Dead Wrong by Patricia Stoltey

By George Ebey

Author Patricia Stoltey steps into the world of suspense fiction with her latest novel, DEAD WRONG.

Lynnette is a woman on the run from her abusive cop husband, but she’s dead wrong about who’s chasing her. A thug known as Fat Ass Sammy Grick carelessly switches laptop cases at the airport and puts Lynnette in greater danger from Sammy’s boss and the killer sent to retrieve the laptop contents. Then Lynnette finds out her husband was murdered and she’s a person of interest….

THE BIG THRILL recently caught up with Patricia to discuss the writing process and to learn more about the world of DEAD WRONG.

What first got you interested in writing crime fiction?

My mom introduced me to the traditional mystery novel when I ran out of Nancy Drew books to read, so I was hooked by the genre very early. Once I read a few thousand mysteries and thrillers, I began to wonder if I could craft one. I created Sylvia Thorn and Willie Grisseljon, a brother and sister in the over sixty crowd and let them help solve a couple of murders. Series are limiting, however, so trying out stand-alone suspense was my next challenge.

How did the idea for DEAD WRONG come to you?

I love to read “woman on the run” novels, so I started there. The criminals in DEAD WRONG are involved in a check theft ring. That idea came from a real-life experience many years ago when a large check was stolen from the company I worked for. In conversations with an FBI agent later, I learned about the check theft ring and how they managed to get a check cashed before most accounting departments discovered the check was missing. I have no idea where the foul-mouthed thug Fat Ass Sammy Grick came from, but I had a lot of fun writing from his point of view.

What is your favorite aspect of the writing process?

Those times I set aside a couple of days to binge write, letting the words flow for a first draft, are golden. I don’t know where all the ideas come from, and I know some of them need deleting later, but that’s the part that fascinates and excites me.

You have written a previous series of mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Sylvia Thorn.  How does this book differ from those?

The Sylvia and Willie mysteries are closer to the traditional model with a proper treatment of clues and a denouement. The only points of view are Sylvia’s in first person and Willie’s in third. DEAD WRONG is a faster-paced multiple point of view novel with suspenseful twists and turns. Two of the bad guys are in the POV mix as well as the main character, Lynnette Foster, and a rookie Florida cop, Maggie Gutierrez.

What’s next for you?

The novel I’m working on now is not a true sequel of DEAD WRONG, but I did invite Maggie Gutierrez back, gave her a promotion to detective, and put her to work on a murder case. I also have a mystery manuscript ready for revision, and a novel of historical fiction almost ready to submit. My very first published short story is in the recently released Tales in Firelight and Shadow, so I might try a few more short stories. I’ll follow the Muse and see where she takes me.

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Patricia Stoltey grew up on a farm in central Illinois and has also lived in Oklahoma, Indiana, the south of France, and Florida. A retired accounts payable manager, she currently resides in Colorado with her
husband, Bill and their famous Katie Cat. Patricia’s two Sylvia and Willie mysteries, THE PRAIRIE GRASS MURDERS and THE DESERT HEDGE MURDERS, were published by Five Star in 2007 and 2009 and by Harlequin Worldwide in 2010. DEAD WRONG is Patricia’s first standalone suspense novel.

To learn more about Patricia, please visit her website.