Contains mild spoilers about my latest novel, Damaged Goods. (Aka if you're planning on reading the novel, you should probably wait to read this blog post until you've done so).

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Ever since I was very young and was exposed to books like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or even the Babysitter Club Super Mystery novels, I've been a fan of detective stories. I would read Encyclopedia Brown and try to solve the Two-Minute mystery before the kid detective could, and I too wondered Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

When I got a little older I read Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie novels, and finally Sue Grafton's female detective, Kinsey Millhone, cemented it for me: I wanted to be an author and I wanted to create a book series that followed the adventures of a strong-yet-flawed female detective. She would be street smart and a little rough around the edges. She would hold her own among men and still have time for a fulfilling personal life. Enter: Cassidy Miller.

Damaged Goods, the sequel to Don't Call Me Hero, tells the next chapter in Cassidy and Julia's nascent relationship and it witnesses Cassidy's struggle to rejoin the Minneapolis Police Department and gain better control over her PTSD. But with Cassidy's new assignment at the end of the novel, it also a serves as a vehicle for me to pursue my goal of writing novels that feature a very specific kind of female detective.

I'll soon begin work on my next novel (Elle and Hunter have been waiting patiently for me to tell the fourth installment of their story), but this is only the beginning for Detective Cassidy Miller, and of course, Julia Desjardin.

As always, I await anxiously to hear (read) your thoughts on this latest love story.

Stay warm,

Eliza