An Interview with Annette Dashofy by E. B. Davis

 

“It was all perfectly plausible. Yet none of it felt right.”

Annette Dashofy, What Comes Around, Loc. 2694

 

Just as Monongahela County Coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams decides to fire her abrasive chief deputy, Dr. Charles Davis, and put an end to his constant undermining of her position, a suspicious car crash severely injures the county’s only other forensic pathologist. To keep the office operational, Zoe has little choice but to keep Davis on staff.

When Zoe and her husband—Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams—respond to a brutal homicide, they quickly learn the victim had come to town for the sole purpose of sharing vital information with Zoe. And the decedent’s ex-husband is none other than Zoe’s deputy coroner.

As Zoe and Pete dig deeper into the victim’s past, more questions arise along with a tangle of connections between multiple cases, including a very cold one that leads Zoe and those she cares about directly into the crosshairs of a crazed killer.

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In What Comes Around, Annette Dashofy has once again created an enthralling and complex mystery. Clear your schedule before you start reading because you’re going to be late to appointments or delay tasks so that you can finish reading. This is a “do not disturb” read.

 

What looks like a bad political situation for Zoe turns into a murder investigation, opens a cold-case, negates a contentious relationship, and begins a tricky situation in Zoe and Pete’s marriage, some of which just may be connected if they can follow the clues.

 

The timing is just days after Hurricane Iona and the horrible Helpless situation in the previous book. And—in case you are wondering—Annette’s titles are apt and apply to many situations her books. I can’t think of a better title.

 

Please welcome WWK’s Annette Dashofy (and hope this time she comes home from Malice with an Agatha)!                                                                                      E. B. Davis

 Why did Zoe offer a job as her deputy to her competitor for the office of Coroner? Even if I used to know the answer, I know I didn’t agree with her decision.

 You aren’t the only one who doesn’t agree! It wasn’t one of her better choices in life. Several books back, Zoe was thrown into the job of county coroner when her predecessor was murdered. Coroner is an elected position and Dr. Charles Davis was gearing up to run against the previous coroner and making a lot of political noise. He offered Zoe a deal: instead of making her battle it out on election day, he would join her as her chief deputy and help her out since even she had to admit she wasn’t ready to take on the task quite so soon. She agreed to that deal with the devil, thinking she was keeping her friends close and her enemy closer. It didn’t take long for her to regret it. 

 

Although gossip has spread Zoe’s and her deputy coroner Dr. Davis’s battles around town, Zoe’s decision to give an interview about the problem seems to start an escalation. Why did she agree to the interview?

 

In the very final pages of Helpless, she was trying to ignore Davis’s insolence, but then she received an email from one of the county commissioners, summoning her into her office. She knew this was Davis’s doing and he had gone too far this time. That snapped her into action, starting with accepting Lauren Sander’s request for an interview.

 

When Pete breaks the news of her death to the victim’s teenage son, Alex, I was surprised that Pete didn’t question Alex more closely. Why didn’t he nail down Alex’s movements right away?

 

He probably should have, but the boy was so obviously devastated, and, combined with the information he provided linking the victim to Zoe, Pete’s focus was on protecting his wife.

 

To my knowledge, this is the first time we meet Max Knight. Is he a colleague of Wayne Baronick’s in the same precinct? Is there a reason you brought him in? Why not just use Wayne?

 

Max is another of the county police detectives, so yes, he’s one of Wayne colleagues. Wayne was already working on the traffic accident at the beginning of the book, so it made sense that the Monongahela County Police would send someone else out to a homicide. I’ve never needed to bring in additional detectives before, but it made sense to me in this case.

 

When Dr. Davis’s ex-wife is found brutally killed, two of her nearest and dearest point the guilty finger at him. While Pete doesn’t doubt Davis could do such a thing, he doesn’t jump to that conclusion. When Davis turns up grievously injured from an apparent suicide though, Pete doubts Davis would commit suicide. Why the plausibility of one situation, but the implausibility of the other? I was surprised Pete didn’t question Juliann Holland (county commissioner) who found Davis clinging to life. Why didn’t you include that scene?

 

The crime happened outside of Pete’s jurisdiction. Wayne asked Pete to come to the crime scene just to get his unofficial input (and because of Zoe’s connection to the victim), but the county police were in charge of the case and had questioned Holland before Pete’s arrival.

 

I know Paulette, Zoe’s secretary, wants to quit, but her timing isn’t very good. She says she wants to wait until Dr. Davis leaves—so why doesn’t she wait until then already?

 

Paulette planned on sticking around to see Zoe fire Davis until things went sideways with Doc Abercrombie. By then Paulette already set out to hire her replacement. She found a likely candidate faster than expected but promised Zoe she’d stick around and train the new secretary. It was her hope that by the time the new hire was ready to take over, Davis would be gone.

 

Even though Zoe is coroner, does she have to have a forensic pathologist do autopsies? What are Zoe’s duties as an elected coroner? Does she have legal parameters?

 

Zoe is responsible for determining cause and manner of death and heads up the death investigations for the coroner’s office, but she isn’t a pathologist, hence she can’t perform the actual autopsy. That’s one of the things Dr. Davis has been harping about. He is a pathologist, so if he was elected coroner, he feels he’d save the county money. But what he really wants is to see the county switch to a Medical Examiner system, which is NOT an elected position. This is a huge debate in real life coroner’s offices all across the country.

 

Does Abby like playing “good cop/bad cop?” She seems more of a researcher.

 

Abby has a lot of IT and computer skills, and she tends to get assigned to the research tasks since she’s one of the younger members of the Vance Township Police Department, but her true love is getting out in the field, and yes, she does enjoy playing good cop/bad cop from time to time.

 

County Commissioner Juliann Holland is in Dr. Davis’s corner. They also seem to have a personal relationship. Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest? Do counties have nonfraternization policies? Holland was appointed, not elected, right?

 

No, Holland is an elected official. And she’s most definitely in Davis’s corner. There is no such policy in Monongahela County government right now, but maybe there should be! An interesting point is that should Davis succeed in having the coroner system switched to a Medical Examiner system, the county commissioners would be his bosses, meaning it would be up to them to hire or fire him. Considering his history with women, he might want to rethink a lot of his choices!

 

Zoe is realistic about her high school experiences. But she did go to one high school reunion. Why did she do that? Why does anyone?

 

The only reason she went to her reunion (Fatal Reunion) was because there was a homicide that had ties to her high school class. She was in investigative mode. That’s the only thing that would get her to attend!

 

Liz and her daughter, Isabella, aren’t very forthright in how they approach Pete and Zoe. They both concoct stories to close in on the two. Liz’s intentions are obvious, but why would Isabelle do such a thing? Pete knows right away she’s lying. Why wouldn’t she demand that her mother tell Pete the truth without the guile?

 

Without giving too much away, Isabella is treading lightly because she fears rejection. She wants to gather all the information she can before making a move.

 

Dr. Patel brooks no nonsense and doesn’t listen to gossip. She sounds like a good mix for Zoe. Will we see more of her in coming books?

 

That’s my intention.

 

What’s next for Zoe and Pete?

 

We’ll all have to wait and see. I have a couple of short stories in mind for them, but I also have a couple of other writing projects that I need to focus on before diving back into the next novel. Stay tuned!