Hell Hath No Fury by Annette Dashofy

My nineteenth novel is coming out in just a few short weeks. Nineteenth. I never dreamed I’d ever reach that number. 

Hell Hath No Fury is the fifth in my Detective Honeywell series. Back when I had to come up with a proposal for the third, fourth, and fifth, I looked into my writerly crystal ball to give my publisher a paragraph summarizing the plots of each book. The third (The Devil Comes Calling) was no problem. The fourth (No Stone Left Unturned) drifted a little farther away as I put words on the page, but the basic premise clung to the proposed story.

 But this one? Not even close. The change was partly because of research I did on what I’d intended to write. Or more specifically, where it was to be set. I had proposed transporting Matthias and Emma out of downtown Erie, to a nearby wooded gorge for a romantic get-away, only to have murder interrupt their plans. 

A research trip revealed the location where the mystery was to take place was not the sprawling, secluded park I’d pictured. It was too small for anyone to realistically get hopelessly lost in. Nope, this wouldn’t work. I considered exploring the area further to find a better spot. 

Before that happened, I finished writing No Stone Left Unturned, which ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, providing the perfect location for the next book, although the romantic getaway was off the table.

 

Hell Hath No Fury picks up where Stone leaves off. Matthias and Emma are summoned back to Emma’s former home in Washington County. 

Washington County is where I live. The individual locations in the book are vague and mostly fictional, but the county is real. In fact, for those of you who have read my Zoe Chambers series, the fictional Monongahela County of Zoe’s world is based on Washington County. Not that I expect this tidbit to come up in any game of Trivial Pursuit, but there you have it. 

No sooner do Matthias and Emma arrive, than they manage to stumble across a dead body—someone with whom Emma has just had a very public argument. Being off his home turf, Matthias is limited as to how much investigating he can “legally” do. Keyword: “legally.” Plus, he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who is now the lead detective on the case. 

There’s a lot of history in this story. Not “history” as in historical fiction. History as in Matthias’s history with this investigator. Emma’s history with the victim, her sister, and a couple of her childhood friends. Their pasts are all coming back to bite them. 

I’m so eager for this one to be out in the world. I just received an email notice that my author copies have been shipped! Release Day is coming!

 

 

An Interview with Annette Dashofy by E.B. Davis

When a local Erie vet is shot during a robbery, Erie City Police Detective Matthias Honeywell and his partner Cassie Malone are tasked with pursuing the perpetrators. But as they close in on the truth, a mysterious sniper targets those involved in the case.

Emma Anderson has seen more than her share of cases since becoming a journalist in Lake Erie, and with news of the shooting becoming local interest, her instincts kick in. What she didn’t expect to uncover was a secret that could cause an ethical dilemma between Matthias and Cassie.

As the search for the sniper continues and the investigation taking a dark turn, Cassie and Emma find themselves caught up in a kidnapping plot. As the women are forced to draw on their resourcefulness to survive, will they manage to escape or is time against them?

Amazon.com

What’s the sign of a great series? Wondering what happens next to the characters after you turn the last page. In No Stone Left Unturned, Annette Dashofy writes suspense in every page. Luckily for us, the book is now on Kindle Unlimited.

 

In the first three books in the Detective Matthias Honeywell mystery series, I’ve grown to love Honeywell’s partner, Cassie Malone, who is his senior, a black, female grandmother, which may make her one of the deadliest creatures on earth. Unfortunately, in No Stone Left Unturned, her family becomes the main focus when her veterinarian husband is shot in the chest for no apparent reason. It’s up to Matthias and Emma to solve the mystery as Cassie is sidelined from participating in the case.

 

Do yourselves a favor and download this book. It’s suspense at its finest. You care about the characters, who find themselves in a downhill avalanche trying to stay alive.

                                                                                                                                         E. B. Davis

 

Aw, thanks, E.B!

 

I forget. How did Matthias get from Oklahoma, where he was raised, to Erie?

 

When he was a young cop, he fell in love with a woman from Erie and followed her there when she moved home. However, when he proposed marriage, she turned him down and married an attorney instead. She and her new husband returned to Oklahoma. A heartbroken Matthias stayed in Erie and has been there ever since.

 

Emma is at the crime scene outside of Shawn’s veterinary clinic after the police have been notified. As a newbie photojournalist, why is she uncomfortable in her job?

 

Emma never wanted a career in photojournalism because she feels it’s intrusive, taking pictures of people on their worst days. However, she has this “fantasy” of being at crime scenes, working with Matthias. I put that in quotes because she realizes it isn’t going to happen. If anything, it puts them at odds.

