ITʼS NEW YEARʼS DAY IN SEATTLE. PEOPLE ARE DYING AROUND J.P. BEAUMONT. SO NOTHING, REALLY, IS NEW

Nobody is grieving over the death of Donald Wolf, a biotechnology corporation executive whose numerous criminal activities included illegally trading industrial secrets . . . and rape. Too many people, in fact, are almost too eager to take responsibility for his murder.

At the start of a brand new year, Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont has his own life-shattering problems to worry about–from the imminent death of an ex-wife to trumped-up charges of child abuse. But the recently slain body floating in Elliott Bay is pulling Beau back to the job–leading him into a deadly morass of jealousies, personal betrayals, more corpses and corporate double-dealings… and closer to a killer he doesn’t really want to find.

Years ago during a book signing a wild-eyed man with cigarettes rolled into the sleeve of his T-shirt wheeled up to the table in his chair and said, “All you people who can walk do the same thing. You think just because someone’s in a chair, he has to be a noble, nice person. Well, we’re not, and I can prove it.”

I was happy to take his word for it, but when it came time to write this book, I thought it was fair to look for someone in a wheel chair who wasn’t “nice.” In doing the research for that character, I was introduced to Northwest Mobility, a Snohomish company that specializes in handicapped vehicle conversions. Hearing their story, I decided to put Northwest Mobility into this book just the way they were.

After the book was written and before it came out, I learned that a woman who had been an important sales rep for me had been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. For a change I was speechless. Holly Turner created the foundation of regional sales that presaged my national sales. I knew enough about ALS to know this was devastating news. I didn’t know if I should call or write and I certainly had no idea what I would say.

I had heard from a friend that Holly’s husband was in the process of remodeling their house to make it wheelchair accessible. A few days after hearing that news, I was out walking my dog and agonizing about whether or not I should call. Suddenly I remembered Northwest Mobility. If Holly's house was being converted to wheelchair accessible, she probably needed a handicapped vehicle conversion as well. I called Holly, telling her about Northwest Mobility. The next time I heard from her was a phone call which she returned from a motel in Florida where she and her husband were traveling in the van they had purchased from Northwest Mobility.

When I put that part in the book, I thought it was something my readers would find interesting. Now I think I was led to put those passages in so I’d have the information when Holly Turner needed it. She succumbed to ALS less than two years after her diagnosis. A short story called Flash of Chrysanthemum in an anthology called Route 66 is my tribute to Holly Turner.

JAJ