Revenge in Barcelona by Kathryn Lane

Nikki Garcia, former international fraud auditor turned private investigator, escapes to Spain to avoid death threats on her last assignment in Mexico. A week later, Nikki and her fiancé, Eduardo, find themselves caught up in a terrorist attack at one of Barcelona’s major tourist attractions.

As events unravel, Nikki discovers she is being stalked, worse, she may have been the target of the deadly bombing. To find out who has plotted against her, they consider international connections to people she encountered in her past investigations in Latin America.

Weaving their way through Barcelona in an attempt to get facts, Nikki and Eduardo further endanger their lives upon discovering a series of suspects, from flamenco dancers to foreign nationals.

Will they be able to outsmart the would-be assassin’s attempts on Nikki’s life?

Kathryn Lane spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing the next installment in the Nikki Garcia series, REVENGE IN BARCELONA:

How does this book make a contribution to the genre?

REVENGE IN BARCELONA contributes to the thriller genre by setting the protagonist in a foreign country where she must navigate and circumvent the law enforcement and legal systems to uncover the sinister person stalking her and seeking revenge against her. In the story, Nikki Garcia, a private investigator, is running for her life after a death threat from an assignment in Mexico. When she arrives in Barcelona, Spain with her fiancé, Eduardo Duarte, she is confident she has left danger behind. But soon disaster strikes, and Nikki realizes her life is very much in danger. The push and pull between the protagonist and the villain raises the tension as Nikki and Eduardo fit together pieces of the puzzle to unravel the mystery.

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

Two aspects. The first one is the love for a good mystery. The more suspenseful it is, the more the adrenalin pumps.

The second aspect is the love of being side-by-side with the protagonist throughout the story to pick up the clues, to fit the pieces together, and to anticipate the culmination of the story. When the twists and turns keep me turning the pages, it’s worth staying up late!

Which took shape first: plot, character, or setting?

Nikki Garcia is the protagonist of her own series, so its obvious character took shape first, but creation of other characters is lots of fun. In a work of fiction, even a character’s background is invented, like a painter filling in a blank canvass. It’s a challenge to make a fictitious personality believable. Then there comes a moment when you realize you know them better that they know themselves, although characters can always surprise me by leading me in a totally different direction than I intended. It’s pure magic when that happens!

What inspired me to place this novel in Barcelona?

The sheer excitement of placing my protagonist in a city I love. To do so, I had to do copious research as I want readers to appreciate the sights, smell the aromas, enjoy the local food, and feel the same fears and emotions as my protagonist. In essence, by the end of the book, I want them to experience an action-packed adventure in Barcelona – that there was no mistake where they were or what they felt. Climbing Tibidado Hill, for example, they should live Nikki’s rapture for the city and perceive how her thrill slowly erodes into anguish as she comes face-to-face with her villain.

*****

Kathryn Lane, originally from Mexico, took the long road to becoming an author. An artist in her early years, she became a certified public accountant to earn a living and went on to a career in international finance with a major multinational corporation. In her writing, she draws deeply from the prism of her experiences growing up in a small town in northern Mexico as well as her work and travel in over ninety countries around the globe.

Kathryn is the author of the Nikki Garcia Thrillers—Revenge in Barcelona, Waking Up in Medellin, and Coyote Zone. Inspired by foreign cultures, Kathryn sets her work in exotic locations.

Waking Up in Medellin, set in the South American country of Colombia, won Best Fiction Book of the Year, 2017, at Killer Nashville’s International Mystery Writers’ Conference.

Coyote Zone, set in Mexico, won first place in the Action-Adventure category of the Latino Books into Movies award in December 2018.

Kathryn’s collection of short stories, Backyard Volcano and Other Mysteries of the Heart, mostly set in the U.S. and Mexican border states of Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, was named Best Short Story Collection, 2018, by Killer Nashville.

Kathryn lives in Texas with her husband Bob Hurt. She loves the arts and is a board member for the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council.

To learn more about Kathryn, please visit her website.