Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Interview with NIke Chillemi about her new book, Courting Danger





Courting Danger, Ada Brownell, Spotlight-Interview

Blurb:

Newly installed Pelican Beach, Florida detective Katerina "Kat" Andruko fears the prime suspect will get off in the murder of a teen with the help of the department's forensics psychologist, a man she's just started to trust.



This case has national security implications that gives former US Army Ranger, Dr. Dimitri Garmonin a chance to work with the FBI. The case could give him the chance to obtain the funds needed to expand his small Behavior Analysis Unit. He's unmoved by the chic FBI agent sent to assist but is intrigued by Kat with whom he shares a Slavic heritage.



Kat and her partner detain two wrong suspects, giving the department negative press. The predator turns his anger on Kat, targeting her. Can Dimitri use his profiler skills to catch this killer before he hurts the woman he's growing to love?



Questions:

Q: Give us an insight into your main character(s). What does he/she do and/or what attributes does she/he possess that are so special?

A:  In COURTING DANGER both Detective Katerina "Kat" Andruko and forensic psychologist Dimitri Garmonin share a Slavic heritage. They even share more than that. As children both spent years in a Slavic country. Dimitri was born in Russia and lived there at the fall of the Soviet Union. His father was murdered there, and his mother escaped with him to America. As an adult, he still speaks with a faint Russian accent. After her parents were killed by a drunk driver in northeastern Florida, Kat was shipped off to an aunt and uncle she didn't know in Ukraine. She spent two of her teenage years there. Yes, Kat and Dimitri share a Slavic heritage, but culturally and politically, the Ukrainians and Russians hate each other. So, Kat not only distrusts Dimitri, she actually has him as her number one suspect in the murder case of a teenage girl whose body is found on the beach.



Q:  What inspires you?



A:  The truth is its the little, many times off-hand things that inspire both my novel and blog writing. Several years ago, I was totally taken by a pair of cardinals who flew north for the summer and how they related to each other for the two days they came to my backyard. I put a red cardinal and his mate in two of my novels as a symbol of love between spouses. COURTING DANGER is the exception. My own Slavic/Baltic heritage is Ukrainian, Czechoslovakian, and Croatian. When Russia was invading Crimea, I saw photographs of unarmed Ukrainian Orthodox Priests, in their robes, standing in front of the invading Russian tanks. Some held a Bible, others a cross. It was sort of, "You have to get through us firsts before you can get to the people." Those photographs are seared into my consciousness. I knew I'd write a story about a Ukrainian American woman who doesn't trust Russians and yet she's falling in love with a Russian born man … as they try to stop a wanton killer.


Nike Chillemi



Bio:


Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chair, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series (out of print), set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. The first novel in the Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels/Dawson Hughes series HARMRUL INTENT won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network.  https://nikechillemi.blog/





Twitter:  @NikeNChillemi


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)