Long Way
Down is finally live! I say finally because I’d originally hoped to
release it at the end of July; was in fact racing to complete the first draft
because I found out in June that my new puppy had been born and would be ready
to come home the first weekend in August. I wrote 75k words in July, but alas
was unable to finish LWD (that had been a foolish hope, anyway.) Strider came
home, and it’s been chaos ever since. But I did manage to finish, and then, with
painstaking slowness, work through my edits, fold in my editor’s edits, and
finally put the book on sale. Woohoo! (I say with a yawn, because sleep deprivation
is my closest companion these days.)
Some of my
series, like Sons of Rome or the Drake Chronicles, have a pre-planned
overarching plotline, the finish of which I’m always working toward. But
Dartmoor is much more of a gardening project. As I work on a book, I decide
which characters I want to highlight next, and start building toward their
featured stories. Sometimes, like with Tango, that process unfolds slowly over
the course of several books. With LWD, I introduced our main couple in the
previous book, and was so charmed by them that I decided to feature them next.
The novel
picks up in New York, right where The Wild Charge left off. With Abacus
toppled, there’s rumblings of a shakeup in the underworld. Nathan “Pongo” McCoy
has spent the last few years working more or less solo in Manhattan, keeping
tabs on the club’s various dealers and gleaning intel with his sunny
personality while the rest of the club stays stationed in Albany, where the
clubhouse is located. In TWC, we learned that he has a “working” relationship
with a Vice detective, Melissa Dixon, that’s turned romantic, and LWD starts
with Pongo offering to help her locate a rapist. He’s coincidentally asked to
investigate the very same rapist by an angry pimp who’s heard that the Lean
Dogs are in the white knight business these days. The underworld is talking
about the Dogs. Their reputation is shifting, and that leads Pongo toward new
potential allies in the city. It also draws some unwanted attention from other
powerful criminal organizations.
This tale is
mostly Melissa’s, though. We learn the story of her past one memory at a time
as the novel unfolds, a dark secret from her childhood that haunts her still,
and which has been the driving force behind her law enforcement career. I
couldn’t help but think of one of my earliest female leads, Lisa Russell, while
writing Melissa’s story. She’s prickly, and foul-mouthed, and doesn’t want
anyone’s help. She’s clothed herself in Hardass to keep from revealing any
weakness, and, at the end of the day, isn’t sure she trusts her own instincts
at all. Her dynamic with Pongo is one of my favorites to write: grump and
sunshine, with Pongo providing the sunshine – and sly charm – in spades.
Along the way,
we see more of Toly – who I love and will be writing a book for (next,
hopefully) – and meet two new characters, Kat and Prince, who were especially
fun to bring to life. I also really enjoyed Melissa’s partner, Rob Contreras,
who is such a dad and a genuinely good guy.
Typical
trigger warnings apply here, since Melissa and her partner are Sex Crimes
detectives investigating a serial rapist. Tread lightly if that sort of
violence hits too close to the bone.
I love
mysteries and police procedurals, and so this book, while an unexpected
addition to the saga, was a blast because I got to dabble in one of my favorite
genres. My editor said it reminds her of Whatever Remains, which is one
of her favorites in my catalogue. She also says it reads like a standalone, so
thumbs up for that. And for my part, I think it moves the needle on the overall
club plotline in an interesting and genre-bending way.
I hope you’ll
all enjoy it! Thanks so much for your patience and support.
~Lauren