Tuesday Teaser - Christopher Sandige

This week, I'm answering the question about my character's backgrounds with information on Christopher Sandige, who made his first appearance in Exit 22 and has remained throughout the Black Swamp Mysteries series. Last week, I profiled Brenda Carnegie; the week before, Dylan Maguire; and the week before, Vicki Boyd.

Christopher Sandige is an anti-hero, a guy who is more at ease behind a desk constructing political strategies for his Congressman boss than he is running for his life through alligator-infested swamps with Brenda Carnegie.

He told himself he didn’t want a woman, a marriage, a typical family life in the suburbs. His hours were long and often began with coffee at his desk and ended with pizza delivery to the office. All that changed when he met Brenda.

The woman awakened in him desires he didn’t think he had—a longing to be with her, a need for romance, a desire for intimacy, an urge to protect her—even when he knew she was quite capable of protecting herself. He’d never really had eyes for anybody other than Brenda and though he knows she is dangerous, he can’t seem to tear himself away from her.

When push comes to shove, it turns out he is quite capable of handling a gun, of fighting off an attacker in hand-to-hand combat, of working in a team that often finds itself at the wrong end of a barrel… and of crossing the line without a look back.

If the Black Swamp Mysteries series was made into a movie, who would I want to play him? My pick would be Tom Weston-Jones.

Next week: Sam Mazoli.

Tuesday Teaser

So many people loved Brenda Carnegie and Chris Sandige in Exit 22 that it spawned the Black Swamp Mysteries series. In Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, they are reunited--along with Dylan and Vicki. Here's the scene in which Chris sees Brenda again:

Chris strode purposefully across the kitchen and grasped Brenda in his arms, pulling her to him like she weighed no more than a rag doll. One hand gripped her hair, his fingers ensnared in the thick tresses as they moved upward to her head, drawing her face up to his as his lips found hers.

Then they are spinning to the side as Chris backed Brenda against the side of the refrigerator, driving her against the hard surface with unbridled passion. She met his efforts with a husky moan and as he began to pull back, she grabbed his head and pulled him back to her, her eyes opening momentarily to reveal a fire burning from within.

The knowledge that he should not be gawking began to wash over Dylan and he forced himself to draw his eyes away from them. As he moved past them to the doorway they continued their reunion as if they were oblivious of his presence.

As he stepped into the hallway, Vicki moved toward the kitchen but he caught her and pulled her away.

"No, darlin'," he said gently as he pulled the door closed behind them, "they need to be alone."

Secrets of a Dangerous Woman

My 14th book was released earlier this month and I'm really happy to say it has come out of the starting gate at a gallop. For the first time ever, the eBook was released a month before the printed edition. The excitement has been building and in a few weeks, I will embark on an around-the-world blog tour - 21 stops in 21 days.

Secrets of a Dangerous Woman is part of the Black Swamp Mysteries series. It is set in Lumberton, North Carolina, where the black water of the Lumber River snakes through town. It's the perfect place to hide a body.

The town is a step back to yesteryear with its wide historic streets, trees overhanging to meet in the middle of the street like two ancient friends shaking hands...

And it's the site where a group of operatives gather, ready for their next CIA mission.

Vicki Boyd is a psychic spy who can travel to any longitude and latitude and report back to our government on exactly who and what is there;

Dylan Maguire is an undercover operative on his first CIA mission in Secrets of a Dangerous Woman;

Brenda Carnegie is a computer hacker who prefers to live on the wrong side of the law; and it's her illegal exploits that have her in Dylan's crosshairs as he undergoes his first mission: to interrogate her.

Christopher Sandige is a political strategist who is infatuated with the beautiful and mysterious Brenda but who may find he could risk too much to find her and keep her safe;

And when Brenda escapes from Dylan's custody, it's obvious that she had help from within the CIA's own ranks. With Vicki Boyd's help, Dylan finds her again. But now his mission has changed. Now he must discover why some in the highest government offices want her killed -- and others will risk everything to help her.

And when he discovers her true identity, his mission has just become very personal.

Buy it today at amazon: Kindle or in printed form. Also available at all fine book stores and for iPad, Nook and other eReaders!

Femme Fatale

The character of Brenda Carnegie in Exit 22 was inspired by Kathleen Turner more than 20 years before Exit 22 was published.

In 1981, Kathleen Turner starred with William Hurt in the movie Body Heat. Her voice was deep, sultry and hypnotic. It would be the kind of voice that Christopher Sandige described in Exit 22 as "husky, the kind of voice a woman wakes up with but is gone before her lipstick is on" when describing Brenda Carnegie.



In Body Heat, Kathleen Turner sizzles. It was that sexiness that I tried to convey with Brenda Carnegie, the type of woman who instantly has a hold on the man she makes love to... Even when the man begins to wonder if she's operating on the wrong side of the law.

In Exit 22, Christopher Sandige is a political strategist who is traveling south on Interstate 95 when he's involved in an automobile accident at Exit 22 in North Carolina. Stranded for the weekend in Lumberton, he meets Brenda Carnegie and is instantly attracted. Her eyes are such a light shade of brown that they turn amber in some lights, and he finds himself mesmerized by them. The eyes were inspired by this picture.

Even when Chris is pulled into a double homicide and finds himself running from the law and a sociopathic assassin determined to kill him and Brenda, he can not pull himself away from her, preferring to risk losing everything simply to have her.

Brenda is the type of woman who is equally at home seducing a man, tramping through alligator-infested swamps, or using her computer expertise to make millions in illegal activities.

And at the end of Exit 22, I was inundated with requests to bring her back.

Well, now my fans will have their wish.

Exit 22 has been spun off into a series entitled Black Swamp Mysteries. The next book is Vicki's Key, which will be released in March 2012. Christopher Sandige is back and he's looking for Brenda. His obsession will culminate in the third book of the series, Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, due to be released in September 2012.

You've probably guessed that the dangerous woman is Brenda Carnegie... And you'll learn that her illegal activities in Exit 22 were just the tip of the iceberg. Now she has secrets so explosive that she can bring down an entire government.

If you haven't read Exit 22 yet, you'll want to before the next two books are released in 2012. Through October 31, the book is on sale for only 99 cents in the Kindle edition. On November 1, it will return to $6.99.

Thank you, Kathleen Turner, for the inspiration.