Portly
& Proud CSI Catches Louisiana Fever
Threat
of Outbreak Drives Latest in Southern Suspense Series
“D.J.
Donaldson is superb at spinning medical fact into gripping suspense. With
his in-depth knowledge of science and medicine, he is one of very few authors
who can write with convincing authority.”
--Tess Gerritsen, NY Times best-selling
author of the Rizzoli & Isles novels
Andy Broussard, the
“Plump and Proud” New Orleans medical examiner, obviously loves food. Less
apparent to the casual observer is his hatred of murderers. Together with his
gorgeous sidekick, psychologist Kit Franklyn, Broussard forms a powerful,
although improbable, mystery solving duo.
Astor + Blue Editions
is proud to release Louisiana Fever, the latest Broussard mystery by DJ
Donaldson.
When
Kit goes to meet an anonymous stranger—who’s been sending her roses—the man
drops dead at her feet before she could even get his name. Game on.
Andy
Broussard soon learns that the man carried a lethal pathogen similar to the
deadly “Ebola”—a highly contagious virus, feared worldwide for killing its
victims (grotesquely) in a matter of days. When another body turns up with the
same bug, widespread panic becomes imminent. The danger is even more acute,
because the carrier is mobile. The man knows he’s a walking weapon and… he’s
targeting Broussard.
And
when Kit Franklyn investigates her mystery suitor further, she runs afoul of a
cold- blooded killer, every bit as deadly as the man searching for her partner.
Louisiana Fever is written in
Donaldson’s unique style: A hard-hitting, punchy, action-packed prose
that’s dripping with a folksy, decidedly southern sense of irony. Mix in
Donaldson’s brilliant first-hand knowledge of forensics, along with the sultry
flavor of New Orleans, and readers will be fully satisfied with this
irresistibly delectable mystery.
Kindle | Amazon Print | Nook
My Take On It: Series vs. Stand-Alone Titles
By D.J. (Don) Donaldson
I’ve written both kinds of books and have
to say that I like both forms equally well.
With a series, your characters already
exist from previous books, so you don’t have to create them anew each time you
start another novel. If you’ve done it
right, they should seem like old friends to you and to your readers as
well. Think about your own life. Its
always fun to read that Christmas letter from people you really like (except
maybe when they’ve won the lottery). It’s the same with continuing
characters. People want to know what
they’re up to now. But if you write
thrillers and mysteries like I do, that doesn’t just mean your readers want to
know what new puzzles your main characters have to solve or who might be trying
to kill them. Fans of a series also want
to see how your characters change and grow from book to book. And what new things might be revealed about
murky circumstances in their past. You
have to peel their layers away like… (I want to say onion, but I’d rather write
this with no clichés in it, so, I’ll let you
finish that last sentence.)
Screenwriters all know that characters in
movies need arcs… that is, they must change during the film and emerge at the
end different in some significant way.
Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, for instance. Think of the actor, Patrick Stewart’s,
Scrooge (Stewart… you know… Captain Jean-luc Picard in Star Trek), giggling
like a happy lunatic awaking on Christmas day to find that he’s still
alive. Though series novelists seem less
aware of this need for arcs in their stories,
books that have them are better than those without. Generally big arcs are more desirable than
small ones. But once you’ve written
several books about the same characters, the arcs they travel in each new book usually
can’t be Scrooge-sized, they have to be more on the scale of Tiny Tim. But even
if limited in scale, arcs should still be present.
Now
I’m going to brag a bit. Look away if
you must. In LOUISIANA FEVER, the 5th
book in my forensic mystery series, I was able to pull off a big surprise
involving Kit Franklyn, the gorgeous (of course) psychologist who works for the
hugely overweight New Orleans medical examiner, Andy Broussard. Dang…. Imagine… A major revelation in book
five… Of course, I was only able to manage a few smaller arcs for Andy. Still…
Freedom… that’s a good word to describe
stand-along novels. The characters have
no previous written history, so the writer is free to create them as he
wishes. Absence of a known past allows
for large character arcs. That can help
an otherwise good book become
great. The trade-off is that readers
have no previous investment in those characters. That means the writer has to somehow make the
public want to read about people they don’t know. Even folks who love gossip
are bored when Grandma goes on and on, giving you all the dirt on someone she knew
in the forties. This lack of character
continuity can be a problem for new writers especially, and even for
experienced writers who depart from a successful series to try a stand-alone. You’ve written a great book, but how do you
convince potential readers to give it a try?
Believe me, it “ain’t” easy… unless of course the author has a long
history of New York Times stand-alone best sellers. Then, the author becomes a brand name that readers
will follow anywhere.
So, dear writer, let your heart take you
where it will.
Meet the Author D.J.
Donaldson is a retired professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology. His entire
academic career was spent at the University of Tennessee, Health Science
Center, where he published dozens of papers on wound-healing and where he
taught microscopic anatomy to thousands of medical and dental students.
He
is also the author of seven published forensic mysteries and five medical
thrillers. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee with his wife and two West Highland
terriers. In the spring of most years he simply cannot stop buying new flowers
and other plants for the couple’s prized backyard garden.
Thank you so much for sharing this post with us!! It was a wonderful experience reading your post!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy both stand alone books and series, too. I will admit there have been times when I wished the series could have continued. I have not read anything by D.J. Donaldson yet. Louisiana Fever sounds so interesting..another book to add to the staggering TBR!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy both stand-alone and series, too! I agree with you though--sometimes I want the series to keep going!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with us today D.J.! The book does sound great and I look forward to reading it soon.