We chat with author Amy Pease about Wildwood, which follows a mother-son law enforcement team who confront buried secrets in their small town as they work to expose a conspiracy that goes far beyond the tight-knit community.
Hi, Amy! Welcome back! How has the past year been since we last spoke?
In a word, BUSY! Lots of writing, lots of wonderful in-person author events. Juggling all that with kids and a day job has been intense but somehow we’re all making it work.
Your latest novel, Wildwood, is the sequel to your debut and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Small-town cops uncover criminal conspiracy.
What can readers expect?
Medicare fraud! Also a moody, atmospheric Northwoods police procedural with complex characters.
Where did the inspiration for the storyline in Wildwood come from?
I love criminal conspiracies in crime fiction and true crime, as opposed to serial killers or crimes of passion. I’ve worked in healthcare for 25 years and I’ve always found that healthcare fraud is particularly sinister. We assume that those tasked with healing, treating, and protecting the vulnerable must, by definition, be acting in good faith, and when they don’t, it breaks trust in a very chilling way. Some of the plot aspects in the book are inspired by actual healthcare fraud and human trafficking cases, and I was also very inspired by the plot of John le Carre’s The Night Manager, about an international arms dealer who has created a system that made bringing him to justice nearly impossible.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?
I found it fascinating to research actual healthcare fraud cases. The cost and harm caused by these schemes is staggering, and some of the schemes are so diabolically clever.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
This was the first book I’ve written on deadline. My debut, Northwoods, took me about 5 years to write and I had less than a year to write Wildwood. It forced me to outline the plot ahead of time rather than just write by the seat of my pants. In the end, this approach was much more efficient but it meant leaving the character and relationship development until the end of the process. There were moments where I thought maybe I wouldn’t be able to actually flesh out my characters as much as I wanted to, and my books are very character-driven. Thankfully, it all turned out in the end.
Were there any key lessons you learned between working on the two books?
I learned A LOT of lessons. First, I will never try to carry crime plot arcs over multiple books. I left loose ends at the end of Northwoods, thinking it would be cool to expand the crimes of that book into a larger conspiracy in Wildwood. I think I pulled that off but it made things infinitely more difficult when writing Wildwood. I was bound by plot points laid out in the first book and had to find my way around them. Secondly, I didn’t realize how much people hate loose ends. I knew the books were going to be a series and my editor and I both thought it was very obvious from the way Northwoods ended that there would be more to come, but nothing was official for awhile and readers weren’t making any assumptions. And thirdly, I learned that many people have zero patience for addiction or mental illness in their fictional protagonists. I saw a fair amount of “Eli just needs a swift kick in the pants.” That’s very different from my own perception and I should have considered that, even if it didn’t change how I wrote the characters.
What’s next for you?
Book 3 (as yet untitled) in the Northwoods series is with my editor now. It’s Marge and Eli and Alyssa, back again for more crimes in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I’m also putting the finishing touches on something completely different – a gothic time-travel Dracula romance (also untitled). That will go out on submission this year.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
After watching the hockey romance show Heated Rivalry, I’m looking forward to reading the entire book series it’s based on.
