Contemporary Thrillers AfterStrike by L.J. Sellers

What if, without warning, you had to run and leave everything behind?
Remi Bartell faces that terrifying moment and takes only her dog to start her life over.

Just as she settles in, lightning strikes her. Remi temporarily loses her memory and makes one small mistake—that costs her everything. The crime-family patriarch she’s hiding from kidnaps her and forces her to carry out his personal vendetta. The trauma reveals buried memories from her old life that will either destroy her or save her.

“I absolutely loved this story!” — Midwest Book Review

“The best thriller L.J. Sellers has written, and she’s at the top of my must-read list.” — Bestselling Author Teresa Burrell

L.J. Sellers recently spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing her latest thriller, AFTERSTRIKE.

Can you pinpoint a moment or incident that sparked the idea for this book?
I was reading a news story about a crime family patriarch that had committed six million in insurance fraud before getting caught. The details about how he staged phony car accidents and the quotes from the family members who got sucked into his schemes were fascinating. Soon after, I read another interesting feature story about a lightning strike survivor. I started bouncing the ideas together in my head, and this amazing story emerged.

L.J. Sellers

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?
The inspiration for this character originally came from a feature story I read about a lightning strike victim and her long-term personal struggles. In time, she joined a support group that helped her recover, at least emotionally. Around the same time, I met (and danced with!) a man who’d lost both arms in an electrical shock accident. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the people whose lives had been radically changed by electrical shocks, and I wanted to speak for them through fiction.

In addition to a great read, what do you hope readers will take away from this story?
In each of my novels, I introduce readers to people they might never have thought about before and let them walk a page or so in their shoes. Lightning strike survivors, like many others who are suffering from chronic pain, may not show any visible injuries. I hope readers will come away from this story with more understanding that people around them could be suffering in silence and to show more compassion for everyone.

What can you share about what you’re working on next?
My faithful Detective Jackson readers have been patient while I wrote several standalone thrillers, but I promised them my next story would be Jackson #17

L.J. Sellers writes the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries—a four-time winner of the Readers Favorite Awards. She also pens the high-octane Agent Dallas series, the Extractors series, and provocative standalone thrillers. A woman of many words, L.J. also writes thriller scripts, including the true story of how she rescued her grandchildren from a cult in Costa Rica.
L.J. resides in Eugene, Oregon where many of her 30 novels are set. When not plotting murders, she enjoys standup comedy, cycling, and zip-lining. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.

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