Crime Fiction THE DEEPEST KILL with Lisa Black

For software pioneer Martin Post, the third richest man in America, his private compound on the Florida coast is a sunny no-man’s-land separating his family from the rest of the world. Now, expert forensic analysts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies of the renowned Locard Institute have been summoned to its dark side.

Martin’s pregnant daughter, Ashley, had ventured on a day trip in her motorboat into the Gulf, only to wash up dead on a nearby shore. Although the local coroner determined her death was an accident, Ellie and Rachael soon confirm Martin’s gravest fear: His daughter was murdered. Was it a kidnapping gone wrong? Or something even more brutal? Ashley and her husband, Greg, had been working working with Martin on a revolutionary new defense initiative for the US military – could espionage have played a part in her death? Martin believes Greg is behind the murder, and the spoiled charmer does set off Rachel’s deception radar. If the widower didn’t kill Ashley himself, why isn’t he more upset that she’s dead?

Drawn into the Posts’ increasingly dangerous family dynamic, Ellie and Rachael must work hard and fast to discover what secrets are buried at the heart of the crime. Because the churning waters of the Gulf are getting rougher. And soon, Ellie and Rachael themselves will be in danger of getting crushed in their depths.

Lisa Black

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Black recently sat down with The Big Thrill to discuss her latest crime fiction, THE DEEPEST KILL.

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?

I live in Florida now–something I’ve never been 100% happy about since it’s too far from my family and it’s too bloody hot 10 months out of the year–so I thought of using that outsider’s point of view on the unique aspects of a Florida crime scene.

When you first created your protagonist for this book, did you see an empty space in crime lit that you wanted to fill? What can you share about the inspiration for that character?

I knew what I didn’t want, I didn’t want her to be superhuman, like some kind of genius who was also a trained assassin. I wanted her to be unusual, but unusual because what sounds like disadvantages–such as being an orphan who was raised by a succession of relatives–are actually advantages that give her a vast foundation of knowledge and resources.

Were there any particular books, movies, or songs that were knocking around in your head while you were writing this one?

Maybe The Social Network? Any documentary on the Laci Petersen case. And Million-Dollar Listing.

A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?

Years?? No, no. I don’t really want to spend years on *any* book! 6-9 months, fine, but not years. My attention span isn’t that good.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Scenes that will keep coming back to them for weeks, and characters that seem odd and creepy and funny and all those things.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?

The next book is called Not Who We Expected, in which an aging rock star tasks the Locard with first finding and then kinda spying on his missing daughter.