Over the years, many of you, my appreciated readers, have expressed how much you enjoyed my first series, the Tori Cooper Novels. Thank you for that, by the way. I am always grateful when someone takes the time to reach out. Tori and the gang were fun to write about as my first foray into paranormal crime fiction, and I learned a great deal throughout that series about character and story development.
As I hinted in an earlier post, I was in the midst of my most recent novel, now in the final editing stages, which I have since titled, ‘The Abbreviated Life of Kara Rose.’
I started writing the Kara Rose story as a standalone novel. Still, by the middle of the story, I began thinking about Ivy, my protagonist, at odd times when I wasn’t writing. I decided she was a curious soul who needed further exploration, particularly her predictive dreams. By the end of the book, it didn’t feel like the end of the book; it felt like there was more to learn from Ivy; her story wasn’t over. So, done and dusted, it was time for another series, this one titled ‘The Ivy Daniels Novels.’
Why Ivy Daniels? It’s a bit of an homage to my family history. My paternal grandfather’s first name was Ivy, and my maternal grandfather’s first name was Daniel. Both were kind and loving grandfathers. It just felt right to name the series after them.
Here’s the teaser for book one:
Ivy Daniels is one of those people who enjoys the challenge of what others may call an unsolvable puzzle. Pair that tenacity with keen investigative skills, premonitory visions, and a passion for working cold cases, and you get a very atypical criminal forensic analyst. Her methods may not be conventional, but her success rate is beyond question.
When Ivy has two consecutive dreams about a childhood friend’s recent death, she returns to Fern Lake for the funeral, only to discover a possible connection to another childhood friend’s death from twelve years earlier. Both deaths were ruled as suicides, but Ivy feels certain there are missing pieces, not telling the full story.
There’s very little evidence, but as she begins to investigate the possible connection, details begin to unfold and reveal a dark secret so disturbing that it forces Ivy to question not only her faith as a reliable path to the truth, but also the danger of sometimes putting your faith in the wrong hands.