Photo by Geza Keller
Caitlin Rother is the author of the new novel Hooked. Her many other books include Death on Ocean Boulevard. A former investigative reporter, she lives in San Diego.
Q: What inspired you to write Hooked, and how did you create your characters Katrina Chopin and Ken Goode?
A: I grew up in La Jolla and have always been drawn to stories in which wealthy people behave badly.
I also was an investigative newspaper reporter for many years, covering the politics of professional football, political wrongdoing, and corruption and incompetence in government, where wealthy men who were not elected or appointed officials often seemed to exert their influence behind the scenes.
So, based on my personal and professional experience, I created this world in Hooked, where a surfing homicide detective and a female investigative reporter encounter many of these issues as they both investigate the suspicious deaths of two biotech execs who are developing a sexual enhancement drug.
The two investigators compete to solve these mysterious deaths, sometimes working together and sometimes at odds, while they navigate the sexual tensions between them.
Q: Can you say more about the dynamic between them?
A: They are immediately drawn to each other when they meet at the bar at Piatti, a restaurant in La Jolla, where they share some personal traumas from their past.
But when they learn that they are both working the same investigation, they must navigate ethical boundaries that go with the job as they also battle the sexual and professional tensions between them. So they are in constant conflict and competition, which heightens the suspense and drama of the story.
Q: The novel is set in the San Diego area--how important is setting to you in your writing?
A: Most of the novel is set in La Jolla, a wealthy coastal enclave of San Diego that is trying to break away and become its own city (in real life, not in the book). There are scenes that take place in other parts of San Diego, such as Balboa Park and Mr. A’s, and the climax scenes take place on Coronado Island, which is a city of its own.
But as a surfer, the beach is very important to Detective Ken Goode, whose home away from home is Windansea, a well-known surfing spot and local jewel of La Jolla. So the ocean and the wealth of this pristine community are an important backdrop to the story, as Katrina and Goode peel back the layers to reveal a corrupt underbelly–a cabal of elites with many secrets.
Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I have written and rewritten this book so many times that I’ve lost count and frankly don’t remember how it originally ended. On the advice of my agent several times removed, I started the book over completely in a new file and subsequently added a new beginning and made major changes throughout.
I started it soon after the prequel, Naked Addiction, was released in 2007, intending to start a series. But I did not know enough about homicide detectives and forensic evidence back then, so that did not come to fruition.
Now that I’ve written a dozen true crime books, my storytelling abilities have improved, and I am also much more versed in police procedures and other facets of the crime world. So, I’ve been able to write these thrillers much faster these days.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m close to completing the first draft of a new novel, which is also set in La Jolla and Coronado, California, but has a new set of characters.
It’s about a female sheriff’s sexual-assault detective and former Olympic swimming contender who catches the attention of the charismatic male leader of a spiritual retreat center for unfulfilled and lonely wealthy women, many of whom get pregnant soon after they join the center.
The detective gets caught up in a personally confusing situation with the leader while secretly investigating his cult-like organization. The center leader becomes obsessed with the detective while pursuing her to be the coaching director of the elite child athlete training arm of the center, while her interactions with him bring back buried childhood trauma.
Is the leader a predator of vulnerable women and their wealthy indifferent husbands, or is he really a healer?
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Hooked is the first in my new Katrina & Goode thriller series. Book 2, Staged, comes out in June, and Books 3 and 4 are under submission with my editor. I hope to have news on that front very soon!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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