The Story Behind The First Girl by Jennifer Chase

 

 

 

The Story Behind The First Girl: Detective Katie Scott Book 11

By Jennifer Chase

 

It's no secret that I love dogs. It's not just the family pets, but all types of working dogs. It's truly amazing to understand how these incredible dogs are trained and how they perform their duties, whether it's for therapy, search, police, or military jobs. I've had the amazing opportunity to train in the areas of advance obedience, agility, and scent detection. Currently, I’m training with one of my dogs for search and rescue as a cadaver/forensic K9 team. With my background in criminology and police forensics, my writing has taken me into the crime fiction genre. 

In the Detective Katie Scott and K9 Cisco series, I created a character with a background in the Army as an explosive K9 unit as well as a police officer. I wanted to write a continuing storyline revolving around a cold case unit with all the ups and downs of the varied cases. It has been challenging because not all of these cases are immediate. Many have gone cold for months or even years, but that's where the creativity and fun come into play as a writer. I had this idea about the detective finding a child in the wilderness and that's how The First Girl began.

Out on her morning run, Detective Katie Scott is stopped in her tracks when her retired military working dog, Cisco, alerts her to something. Weaving through the towering pine trees, Katie is horrified to find a little girl alone in the woods, dressed in a white nightgown. The child sobs into Katie’s arms. She’s unharmed, but clearly traumatized. Scooping her up, Katie follows the trail to a large farmhouse. But what she finds there rips the air from her lungs: one, two, three, four bodies laid out side by side, all in matching pajamas.

By incorporating my knowledge of crime scenes, homicide investigations, forensics, and dog training, it has become the background and the story behind my book The First Girl.

 

 

 

Title: The First Girl: Detective Katie Scott Book 11

Author: Jennifer Chase

Pages: 354

Genre: Crime Fiction/Thriller

The cold night breeze slams the barn door shut with a sickening crash. The girl curled in the corner wakes with a start. Her gold butterfly necklace catches the pale moonlight as she clutches it tight, thinking of her family. Will she ever escape? Or is this the last face she’ll ever see?

Detective Katie Scott stares in horror at what she and her service dog Cisco have discovered: seven shallow graves, the bodies of young women each wrapped carefully in a blanket and buried in makeshift coffins. Miles of abandoned farmland stretch out from the treeline behind her. Has Katie uncovered the horrifying graveyard of a monster who has been stealing Pine Valley’s daughters for years?

Katie quickly identifies one of the victims as Abigail Andrews, a beautiful young woman who disappeared fifteen years ago. Katie is heartbroken that she’ll have to tell Abigail’s mother her darling girl is gone.

When Katie is ambushed working late at the scene, fired upon by an unknown assailant, she knows she must be close to finding the killer. But the shooter vanishes into thin air. And when a new young woman is taken, dark haired and dark eyed like the others, Katie realizes her time is running out. Can she stay alive long enough to track down this twisted murderer before another young life is stolen too soon?

“Fast paced, characters intelligent and had each others back. The plot was a bit harrowing, but from what plot entailed I was confident one of the main protagonists, Katie had the situation under control. At least the best of her capabilities as the situation warranted. This ebook was fresh, tasteful and powerful. It was a boon to read about a female with military experience who maintained a level head and who put her knowledge to practice.” ~Amazon 

“AMAZING characters (including Cisco of coarse) & suspense in a twisty plot that sucks you in & never lets you go. Highly RECOMMEND the entire series for some great reading.”  ~NetGalley

“AMAZING characters (including Cisco of coarse) & suspense in a twisty plot that sucks you in & never lets you go. Highly RECOMMEND the entire series for some great reading.” ~Goodreads

The First Girl is available at Amazon & Other Retailers.

 

Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and USA Today Best Selling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells. In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. Her latest book is The First Girl.

Website & Social Media:

Website -> https://authorjenniferchase.com/ 

Twitter -> https://twitter.com/jchasenovelist 

Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferChase 

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/jenchaseauthor/ 

Goodreads:->www.goodreads.com/author/show/2780337.Jennifer_Chase

The Story Behind The Butcher's Prayer by Anthony Neil Smith

 

THE BUTCHER'S PRAYER

By Anthony Neil Smith

   The inspiration for The Butcher’s Prayer has haunted me for over twenty years now. There was a real crime down on the Mississippi Coast – a butcher who killed a drug dealer he owed money to, then hacked the body apart like a side of beef. He tried to get rid of the pieces in the bayou behind his house (gators, you know). But the dead man’s girlfriend escaped and found help.

And I knew that butcher. He used to go to my Pentecostal church.

The seed was there, but I didn’t want to write the story of the actual crime. I wanted to fictionalize it to explore several different angles: what drives a person to do that to someone? How does a religious person cope with that horror? What drives people more – faith, family, or justice?

I finally realized how to write it when I visualized the detective, a fallen preacher turned cop named Hosea Elgin. He still wore his snazzy suits from his time as an evangelist, so I imagined him in his Sunday clothes and expensive loafers at the crime scene, trying to keep the blood off. He was the key to the story.

I’m no longer Pentecostal. My faith now is…complicated. But revisiting this world after not writing about it for twenty years reminded me of the things I liked (the music, the energy) and the things I hated (an obsession with “the end times,” the pressure to conform, the control the church wants over you), picking at scabs to make them bleed again.

But this book actually helped me climb out of a long period of depression. After some missteps with my “career,” I thought I was done with writing novels. I don’t think I wrote a word for six months. But once this story starting boiling on the back burner, I knew I had to try. I had an opportunity to show the partial to a superstar agent, who called and said he liked my writing, but things didn’t work out. His encouragement, and that of the writer who recommended me to him, helped me cross the finish line with the book. I had thought it might be too personal to share, but I can’t help it. I’m eager to hear what readers think!

 

Rodney Goodfellow watches his friend kill a man, and then volunteers the unthinkable – to carve up the body with his butcher’s knives in order to get rid of the evidence. But the victim’s girlfriend escapes halfway through the butchering, sending Rodney and the triggerman, Charles, on the run.

Charles is unhinged, flying high on meth. When it’s clear that escape isn’t a realistic possibility, he chooses chaos. He goes back looking for a little revenge, with Rodney and the girlfriend first on his list.

Hosea Elgin is a fallen preacher turned police detective…and Rodney’s brother-in-law. When he realizes Rodney is involved, he’s sickened, but he’s got to keep searching for his fugitives. He weighs loyalty to his job against loyalty to his family.

Rachel Goodfellow is Rodney’s wife and Hosea’s younger sister. She worries that Rodney might come looking for her in his time of need. He’s the father of her two children. Could they ever be a family again? Will her love for him overcome her revulsion, or will she be the one to turn him in?

And what about Hosea’s father, a Pentecostal pastor, and older brother, the pastor’s right hand man? Would they choose family over justice and give Rodney refuge in spite of Hosea?

Hosea and his partner are on the prowl, trying to find Rodney and Charles before they can kill again, but he never expects his own family to stand in his way. Ties are strained, faith is tested, and there has to be a breaking point.

You can order your copy at Amazon.

About the Author

Anthony Neil Smith is an English professor and crime novelist, born and raised in Mississippi, now teaching at  Southwest Minnesota State University. The Butcher’s Prayer is his fifteenth novel. He loves cheap red wine and Mexican food.

You can visit his website at http://www.anthonyneilsmith.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.