Dark Waters Run Deep
Contributing editor CJ Lyons takes a behind-the-book look at ITW Debut Author Sibylle Barrasso's novel, Dark Waters (Five Star, August 2008).In Dark Waters, the body of the nation's foremost HIV expert washes up on the banks of Boston's Charles River. When the decease's young widow is arrested for murder, and juicy details of their marriage are made public, the result is a media frenzy.
Macy Adams is the private eye hired to save the widow from spending a life sentence behind prison bars. Amid rumors of fraud involving the scientist's biotech research and financial dealings, Macy discovers a dark secret about the victim's past that is more shocking than anything she could have imagined.
Library Journal called Barrasso's approach to the PI genre "a softer version of Sue Grafton, but her touch is as deft."
Barrasso, a long-time Grafton fan, considers this high praise indeed. When asked about the inspiration for her PI thriller, Barrasso says, "Water has a strong emotional pull for me: I used to sail and swim competitively. I've always harbored a great fear of drowning."
Playing on this universal fear, she used her first-hand knowledge of the Harvard area as inspiration for Dark Waters. She also decided to have the novel's main victim die from drowning.
"I liked the idea of finding a dead body by the river's edge, but I wanted to take it one step farther in Dark Waters and have the person actually drown, making it ambiguous whether the death was accidental or a homicide."
Barrasso doesn't have a background in investigations, but found her stint in corporate America to be just as useful.
"I did a lot of competitive analysis, for acquisition due diligence or strategic planning purposes. Besides phoning customers and digging through numbers, there was some cloak and dagger stuff involved, like pretending to be someone you were not. For one case we even did some corporate dumpster diving."
Like many writers, Barrasso begins her research on the Internet but finds she gets her best information from in-person interviews.
"I love to watch people at work. Sometimes I do some "hands-on" research, like shooting guns or visiting the morgue to get a glimpse at a dead body."
Her protagonist, Boston PI Macy Adams, is actually a descendant of John Adams and will be featured in future novels. The next in the series is titled The Stalker and centers on a gorgeous news anchor who receives menacing notes. When things escalate, Macy goes undercover at the TV station. A third Macy Adams novel about a concert pianist is planned, and Barrasso is currently at work on a stand-alone murder mystery set in the world of tennis.
Sibylle Barrasso was twice a finalist in the St. Martins Press Best First Private Eye Novel Contest, received an award from Sue Grafton at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and was a contributing author of BAD BOYS AND BAD GIRLS IN THE BADLANDS, a critical anthology about mysteries set in the Southwest. You can visit her at www.sibyllebarrasso.com.
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a national bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller." The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, is due out January, 2009.
"I liked the idea of finding a dead body by the river's edge, but I wanted to take it one step farther in Dark Waters and have the person actually drown, making it ambiguous whether the death was accidental or a homicide."Barrasso doesn't have a background in investigations, but found her stint in corporate America to be just as useful.
"I did a lot of competitive analysis, for acquisition due diligence or strategic planning purposes. Besides phoning customers and digging through numbers, there was some cloak and dagger stuff involved, like pretending to be someone you were not. For one case we even did some corporate dumpster diving."
Like many writers, Barrasso begins her research on the Internet but finds she gets her best information from in-person interviews.
"I love to watch people at work. Sometimes I do some "hands-on" research, like shooting guns or visiting the morgue to get a glimpse at a dead body."
Her protagonist, Boston PI Macy Adams, is actually a descendant of John Adams and will be featured in future novels. The next in the series is titled The Stalker and centers on a gorgeous news anchor who receives menacing notes. When things escalate, Macy goes undercover at the TV station. A third Macy Adams novel about a concert pianist is planned, and Barrasso is currently at work on a stand-alone murder mystery set in the world of tennis.
Sibylle Barrasso was twice a finalist in the St. Martins Press Best First Private Eye Novel Contest, received an award from Sue Grafton at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and was a contributing author of BAD BOYS AND BAD GIRLS IN THE BADLANDS, a critical anthology about mysteries set in the Southwest. You can visit her at www.sibyllebarrasso.com.
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a national bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller." The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, is due out January, 2009.ThrillerFest
ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals.
For 2011, we’ll be back in the heart of New York in July with the ThrillerFest conference including CraftFest and AgentFest.
ThrillerFest VI will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The dates will be July 6-9, 2011.
More information to follow.
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