I’ve known Kathy Bennett for years. She’s amazingly generous when it comes to sharing her expertise. She brings her real life law enforcement experience to her Maddie Divine “Deadly Thriller” series. If you love Thrillers and Police Procedure, her books are not to be missed. Please welcome Kathy Bennett to Help From My Friends Friday.
By Kathy Bennett:
One question that every writer hears is: Do you use real people in your books, or 
do you make them up?
I like to think of myself as a Doctor Frankenstein and use bits and pieces of real people and mix them with characteristics needed for a good story.
One of my favorite characters I’ve created appears in my Deadly series. He’s an elderly man named Douglas Divine. Doug came about because I needed a sidekick and complication character for my heroine, Maddie Divine.
Doug’s first appearance comes in book five of the series, A Deadly Beauty. He was born in my mind as a compilation of my late brother and my deceased mother. At the age 54 my brother had a near-death stroke. He was partially paralyzed, but having been a Marine for 20 years, he still wanted to do many things on his own. Thankfully, he lived a good life until he had another illness that took him way too soon. My brother was a larger-than-life personality and I’ve tried to infuse that characteristic into Doug.
I wanted Doug to be older, but physically able. But I also wanted him to be challenged in some aspect. That’s where traits of my mother come into play. At age 87, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Watching the smart and kind woman I’d known my whole life try to cope with her disease—confused as to why she couldn’t remember things or understand how things worked, was very painful. I became her primary caregiver, and I have to say that taking care of her was an honor and blessing. She was rarely cranky, out of sorts, or angry—and neither is Doug. He too suffers from dementia.
Every good writer tries to put their main characters through the ringer, and I’m no different. Doug is a flawed scamp with memory problems who sometimes gets into trouble. Diligent and tenacious Maddie has to bail him out. Nowhere is this more evident than in A Deadly Blood Moon.
One reason I love to write Doug into my books is that he often brings unexpected humor and dilemmas into my stories—and he allows me to express my love for my brother and mother on the page, and in a small way, bring them to life.
About the Author: Kathy Bennett is no stranger to murder and mayhem. She served twenty-nine years with the Los Angeles Police Department—eight as a civilian employee and twenty-one years as a sworn police officer. She spent most of her career working patrol, but Kathy was also a firearms instructor, a crime analyst in the “War Room”, a field-training officer, a senior lead officer, and a plainclothes officer for various assignments. She was named Officer of the Year in 1997.
Kathy writes the popular Deadly Thriller Series. Barnes and Noble chose A Deadly Blessing as a Best Book of 2012. She’s working on a new thriller series featuring Roy and Amber Buckner. Police officers who have read her work praise Kathy for her authentic stories and “getting police work right.”
Her husband is also a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. They have one daughter and two grandchildren. Kathy likes to go hiking with her husband and their two Labrador retrievers—incorporating photography into many of their adventures.
Kathy, I read Deadly Blood Moon over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I left this well-earned five star review… Keep on writing and thank you for being my guest today.
Author Kathy Bennett reels you in to A Deadly Blood Mood with multiple points of view, an officer involved shooting and Maddie Divine showing her chops. Something’s afoot besides a business tycoon’s mere ambition to build a new stadium, and Maddie’s concern over her elderly father in law. Let’s just say Maddie’s not paranoid to worry about a physical therapist who shows up to work with Douglas Divine, minus any doctor’s orders. Bit by by, character by character, Bennett intertwines the story. I also have a new and abiding fear of funeral homes. If you love LA with a touch of Hollywood, love surprises and police procedure, A Deadly Blood Moon will keep you reading–and guessing– long into the night.
Thanks for introducing me to this author! I look forward to reading and reviewing her books!
Excellent, Patricia! I think you’ll enjoy.
I love Kathy’s book. She always gets me from the first paragraph and doesn’t let go until the end.
Gotta say I agree 😉 Thanks, Marian.
Thank you, Donnell and Marian! Coming from you two great writers your kind words mean a lot. Patricia Bradley, I hope you take a look at my books and enjoy!
This series sounds wonderful. Kathy’s a new-to-me author and I’m going to check out her Deadly series right away!
Waving madly at my friend Kathy. She is so nice and pretty. And saying hugs to Donnell. VB
I can’t wait to look up this series – any reader loves finding a new author to follow. Thanks for the introduction.