Blog Tour: Review & Interview: Fallen by Leslie Tentler

Please welcome author Leslie Tentler.  She is promoting her latest book, Fallen.  Enjoy her interview after my thoughts on the book.

Publisher: Left Field Press
Date of publication: October 2014

Amid a sultry Atlanta summer, someone is targeting police…

The investigation becomes personal for APD Detective Ryan Winter when a colleague and friend is shot dead, the second victim in just weeks. But even as he finds himself being drawn into the tense hunt for a serial cop killer, he is forced to re-examine his own shattering personal tragedy.

An ER physician at Atlanta’s busy Mercy Hospital, Dr. Lydia Costa is no stranger to suffering. Still, the recent police slayings reopen barely healed wounds—and bring her face-to-face with her ex-husband, Ryan Winter.

As the body count rises and paranoia tightens its grip on the police force, Lydia and Ryan are pulled together by circumstances and fate…causing old passions to reignite despite their painful shared past. But as Ryan moves closer to discovering the killer’s identity, someone is watching, placing both him and Lydia in mortal danger.

My thoughts:

 I enjoyed Fallen.  While it has great suspense and a good serial killer mystery, it is also a heartbreaking story about two people who are destined for each other if only the can move beyond the hurt from their personal tragedy.  Lydia and Ryan are divorced after losing their toddler son in a freak accident.  The murder of a fellow cop brings them back together. It's clear that they still care for each other.  The loss of a child always makes for a heartbreaking story.  I was rooting for them to find their way back to each other.  

The mystery was good with an interesting twist.  Someone is targeting cops and that means a whole lot of suspects.  I was surprised at the killer in the end.  That made the book more enjoyable.  I definitely recommend Fallen.  This is the fist one I have read by the author.  I will have to check out her Chasing Evil Trilogy next!

Kari& Autumn: What inspired you to become a writer?

Leslie: My love of reading, I’m sure. I read a lot as a child – even more than I do now, because I had so much more free time – and still remember summers when my mother would keep me busy by constantly taking me to our local library to load up on books. “Living” in those fictional worlds made me want to take it a step further and start creating my own characters and stories, I think.

Kari& Autumn: Where do you come up with the ideas for your books?

Leslie: That’s a good question. I wish I knew the answer! I just get these little seeds of ideas in my head and then start working the story out on my computer screen. I daydream A LOT about my characters, and the majority of those scenes floating in my mind never make it into the actual story.

For my Chasing Evil Trilogy, all I knew in the beginning was that I wanted each book to be about a different FBI agent, facing the investigation of his life while also beginning to develop feelings for a woman ensnared in the case. My new book, Fallen, is also in that “law enforcement romantic thriller” territory. But emotionally, I wanted to give it a new twist. Instead of having two characters who meet and fall in love over the course of the story, I wanted to write about a couple who had been very much in love, then had a terrible tragedy befall them that drove them apart. Having a previously married couple trying to find their way back to one another was something I hadn’t done before. And of course, all of this is set against a pretty tense investigation my hero is handling…he’s a homicide detective with the Atlanta Police.

Kari& Autumn: What exciting projects are waiting in the wings?

Leslie: I have another novel close to completion that I’m planning to publish sometime next year. While Fallen is a standalone novel, my next book, tentatively titled Clarity Bay, might be the start of a series. It’s my first foray into something outside of law enforcement-oriented romantic thrillers. While Clarity Bay certainly has aspects of romantic suspense, it also has a Southern, small town romance vibe.

Kari& Autumn: Who is your favorite literary character and why?

Leslie:It has nothing to do with romantic suspense, of course, but I just adore Bridget Jones.

Kari& Autumn: Just for fun, if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?

Leslie: Definitely a cat. My cat, Alex, is sitting in my office right now. Cats just always seem so cool and un-needy. But being a duck, floating around on the water all day, also seems pretty great, too.

Thanks for having me!

About the author:

Leslie Tentler is best known as the author of the Chasing Evil Trilogy (MIDNIGHT CALLER, MIDNIGHT FEAR and EDGE OF MIDNIGHT). She was named as a finalist for Best First Novel at ThrillerFest 2012 for Midnight Caller, and as a finalist in the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense for Edge of Midnight. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Maggie Award of Excellence. Her newest romantic suspense novel is titled FALLEN.

Leslie is a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild and Novelists, Inc. A native of East Tennessee, she currently resides in Atlanta.

Her latest book is the romantic suspense, Fallen.

For More Information

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• More books by Leslie Tentler.
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• Contact Leslie.