Buried deep inside a file drawer in my office is a folder filled with yellowing true-crime newspaper clippings meant to inspire the plot of my next novel. The only problem is once they're neatly clipped and stored I rarely look at them again. Mostly, my books are created from a disparate array of alluring subjects and events I've experienced firsthand. This process is especially true for the genesis of Second Goodbye.
Like most authors, I embrace my characters. Davie Richards is a gutsy, principled, but flawed second-generation LAPD detective who’s devoted to seeking justice for murder victims. The people who inhabit her world—Bear, Vaughn, and Frank Giordano—captivate me. I care about what happens to all of them, including those who were never meant to have an afterlife beyond one novel. But there was one character I just couldn't jettison—LAPD Homicide-Special Detective Jon Striker. Striker worked a case with Davie in Outside the Wire, but after the novel ended, his back-story was still mostly unknown, especially the origin of that mysterious tattoo on his arm. All I initially knew about Second Goodbye was that Striker would feature prominently.
Around this time, I attended a fan convention in New Orleans where I met a cop who suggested I look into suicides in gun stores for possible plot ideas. It was an intriguing idea that eventually became an essential element of the book.
Money laundering has always fascinated me. I earned an MBA, so I know about balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements. I also worked for fifteen years as a volunteer and Specialist Reserve Officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, including five years assigned to the detective squad room, investigating financial crimes. On the surface, the basics of washing dirty cash seemed straightforward. But the intricacies were more difficult to chart, which is the whole point if you're a crook. I began researching the issue until I felt comfortable incorporating a money-laundering scheme into the story.
Ideas for Second Goodbye began stacking up. I had Striker, a death in a gun store, and money laundering. While working on the manuscript, I went on a sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands and learned that the area was a money-laundering haven for criminals transferring cash to and from the mainland and complicit local banks. That's when the plot "thickened." Just as it had in Outside the Wire, Davie's investigation becomes too complex to handle at Pacific Division and is transferred downtown to Homicide-Special, where she and Striker again partner to solve the case. Accordingly, they follow the money to the island of Tortola.
Every author has a unique writing process. For me, the plot comes together at random when I keep my eyes and subconscious open to crazy little ideas—even while on a sailboat in the BVIs.
***
Assume nothing—that's the touchstone for every homicide investigation Detective Davie Richards undertakes. She approaches her latest case the same way, determined to learn as much about the victim as she does about the killer. But there's nothing about thirty-four-year-old Sara Montaine or her death that makes sense.
Was Sara a saint caring for her dying husband or a gold-digger with a sketchy background? Did she commit suicide or was she murdered? Before her marriage, Sara lived comfortably without any obvious source of income, unusual for an orphan raised in foster care. As Davie digs deeper, she unearths Sara's troubled past and a viper's nest of villains who are willing to kill to keep their secrets hidden.
Praise:
"Sassy and analytical, L.A. Detective Davie Richards utilizes 'shoe leather and minutiae' to unravel a brilliantly staged fake suicide. Seamless prose, tightly crafted clues, and surprising twists make LThe Second Goodbye a memorable police procedural. Brew the coffee for the graveyard shift, as you'll be up all night reading."
—K.J. Howe, best-selling author of The Freedom Broker and Skyjack
"Patricia Smiley tackles Michael Connelly territory and succeeds with a realistic, compelling police procedural in the badlands of contemporary Los Angeles. Detective Davie Richards is a smart, no-nonsense heroine, and the storytelling had me turning the pages at the expense of mundane activities like sleeping. The Second Goodbye is an intriguing mystery laced with well-researched law enforcement practices."
—Raymond Benson, author of In the Hush of the Night and The Black Stiletto Serial
"The Second Goodbye is a straight ahead jolt of police procedural adrenaline! Like Michael Connelly, Patricia Smiley grabs a hold of you and pulls you into the story without tricks or gimmicks. Just a great story told by a great storyteller. The Second Goodbye catapults Smiley onto the top tier of crime writers!"
—Matt Coyle, Anthony Award-winning author of the Rick Cahill crime series
Patricia Smiley is a bestselling mystery author whose short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Two of the Deadliest, an anthology edited by Elizabeth George. Patricia has taught writing classes at various conferences throughout the US and Canada, and she served on the board of directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and as president of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. Visit her online at www.PatriciaSmiley.com.
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