 

Shawn and Cassie are fiercely loyal to Shawn’s employees, as they are to him. How does Cassie react when he questions her about them?

 

Cassie’s defensive because Shawn trusts his employees like family. On the other hand, as a cop, she knows Matthias is only doing his job, and his questions raise concerns of her own.

Shawn Malone, Cassie’s husband, is known for his kindness, especially when it comes to treating pets who have low-income owners. Because of this policy, when his office manager, Bethany, accepts a last-minute appointment with a man who can’t afford his dog’s care, it’s treated as routine. But before the conclusion of the appointment, three masked men raid the office for drugs and cash, and then shoot Shawn in the chest. Why does Matthias suspect that Bethany may have been in on the attack on Shawn? 

Since the men gain access through a side door that’s locked to the outside, and since Bethany had just let the dog and its owner through those same doors, she’s immediately suspect. How else could those gunmen have gotten in unless she’d left the door unlocked for them?

 

Finding a motive for the shooting is the hardest part of the case. No one disliked Shawn. The detectives on the case, Matthias, and his underlings, Frazier and Roth, wonder if it is Cassie that the shooter was trying to hurt. Why do they eliminate that motive?

 

Cassie doesn’t recognize any of the gunmen, although since they’re masked, it’s difficult for her to be 100% certain. Once the police identify them, though, she’s positive she’s not encountered them in any of her past investigations. And the Erie police can’t find any connections to Cassie, either.

 

Why is Emma’s friend, Eric Baker, who lives in their hometown in Southwestern PA, so interested for Emma to sell the land that Emma and her younger sister, Nell, have inherited? Does he get a commission? Shouldn’t he know she can’t approve the sale without her sister’s consent?

 

There’s more going on there than meets the eye. Emma did leave the care of her property in Eric’s hands, so it’s logical that any offers would come through him, and he definitely knows that Nell’s consent is necessary to sell the land. As to why he’s being such a pain about it, you’ll have to wait for the next book!

 

Emma has to make a decision about her living arrangements. It’s August and the campground where she is living in a mobile home will close in October. What is she contemplating?

 

It’s not a mobile home; it’s a 17-foot camper with no insulation, so even if the campground stayed open, she couldn’t survive an Erie winter in her current residence. She doesn’t really have plans, although she needs to give serious thought to the situation. The idea that Matthias might invite her to move in with him is appealing, but she’s afraid too much togetherness might sink their fledgling relationship. A lot of Erie homeowners winter over in southern locales and rent out their northern homes for the season. That feels like a better option, but Emma doesn’t have the time or inclination to give it a lot of thought right now.

 

Because Matthias is busy trying to solve the case, he relies on Emma to give Cassie friendship and company while Shawn is in and out of the operating room. Emma is put into a dual role. She’s on the inside of a journalist’s story and yet, because the two couples socialize, she’s also a casual friend. How does Emma resolve the two?

 

Emma tries her best to avoid being put in the position of spy, but her loyalties are sorely tested! We are talking about Cassie Malone, after all, and Cassie is a force of nature, so when she demands details of the case, Emma can’t really say no. 

After Cassie talks to Shawn once he is stable, Shawn tells Cassie about the shooter. They conclude it was a racially motivated attack, but as it turns out, it was not. Is this an emotional response? Do people overcompensate by blaming what is convenient rather than looking at the facts?

It’s a logical assumption for them to reach, and it goes beyond emotions. They’ve experienced racism all their lives. It would be naïve to ignore the possibility in this case.

 

Among the things on Matthias’s mind while trying to solve the case is his relationship with Emma. He’s afraid she will leave Erie after her lease is up at the campground. What is the basis of his fear?

 

Matthias and Emma definitely have communication issues! From his perspective, he’s not had a lot of luck with women. He’s only been in love twice and both times, it ended badly. He built walls around his heart, and it’s been ages since he let someone get close. Now that he has feelings for Emma, he worries he’s going to lose her, too.

 

With one of the clinic’s suspected attackers found dead, they go after the second suspect who enters a warehouse area. While investigating, a sniper opens fire from an upper window. Unknowingly, Emma and her journalist partner enter the scene where Emma finds herself pinned down by the shots. Why doesn’t she dive for cover? Why does she hold the button on her camera down for automatic and continuous picture taking?

 

You get totally focused on that viewfinder and lose sense of what’s really going on. It happened to me. Well, not getting shot at, but I was photographing a wild coyote that was posing beautifully for me! I was so intent on getting the shot, I didn’t comprehend how close the coyote was getting until my husband shouted at me. I looked up from the viewfinder to realize it was very close! As for keeping the shutter depressed, when you’re dealing with action, you don’t try to compose the photo. You simply keep firing. If you’re lucky, when you go through a thousand images, you’ll find that one perfect shot.

