Happy Friday. I’ve relied on today’s guest from time to time not only for her friendship but for her professional expertise. She’s smart, generous and as you will soon discover one busy author. I can’t wait to dive into her series as I just happen to love police procedurals! Please welcome Author Kassandra Lamb to Help from my Friends Friday ~ Donnell
Moving On to a New Challenge: From Cozies to Police Procedurals
By: Kassandra Lamb
“I’m bored,” I thought, “I should start a new series.”
Author Kassandra Lamb
“I should write in a new subgenre,” I thought, “maybe police procedurals.”
What was I thinking?!?!
Like all humans, I have some character flaws, one of mine being that I bore easily. So as a mystery writer, I periodically feel the need to shake things up by not only starting a new series, but also shifting to a whole new subgenre.
So far I’ve completed a traditional series with a psychotherapist amateur sleuth (the Kate Huntington Mysteries), a cozy series starring a young woman who trains service dogs for veterans with PTSD (the Marcia Banks and Buddy Mysteries), and some romantic suspense stories under the pen name of Jessica Dale.
As I was winding down the cozy series, I was trying to decide what to try next. There was one character in the Kate series who had always intrigued me. So I opted to go with a spin-off from that series—police procedurals starring the homicide lieutenant, Judith Anderson, who had sometimes locked horns with Kate and other times had begrudgingly accepted her help.
Only I moved Judith to Florida and gave her a brand new job, as Chief of Police of a small city. And then, before she could even finish unpacking, I sicced a serial killer on her. That’s what we writers do—devise various ways to torture our characters.
I knew this new series would be challenging, which is what I wanted, right? To stave off the boredom… Yeah, well, it turned out to be a bit more challenging than I’d anticipated.
I did realize that one challenge would be making sure my new protagonist had her own voice, distinct from either Kate’s or Marcia’s. She’s rather no-nonsense, downright hard-nosed even at times. But since she’s the main character we get to peek inside her head and heart, where she is a bit more of a softie than she’s willing to admit to the world.
I was anticipating that challenge, the need to create a different kind of protagonist, but I didn’t fully anticipate how complicated police procedurals can be to write. There are a lot of moving parts. Unlike an amateur sleuth whose investigation can be somewhat less than methodical, the police have to pursue every lead, look at every angle.
So I have to figure out every angle of the crime and the situations surrounding it, and then decide how the characters will handle each aspect of the investigation. Sometimes, I can turn those “angles” into red herrings; sometimes they end up being dead ends.
But that’s how police investigations work. They pursue a lot of leads that may not go anywhere, or that may lead them down the wrong path for a while.
Also, police procedurals are expected to move a good bit faster than cozies, so I have to be careful not to let the story get bogged down in those angles and dead ends. Alternating interviews of suspects and witnesses with action scenes helps ratchet up the suspense and keeps the pace going at a good clip.
Another challenge, which I had anticipated to some extent, is the degree of research involved. Is the investigation following a realistic trajectory, similar to what a real police department would be doing? Plus I have to look up a lot of little details.
For this latest book, I had to research a variety of subjects: from arsenic poisoning to the history of gangs in Central America and the U.S. (I discovered some very interesting tidbits about them); from tattoo removal procedures to the caliber of bullets used in WWII German Mausers; from the value of secondhand air bags to the possible sentences for felony murder in Florida. I was a little shocked to discover that if one participates in a felony which results in someone’s death, even if one didn’t directly cause the death (the definition of felony murder), the only options for sentencing in the Sunshine State are the death penalty or life without parole. Even my hard-nosed cop finds that’s a little harsh.
As you can see, the C.o.P. on the Scene Mysteries tend to be a bit darker than my previous series, especially compared to the cozies, so another challenge was reflecting that difference in the book covers. I had some excellent assistance with this from my talented cover designer, Melinda VanLone.
Books 1, 2, 3 & 4
Even though I didn’t anticipate all of them, I am enjoying the new challenges this series has brought my way. And one thing I definitely am not… I am not bored!
About Book Four:
All is not as it seems in Starling, Florida…
A phone call from a desperate teen, awaiting trial for felony murder, spurs Chief of Police Judith Anderson to re-open the case of a drug deal gone wrong.
She has mixed emotions about the felony murder charge—which can be brought against anyone involved in a felony that results in someone’s death, and her investigation finds more questions than answers. How did two white gang members involved end up with sweet plea deals, while the Latino kid with no record is charged with felony murder?
Meanwhile, attempts on the life of Starling’s mayor and glimpses around town of her lover talking to various women divide Judith’s attention and stir up her old demons of distrust. As she tries to keep both the mayor and her love life alive while ferreting out what really happened the night that drug deal went sideways, she begins to wonder…
Are all these cases related—all strands of a sinister web, with much more at stake than one kid’s freedom or her own heart?
About the Author: Kassandra Lamb has never been able to decide which she loves more, psychology or writing. In her youth, she had to decide between writing and paying the bills. Partial to electricity and food, she studied psychology. Now retired from a career as a psychotherapist and college professor, she spends most of her time in an alternate universe with her characters. The magic portal to this universe (i.e., her computer) is located in Florida, where her husband and dog catch occasional glimpses of her.
Kass, welcome back to Help From My Friends Friday. You have not only been challenged; you’ve accepted it with aplomb. I can’t wait to read and see the difference in authorial voice between your cozies and your crime novels. And fantastic covers!
Thanks, Donnell, for the compliments, and for giving me a venue to showcase the new books. I’m having a lot of fun with this series, despite the challenges.
Thanks, Donnell and Kassandra. Kassandra’s breakdown of the differences between cozies and police procedural helped me with writing my own stories as I realized my stories are a bit more police procedural than I had thought. Eye-opening and insightful–well done ( ;
You are very welcome, Pam. So glad you found the post helpful!
Great interview! I love how characters can spin off and be reinvented.
Thanks, Brooke. I love that too!
[…] Some of those challenges I anticipated, like finding a unique voice for my new main character, but others took me somewhat by surprise. Check out the post HERE… […]