Q&A with Caitlin Rother

  

 

 

Caitlin Rother is the author of the new novel Staged, a sequel to her novel Hooked. A former investigative reporter, she lives in San Diego. 

 

Q: Staged is your second novel featuring your characters Katrina Chopin and Ken Goode--do you think they've changed at all from one book to the next?

 

A: This is the sequel to Hooked, and it picks up less than a month after Hooked leaves off, so no, they haven't changed in a significant way.

 

That said, Katrina and Goode grow closer emotionally in this book as they continue to investigate who is truly responsible for the deaths of Simon and Victoria Fontaine, who are found dead at the beginning of Hooked as the circle widens and they try to figure out who is in the cabal that their prime suspect mentioned before he was found dead in the opening chapters of Staged.

 

They also work more closely in this book as they investigate the murders of Katrina's parents -- off the books, because it is a conflict for Katrina and Goode is not part of the detective team who is allegedly still working the case, in fact, he's told to stay out of it -- and Goode is there for Katrina as she makes some surprising discoveries about her family and also as a stalker continues to threaten her life.  

 

Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?

 

A: I have written several true crime books about staged scenes -- homicides staged as accidents, suicide staged as homicide, and a hanging death staged as a suicide or a murder (it's still unclear which), so I used that knowledge to write this book, in which two deaths seem very suspicious to Goode and his sergeant, Rusty Stone.

 

One is an alleged suicide by hanging, which they believe is a homicide, and one appears to be natural death, but they believe it might be a homicide.

 

Another thread in this book is Katrina's discovery about her family through genetic genealogy, i.e. via a DNA test, which was inspired by my research for one of my true crime books, Body Parts, which I recently updated after detectives were finally able to identify the first victim of serial killer Wayne Adam Ford 25 years after he murdered her, thanks to genetic genealogy. 

 

Q: In our previous Q&A, you said you rewrote Hooked many times--was that the case with Staged as well?

 

A: Thankfully, no! After rewriting Hooked and its prequel, Naked Addiction, countless times over 17 and 19 years, respectively, I think I've finally got the hang of it. So, Staged took less than a year to write, as did the next two books in the series and the first in a new series, all of which are under submission but have yet to be published. 

 

Q: As someone who writes both fiction and nonfiction, do you have a preference?

 

A: I really enjoyed writing a dozen true crime books and learned a tremendous amount about homicides and homicide investigations, which has informed my fiction.

 

Now that I'm engrossed in writing psychological suspense and thrillers, I'm going to stick with that for a while, because it's fun and far less stressful. It's a lot more difficult to write true crime books these days for many reasons than it was when I started out.

 

That said, I've always enjoyed the research that comes with writing nonfiction, and was missing that, so I'm deep into the study of sociopaths and psychopaths right now for the next novel I'll be writing. It's fascinating.    

 

Q: Can you say more about what you’re working on now?

 

A: As I said above, I'm doing research for the sequel to a book in a new series I'm writing. The first one, which I believe I described in our last Q&A, is under submission, so I'm plotting the next one while I wait to hear from my publisher.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If anyone wants to know more about the back story of Detective Ken Goode, they can read Naked Addiction, which is the prequel to the Katrina & Goode series. Goode has been in my head for at least 36 years by now! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Caitlin Rother.