I started this book after reading a newspaper article about a convicted felon who received a heart transplant while in prison. Which got me to thinking--What would you do if the love of your life lost their chance at a heart
transplant because the donor organ went to a convicted felon in prison?
Grieve the loss of your loved one? Or wait until the bastard was
released from prison, then hunt him down and get that much needed
revenge.
This became the premise for A Dead Red Heart,
however, since I could see both sides of the equation, I decided to add
some sympathetic traits to both parties... not that the perp isn't
guilty, but at the end of the book, I hope that you will see why this
person has managed to become so unraveled and how a course of revenge
will cut across several families, their lives and their secrets.
And because this story could become, well, rather grim,
I used the counterpoint of humor--the annoying newspaper man, who has
his own reasons for finding the killer, his not quite right aunt, whose
attempts to shoot Lalla at a funeral make for some exciting moments, and
then last but not least, Lalla's dad., Yes, he's decided he's going to
live after all, and he's now dating, starting with her third-grade
teacher. But nothing, as you will see, goes right for dad or Lalla in
the love department .