A Lethal Deception by Rachel Amphlett

When a brutal attack on a business owner is followed by a suspicious death, the police first suspect the beginning of a new underworld drugs war.

Then a second victim is found dead, and the truth starts to look like something much worse.

With the death toll rising and her career under scrutiny from the media and her own superiors, Kay Hunter is running out of time to unravel the deadly secrets hiding behind ruthless ambition and treachery.

But Kay isn’t going to give up easily.

Because this time, the first victim is closer to home…

Rachel Amphlett recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing her latest thriller, A LETHAL DECEPTION:

What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

As with previous books in the Kay Hunter series, I hope readers enjoy the fact that although the series is named after her, Kay isn’t always center stage.

The other members of her team, and the experts they rely upon, all have their place in A LETHAL DECEPTION, demonstrating the real-life camaraderie amongst the emergency services and the desperate race to stop a killer.

Rachel Amphlett

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

I’m always learning something writing crime fiction, whether that’s through my own research or reading other authors’ books—it’s never boring, that’s for sure!

What was the biggest challenge this book presented? What about the biggest opportunity?

The biggest challenge writing A LETHAL DECEPTION was the change in team dynamics when one of them is sidelined from the investigation, whereas this also presented me with an opportunity to explore spin-off stories in future—all of the series characters grow within this story, so who knows what could happen by the time we reach book 12?

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Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, because that’s what she grew up reading. When she was 11 years old, her grandad gave her his copy of The Eagle Has Landed, and she’s been an avid fan of the genre ever since.

Her debut thriller, White Gold, was released in July 2011 and features British secret agent Dan Taylor. The series established Rachel as an author to watch and spurned three more novels before Rachel turned her attention to a new character, Detective Kay Hunter.

The Kay Hunter crime thrillers are based in Kent and feature a tight-knit team of detectives. Praised by experts for their attention to detail, the books are also much loved by readers for their page-turning plots and devious twists with comparisons to TV shows NCIS and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

More recently, Rachel created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Mark Turpin, an Oxfordshire-based detective. The first book, None the Wiser, received critical acclaim from Adrian McKinty (The Chain) and Jo Spain (With Our Blessing, The Confession), with the follow-up book, Her Final Hour, being praised by the creator of the DCI Banks series, Peter Robinson.

In addition to her detective stories, Rachel also writes the English Assassins series featuring female assassin Eva Delacourt and a number of standalone crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, and conspiracy thrillers.

A keen traveler, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

To learn more about the author and her work, please visit her website.