[Guest Post]: A Venomous Love by Chris Karlsen
Writing an Old Fashioned Detective
I spent nineteen of my twenty-five years in law enforcement as a detective. Long before I became a police officer, I wanted to be a writer. But I feared it wasn’t a practical profession and lacked the confidence to an attempt at it. Shortly after I retired from law enforcement, I found the courage to try my hand writing a story that I had floated around in my imagination for years. I started taking classes to learn the craft and began my first book at the same time.
When I went to conferences and seminars the same question was asked: why don’t I write a cop story? I never had the desire to write a contemporary one murder/suspense. I enjoy a good police story as much as anyone. My favorite authors in the genre are Mike Connelly, Joe Wambaugh, and John Sandford. I just didn’t want to take that road.
I love history and began a series of historical romances involving time travel. While writing that series I got the idea for an old fashioned detective. I knew he’d work in London and I couldn’t think of a better setting for murder/suspense than Victorian England. From that idea, Detective Rudyard Bloodstone (Ruddy) was created.
When I started the Bloodstone series, it hadn’t occurred to me how much of my personal experience as a detective would influence the stories. I used my years of interviewing suspects to enhance the mindset(s) of the killers. I found including the POV of the antagonists added a lot of interesting aspects to their characters. They remained villains, but they weren’t flat, black and white ones.
In the first book, Silk, Detective Bloodstone must battle politics and the class structure while pursuing his suspect. In Snifter of Death, the second book, he and his partner find themselves investigating a killer that is the last person anyone would suspect. In my latest book, A Venomous Love, there are two villains. An added twist to the case is the murderer’s use of a most unusual weapon.
My detective experience became important in the execution of Ruddy’s investigations. Silk is set in 1888, Snifter of Death in 1889 and A Venomous Love in 1890. He literally has no forensic science to help him. With each murder, I had to walk the scene with him, observe with him, and consider what could possibly serve as a clue. To stay true to the period, I had to strip away everything I knew from modern investigations and fall back on old fashioned police work.
Detectives everywhere, and over time, have all handled the occasional bizarre case. One of the main elements of A Venomous Love is the weapon used. It is based on an actual event related to me years ago by a London police officer friend of mine. The setting, the time of the story and the weapon add a colorful angle.
I found the challenge of writing a cop story with a Victorian setting surprisingly fun. Detective Bloodstone has become my favorite character to write. I love filling his world with people from all walks of life in that period. He definitely will get more cases to solve in the near future.
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About the book
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Book 3 of the Bloodstone Series
Genre: Historical Suspense/Thriller
Date Published: February 28, 2020
Publisher: Books to Go Now
The killer whispered-“A pretty damsel…worth a pretty risk.”
A veteran, Detective Rudyard Bloodstone has fought a brutal battle and witnessed war horrors that haunt his nightmares. Now one of those horrors has followed him home from Africa.
A vicious predator, the Cape cobra, can kill a man in thirty minutes. A suspect using the snake as a weapon in robberies is terrorizing London.
When the crimes escalate into murder, a victim’s daughter, Honoria Underhill, becomes the focus of the killer. After several attempts on her life, Scotland Yard threatens to take over the high profile case. With few leads to follow, Bloodstone and his partner must now fight department politics and catch the killer before Underhill becomes another murder victim.
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About the author
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I was raised in Chicago. My father, a history professor, and my mother, a voracious reader passed on a love of history and books along with a love of travel.
I am a retired police detective. After twenty-five years in law enforcement I decided to pursue my dream of writing. I write a historical-time travel romance series called Knights in Time and a historical suspense called The Bloodstone Series.
I am also working on a world war two series of novella romances. The first is Moonlight Serenade and currently available. The second is my work in progress at the moment and will be titled, The Ack-Ack Girl.
Contact Links
Website: https://chriskarlsen.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chriskarlsen1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4822048.Chris_Karlsen
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/chriskarlsen/boards/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en
Subscribe: https://www.subscribepage.com/Moonlight_Serenade
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Purchase Links
Giveaway
2 e-copies of A Venomous Love, 1 Amazon gift card for $20 to a random winner
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