Goodreads asked April Henry:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

April Henry I got the idea in April 2012 when a friend told us her teen was a volunteer with Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue. Not only does MCSOSAR look for people lost in the woods, but they also recover bodies and they do crime scene evidence searches and they are a teen-led organization. The more I learned, the more I was sure I had found what I had long sought: a realistic hook for a teen mystery series. People in MCSO SAR have been so helpful to me in researching and writing.

The teens who volunteer for it undergo an incredible amount of training. They meet every Wednesday evening as well as do weekend outings once a month. I have gone to trainings with them, most recently a unit on "man tracking," which is what they call it when you follow someone's tracks. It's a real art, and the only clue that someone might have been there can be as small as a broken twig or a few grains of sand on top of a leaf. (I told folks at my kung fu school that I was learning to man track and another lady said, "Oh, don't worry, honey, I can set you up with somebody!")

And here's a teaser for the second book, which I just turned in: Nick, Alexis and McClure are well on their way to being full-fledged members of Portland’s Search and Rescue - and to being friends. When a woman is found stabbed to death, their team is called out to search for evidence. Suspicion begins to fall on the woman’s neighbor, an awkward kid who collects knives, loves first-person shooter video games, and doodles violent scenes in his school notebooks: Nick Walker. As the evidence against their friend mounts, Alexis and Ruby must decide where their loyalties lie - even if it puts them in danger.

flag