Interview with mystery author Frank Zafiro

Mystery author Frank Zafiro is here today to chat about the newest book in his River City police procedural series, The Worst Kind of Truth.

During his virtual book tour, Frank will be awarding Winner #1 a box set of River City series 1-3 (Kindle version) AND Winner #2 a surprise package of out-of-print versions of Zafiro titles (paperbacks) – US Only. International readers may substitute a digital version of any title in the author’s back catalog to two randomly drawn winners. To enter for your chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Frank Zafiro writes gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge. He was a police officer from 1993 to 2013, holding many different positions and ranks. He retired as a captain.

Frank is the award-winning author of over three dozen novels, most of them crime fiction. These include his River City series of police procedurals, Stefan Kopriva mysteries (PI), SpoCompton series (hardboiled), Jack McCrae mysteries (PI), and Sandy Banks thrillers. He has also co-authored multiple series with other authors, including the Charlie-316 series (procedurals with Colin Conway), Bricks and Cam Jobs (action, dark comedy with Eric Beetner), and the Ania series (hardboiled with Jim Wilsky).

In addition to writing, Frank hosted the crime fiction podcast Wrong Place, Write Crime. He has written a textbook on police report writing and taught police leadership all over the US and Canada. He is an avid hockey fan and a tortured guitarist. He currently lives in the high desert of Redmond, Oregon.

Welcome, Frank. Please tell us about your current release.
The Worst Kind of Truth is the eleventh book in the River City series of police procedurals. There is an ensemble cast but Katie MacLeod is the core character. She began as a patrol officer but is now a detective, having worked her way into Major Crimes. In this book, she is assigned to two very different sexual assault cases. One is a stranger-to-stranger assault on a prostitute. The other is a date-rape scenario at the local college.

What inspired you to write this book?
I keep coming back to River City because it is my flagship series. I love the array of characters. Mostly, though, I come back for Katie MacLeod. Her combination of honest vulnerability and tenacious grit is intriguing to me, because I think it is the closest thing to true heroism that we see in the real world.

I’ve broached many different crimes as the backdrop for these novels. Sexual assault was explored in a much different way in #3 Beneath a Weeping Sky. This time out, I wanted to delve into how difficult these cases can be from an investigative perspective, as well as how different we treat this crime on a social level. The fact that Katie’s history—both personal and professional—plays into it as well makes for an intriguing story.

Excerpt from The Worst Kind of Truth:
As soon as the door closed, Katie put the car in gear and chirped the tires. She felt Tower’s gaze upon her as she left the parking lot and headed toward First and Madelia.

After a block, he asked, “Uh… what’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“You know your coffee was on the roof, right?”

Shit. “And now it’s on the ground. What’s your point, Tower?”

“That something’s obviously wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Then I must be horrible at reading people.”

Katie made an indecipherable sound and continued driving, still not looking at Tower.

After a few more blocks, Tower asked, “Where we going?”

“Here,” Katie answered, turning right on Madelia Street. When she reached First Ave., she pulled to the curb and parked.

Tower glanced outside the car, then back at her. “All right. You want to canvass?”

Katie nodded. Finally, after a few long seconds, Katie turned to him. “Patrol didn’t do any canvassing at all.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

Tower reached up and scratched the stubble on his cheek briefly. “I’ve seen it plenty. The uniforms are hammered with calls. And it’s not an active crime scene. Probably, they took a look around, saw that all the cockroaches had scattered when they arrived, and—”

“You’re defending them?”

“I’m being realistic.”

“You know they put my victim in the back seat, too?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Tower frowned. “That’s unfortunate. But it is a two-officer car.”

Katie sighed. “I know.”

Tower eyed her carefully. “You want to talk about it?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

What exciting story are you working on next?
The next River City novel will feature Katie again, this time investigating a pair of missing persons cases. But the next Stefan Kopriva mystery will come first. This series is a spin-off to River City, as Kopriva is a character in the earlier River City novels. Spoiler alert, but he leaves the job, though there is still significant character crossover in both series. I haven’t written a Kopriva novel since 2015, so it is high time. This one will be a gut punch for a character who many have described as my “whipping boy.” A long-departed person returns to his life with terrible results, leading to a mystery that is as painful as it is difficult to solve. Look for it to come out late 2022/early 2023. The next River City will follow that one.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. But I suppose that when my first paid short story was published in 1990, I started to think that other people might consider me one.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like?
When I was still working, I carved out blocks of time to write. Now that I am retired and write full time, I try to keep to a routine, especially when I’m writing a first draft. That involves coffee in the morning, and then diving into the new work first, getting new words on the page. I do that because mornings are when the creative energy is the strongest. I go for as long as that wave will take me. Whenever it crashes onto the beach, I shift to the editing and marketing/business aspects of writing. As an indie author, there are plenty of those! I tend to work six or seven days a week but I’m also flexible if life dictates. And as I finish first drafts, I tend to take a few days to let that recharge, during which time I work a little less and only on the dryer side of things (editing, marketing, etc.).

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don’t tend to physically describe my major characters very much. There are exceptions, but I usually limit description to a general one, with one or two distinctive features to set the character apart. As a result, readers are all over the map on how certain characters look, and who they resemble.

If that’s not interesting, maybe this is: I draw a fair number of my character names from two places—hockey, and my time in the Army. Thus, if you’re a hockey fan or served with me from 1986-91, you’ll recognize a lot of names in my books.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer. Always a writer. There were other things I thought I would like (teacher, cop, lawyer) and that I knew would pay the bills, but my dream was always to be a writer writing full time. And now I am. Talk about lucky.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I think the only point I’d make is for anyone who might be hesitant about The Worst Kind of Truth due to the crime Katie investigates. To be clear, no sexual assaults are depicted on the page in The Worst Kind of Truth. The events and the subject itself are discussed frankly, though, as you might expect in a police procedural. That discussion tends to be professional and a little more clinical than if I had shown the actual assaults in progress (which wouldn’t have worked for story reasons, anyway). Other than that, just another thanks to anyone who gives my work a shot. I am truly grateful.

And thanks for hosting me!

You’re quite welcome!

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