Missing Mark by Julie Kramer
The image of that wedding dress stays in mind. "FOR SALE: WEDDING DRESS. NEVER WORN," is the ad that television journalist Riley Spartz sees. Her news sense is strong: to her, the ad tells a story. "Mystery and emotion, all in one line." Exactly. And we're away.It is unsurprising that Julie Kramer, author of Missing Mark, never misses hers. Kramer knows this world; walks this walk. Kramer is a freelance news producer for NBC's Today Show, Nightly News and Dateline. Before that she was an award-winning investigative producer for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. If Kramer's depiction of Riley seems dead-on, this is the reason why: a lifelong lover of thriller and mystery fiction, the novels featuring Riley Spartz are the books Kramer looked for but could never find.
Kramer says she got "tired of fictional TV reporters always being portrayed as obnoxious secondary characters who could be killed off whenever the plot started dragging." Kramer wanted more for Riley and her wish -- and her work -- came true with the 2008 publication of Stalking Susan (the paperback debuts this month). Stalking Susan was published to wide critical and fan acclaim. It was awarded the Minnesota Book Award, Best First Mystery for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and was recently short listed for both the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel.
The signs are good that Kramer's sophomore effort is a fitting successor to her debut. Publishers Weekly said Missing Mark was a "slick sequel to 2008's Stalking Susan while Booklist proclaimed that "Kramer has a winning series here."
"Like Stalking Susan," Kramer says, "Missing Mark is also set in the increasingly desperate world of television news. This time Riley, my reporter/heroine, is pulled into a dangerous missing person case after answering a for sale ad for a wedding dress."Kramer says that working in television news was great preparation for writing the Riley Spartz novels. "We all know truth is stranger than fiction. So I'm always telling writers that they can go farther than they think in terms of plot or character. Sometimes they talk themselves out of a good element because they fear no one will believe it. Watch the news. How much of that seems over the top? Yet viewers and readers are back the next day for more."
That really plays out in the books, says Kramer, because she gets to push the envelope just slightly beyond reality. "In the real world of news, journalists seldom solve crimes. That's still primarily a job for the police. So writing these books is sort of like living a fantasy."
In some regards, that fantasy extends to research. For Kramer, much of the detail work she does to get things right in her books is done in the course of her work for television.
"I typically live my research," says Kramer. "As a journalist I've covered numerous missing people and I never know how the cases are going to turn out. I used that experience in Missing Mark to show readers how newsrooms decide which missing people get publicity and which don't."
Naturally, though, some of the research is more traditional in nature. For instance, Kramer incorporated a rare medical condition called prosopagnosia, or faceblindness, in Missing Mark. "I became aware of it by interviewing a woman afflicted by the disorder for The Today Show." Kramer says it was one of the first news stories broadcast about the disability.
Julie Kramer lives with her family in Minnesota.
Contributing editor Linda L. Richards
is also the editor of January Magazine and a contributor to The Rap
Sheet. Her fifth novel, DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE, will be published
St. Martin's Minotaur/Thomas Dunne 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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