When Emma allows Matthias to have a copy of her photos, she gets reprimanded by her boss at the online newspaper. Why? And what is Emma’s reaction?

The memory card Emma turned over to Matthias is property of ErieLIVE. The police may need those original source files when the case goes to trial, so they give her a copy to take back to the news outlet. But Emma’s boss sees it as a breach. Journalists don’t cater to the police, at least not without approval from management. Since Matthias saved her life, Emma doesn’t feel she could turn him down on the matter. It’s another case of Emma’s loyalties coming into question.

 

Why do guns and cameras have a lot of the same terminology?

 

I honestly don’t know. You aim both. You shoot pictures. Weapons obviously came first, but I’ve always found it interesting that photography stole so much of the terminology.

 

When investigating, secrets are revealed. But when the subjects of the case are friends, it is especially difficult to ask questions about them. Both Matthias and Emma dig up secrets of Shawn’s and those close to him. What is so hard about revealing the truth?

 

Some secrets are kept hidden to avoid re-opening old injuries. Haven’t we all made youthful indiscretions that we prefer stayed buried?

 

You chose to set your novel in the heat of August, which made for great January reading by your freezing audience. But as the motive turned out to be revenge, I question if you flaunt the quote about revenge being a dish served cold?

 

It wasn’t intentional. It takes the biggest part of a year to write a book, and I have no control over when it gets released. Believe me, having a mid-winter launch in snowy Pennsylvania would not have been my first choice!

 

Emma needs to go home and asks Matthias to accompany her. What’s next for them?

 

The fifth Honeywell mystery picks up right where this one leaves off, with Matthias and Emma headed back to her hometown to deal with Eric, Nell, and the land situation.  Watch for it in September!

Annette Dashofy Interview By E. B. Davis

 

“I got tired of waiting on karma.” Loc 6248

“Criminals fall into one of two categories. Brilliant or stupid.” Loc 410

Annette Dashofy,

 

“Two bodies. One male, approximately fifty years old. One female, mid-twenties. Both shot execution-style, with one bullet to the back of the head.”

 

When a murderous ghost from Erie City Police Detective Matthias Honeywell’s past appears unexpectedly, his investigation into a double homicide in a quiet residential neighborhood gets increasingly complicated, and puts everything and everyone he cares about at risk – including photographer Emma Anderson.

 

Emma’s first day as the crime beat photographer for ErieLIVE wasn’t meant to see her photographing the scene of her predecessor’s murder, and with ties to the victim as well as a deadly fire that follows in the wake of the crime, she fears she may also be in the killer’s sightlines.           

                                                                        Annette Dashofy

The Devil Comes Calling is Annette Dashofy’s third book in the Detective Honeywell Mystery series. For me, this was a “wow” book. It led me gently, then smacked me. Emotionally charged, it portrayed two parent/child relationships—from one extreme to the other—love and hate. One mother belatedly redeems her daughter. The tale also shows why Detective Honeywell is who he is. Parents are transformational, which isn’t always a good thing, but strengthens character for those equipped to deal with adversity. Honeywell passed the test. But it impacts Emma and his relationship.

 

This book will be released on November 7th, just in time for the holidays. It’s a bargain priced at $2.99!

                                                                                                                 E. B. Davis

 

There are a lot of connections among the characters in this novel. Is Erie, PA a small town?

 

The definition of “small town” varies depending on who you’re talking to. Erie has a population of just under 93,000 and is the fifth most populous city in Pennsylvania, but compared to New York City or Los Angeles, yeah, it’s a small town.

 

Matthias and Emma both seem preoccupied and obsessed; Matthias with his father, Isaiah, and Emma with Russ Carlisle, a killer who messed with her sister. Part of each of them are living in the past or with the past. Are they out of touch even though they seem comfortable together?

 

Matthias and Emma are both haunted and wounded by their pasts. Since I first conceived this series, I’ve felt that both suffer survivor’s guilt. It’s been an underlying theme for the stories. In the first two books, the focus was on Emma’s past. This one shines a light on Matthias’s tortured history, but Emma has yet to resolve her inner demons. I don’t see these battles with the past as putting them out of touch. In fact, in both cases, their histories connect them and give them a greater understanding and appreciation of one another.

When another photographer leaves ErieLIVE, Emma fills her spot. Emma’s used to working on her own, but now she’s partnered with a journalist. On an assignment, Emma finds Matthias, who is a detective on the case. She realizes that having information could help Matthias, and yet, when he confides information in her, it puts her in a sticky situation with her new professional partner. How does she handle the problem?

