of experience—seventeen years as a cop now, all told—or perhaps it was the result of staring down the big four-oh a couple of birthdays away, but she’d become far more patient these days. Instead of getting frustrated, she became efficient.

And right now, the most efficient thing to do was to ignore Crystal Docking.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Frank Zafiro writes gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge. He was a police officer from 1993 to 2013, holding many different positions and ranks. He retired as a captain.

Frank is the award-winning author of over three dozen novels, most of them crime fiction. These include his River City series of police procedurals, Stefan Kopriva mysteries (PI), SpoCompton series (hardboiled), Jack McCrae mysteries (PI), and Sandy Banks thrillers. He has also co-authored multiple series with other authors, including the Charlie-316 series (procedurals with Colin Conway), Bricks and Cam Jobs (action, dark comedy with Eric Beetner), and the Ania series (hardboiled with Jim Wilsky).

In addition to writing, Frank hosted the crime fiction podcast Wrong Place, Write Crime. He has written a textbook on police report writing and taught police leadership all over the US and Canada. He is an avid hockey fan and a tortured guitarist. He currently lives in the high desert of Redmond, Oregon.

Buy/pre-order The Worst Kind of Truth: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B72GF6SW

Website: http://frankzafiro.com

Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/dfab1c274c36/zafironewsletterhome

Blog: http://frankzafiro.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrankZafiroAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Frank_Zafiro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankzafiro370/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/frank-zafiro

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4332