Crime writer Tracy Clark is back with another installment of her Detective Harriet Foster series. I recently spoke with her about Echo.
Tell me about your latest book.
Echo, book three in my Detective Harriet Foster series, is about the suspected hazing death of a young man found exposed outside a fraternity house at a prestigious university. As Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, along with their homicide team, begin to work the case, they quickly discover that their case is eerily similar to another decades-old case. Could it be the same killer, back again?
What inspired you to write it?
Writers get inspiration from everywhere. For Echo, I was driving around Chicago, passed one of our prestigious universities, and saw this big gothic-looking house set apart from the campus across a deserted field. Every story begins with “what if?”, and so I wondered, “Hmm. What if they found a body in that field?”
When did you fall in love with the written word?
Dr. Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. Still one of my favorites today. “My name is Sam, Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and ham.” My mother must have read that book to me a million times at bedtime. I was mesmerized by the rhythm of the words. I’m still obsessed with the rhythm of words. I know I’m done writing when the words sound right.
What’s the best part of being an author?
The writing itself. Writers have a relationship with the words. Writing is like playing a piano. It takes hours and hours and years and years of practice until you can get the words to work with you and not against you, until the effort becomes almost effortless, or mostly effortless. I like putting the words on paper, moving them around, getting them to say what I want to say.
What’s the hardest part of being an author?
Writing. As enjoyable and satisfying as writing can sometimes be, it’s hard work. Some days it’s harder to get the words on the page, but writing is now your job, and so you have to push through those hard days and get it done. I read a quote some time ago that spells it out: “Writers write. They don’t wait for it to become fun.”
What books have you read lately and loved?
I just finished Ramona Emerson’s second book, Exposure. It’s the sequel to her first book, Shutter. Emerson is a wonderful writer. Her main character, Rita Todacheene, is a Navajo forensic photographer who documents grisly crime scenes for the Albuquerque Police Department, but she has a special skill, or curse, depending on how you look at it. Rita sees dead people, and more frighteningly, they see her. Exposure is a very good read, part mystical, part eerie, part crime novel. I recommend it highly.
What book(s) are you most excited to read next?
Oh, so, so many. One of the great things about being in the writing community is that you look forward to reading the books of your writer friends with as much excitement as a four-year-old anticipates Christmas morning. My TBR stack is tremendous. I can’t read fast enough.
Who would you cast in a movie to play your main characters?
I don’t know. Detective Foster and Detective Li are really unique, multilayered and complicated characters. They’re not cookie cutter. I see them clearly in my mind, but don’t see anyone in Hollywood that reminds me of them. If I get lucky and Hollywood comes calling, I’ll let the experts decide. I’ll just write the books.
What’s next for you?
I am working on the next Detective Harriet installment. It’s tentatively titled EDGE. It’ll be out next year.
Do you have anything you would like to add?
For those pre-published writers out there, I will say, KEEP WRITING. It took more than 20 years for me to get published. If you want it, go for it. Don’t give up! And if you’re a writer of color, consider joining Crime Writers of Color. We’re a group of more than 350 writers of color who are in there fighting the good fight and getting our stories out there. Our voices must be heard.
Tracy Clark is the author of ECHO, the third novel in the Detective Harriet Foster police procedural series. She is also author of the Cass Raines PI series (Kensington Books), a two-time Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winning author, the 2024 Anthony Award-winner for Best Paperback Original, the 2024 Lefty Award-winner for Best Mystery and the 2022 winner of the Sara Paretsky Award. She is a board member-at-large of Sisters in Crime, Chicagoland and a member of International Thriller Writers, and serves on the boards of Mystery Writers of America Chicago and the Midwest Mystery Conference. You can visit her online at tracyclarkbooks.com.
Synopsis for ECHO
From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes a taut tale of renegade justice and long-awaited resolution, bringing the thrilling Detective Harriet Foster series to a heart-stopping conclusion.
Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.
Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.
Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice—and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.
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