 

It really is a sticky situation. Emma wants to believe that merely being a news photographer, not a reporter, means she shouldn’t have a conflict of interest with dating a cop. But Matthias shares information “off the record” and she also learns things about Preston that may impact the investigation, so she’s constantly put in a position that tests her loyalties … which are, of course, with Matthias. But she soon learns that telling him unsubstantiated rumors and her own suspicions might mean throwing her colleague under the bus when he may not deserve it.

 

I’ve heard of BOLO and Amber alerts, but what is an ATL, and are there other alerts we don’t know about?

 

ATL means Attempt to Locate. It’s a type of bulletin the police can issue to other law enforcement officers. In this case, they don’t have enough evidence for an arrest warrant, but they need to keep track of where this person is, so they specify they only want information on his address or the make and model of his car. They do not want him to be pulled over or detained. They only want the information to be relayed to them. Honestly, I hadn’t heard of it either until a police detective friend of mine suggested it for this situation.

 

“His biggest talent in life is figuring out a person’s weakness.

Their greatest fear. And playing on it.” Matthias assessing his father, Isaiah. Loc. 5709

 

After spending twenty-five years in prison for killing his wife, Matthias’s mother, Isaiah comes to Erie and insinuates himself into Matthias’s life. Isaiah says he wants to reconnect with Matthias, but he lies about him, transferring his own characteristics and actions onto Matthias. Isn’t that the definition of narcissism, and since he’s a killer, a narcissistic   psychopath?

 

Pretty much, yep. Isaiah is one nasty dude.

 

Does Detective Sergeant Cassie Malone ever use her superior rank on Matthias to her advantage?

 

Cassie has a lot of respect for Matthias, but she’s willing to remind him who’s in charge when need be. And since he’s hardly objective where his father’s concerned, she definitely needs to keep Matthias in line. Or try to.

 

Why doesn’t a revolver leave casings?

 

With a revolver, the bullet casing remains in the cylinder when the gun is fired. After all the rounds have been discharged, the shooter needs to empty the cylinder and reload. A semi-automatic pistol, on the other hand, ejects the casings.

 

In Colorado, was Havana Carlisle’s death ruled a homicide?

 

The powers that be in Colorado ruled her death as accidental. A skiing accident. Conveniently, the only “witness” to the accident was her husband, Russ. Matthias has been trying to get evidence that Russ was actually responsible for the death for quite a while to no avail.

 

Cassie likes to play with suspects. Is this a ploy or does she get her kicks messing with them?

 

She doesn’t get her kicks from it—unless she can get them to slip up and admit to lying. That definitely brings a smile to her face.

 

Why did Darcy’s parents dislike Preston?

 

They were fiercely protective of Darcy and believed Preston was dangerous and would harm their daughter. Also, I don’t think there was anyone they felt was good enough for her.

 

Although the first two murders looked like professional hits, there was inconsistent evidence confusing them. What didn’t seem professional to Matthias and Cassie?

 

Tossing the murder weapon where it was too easily found, for starters. The murder just feels too sloppy to be professional. While there are a number of suspects, none seem cold and calculating enough to be (or hire) a hit man.

 

Emma becomes suspicious of Boze, another journalist, because she’s learning from her past mistakes of trusting the wrong people. But when Isaiah lies to her about Matthias, she doubts Matthias, at least temporarily. Why?

 

It’s a kneejerk reaction for her. She trusts Matthias, but she had trusted another man in her past only to find out the hard way that her trust was misplaced. She questions if she’s doing it again. Thankfully, she does come to her senses relatively quickly when she thinks back on all Matthias has done to prove himself to her.

 

Cassie researches the money. Matthias researches relationships. Is this typical in their partnership?

Not necessarily, but Cassie knows Matthias isn’t fond of being stuck with financial reports. If she was annoyed with him, she’d definitely assign him that task and take the rest of the investigation for herself.

 

When you plot, do you have a general outline and then get more specific as you write? Do you make a series arc?

 

I’m a bit of a hybrid plotter/pantser. I know who the killer is and his/her motive, so I basically know the ending. I know a few of the plot twists I want to include along the way. But beyond that, I outline a few scenes or chapters ahead and then just write. As for a series arc, I do have a pretty good idea of how the characters will grow and how the end of one book will be the beginning of the next. But that’s for however many books are under contract rather than for an entire series, because, well, I don’t know how many books that will end up being!

What’s next for Emma, Matthias, and Cassie? 

 

The fourth, No Stone Left Unturned, (December 19^th released date) Detective Honeywell Mystery focuses on Cassie Malone’s family when Matthias must race to find out who shot Cassie’s much-loved husband.