LynDee Walker’s debut mystery became an Amazon multi-chart #1 bestseller, which makes her an anomaly in today’s heated book market. For this interview, the Texas author described herself as growing up “in the land of stifling heat and amazing food most people call Texas.” Walker also said, “[She] wanted to be Lois Lane from the time she could say the words ‘press conference.’”
An award-winning journalist, Walker said, “She traded cops and deadlines for burp cloths and onesies when her oldest child was born.” Her journalism background served her well in that first novel, “Buried Leads.” Walker describes political corruption as the central issue in “Buried Leads.” She said, “I saw a fair amount of it at different levels when I was a journalist, and you only have to watch the news to see how far the threads of it can spin. I wanted to explore what can happen when a web like that begins to unravel.”
“Buried Leads,” Walker’s second Headlines in High Heels mystery, begins with an Armani-clad corpse turning up in the woods and crime reporter Nichelle Clarke smelling a scoop. A little digging, and Nichelle uncovers a web of corruption that stretches all the way to Washington, D.C. Politics. Murder. And a dead lobbyist. It’s everything Nichelle’s ever dreamed of.
In describing how she came up with the idea for the book, Walker said, “It started with Nichelle’s aspirations of covering politics. I wanted a storyline that could give her a taste of that from the crime desk. Then, I worked backward from the different law enforcement agencies she deals with: what kind of case would they be working? That’s how I developed the crime at the center of this book.”
For those thinking this book might be heavy on message, forget it. It’s got everything from a new ATF SuperCop to a sexy Mafia boss, an ambitious rival who wants Nichelle’s job to victims piling up faster than Nichelle can track them down.
“I worked as a journalist for almost 10 years before I became a mom,” said Walker. “I saw some pretty crazy things in my days at the crime desk. A few of those stories have cameos in my Headlines in High Heels mysteries. Though the accidents, thefts, and murder cases I covered give the central mysteries a realistic feel, it’s the funnier side stories Nichelle sees that I swiped wholesale from my reporting career.”
Walker shared one of those funny stories that made it into her first Nichelle novel. “In ‘Front Page Fatality,’ Nichelle comes across a police report for an abandoned casket, which actually did happen in a town in Texas where I worked. An honest-to-goodness casket you’d get from a funeral home. Just dumped in a driveway. I never have figured out why anyone had the thing to abandon in the first place (it was full of scrap metal) but that’s the kind of police report that makes for fun fiction.”
It would appear from her enthusiasm that Walker has no intention of going back to her journalism roots. She said, “I love writing, and I love my characters, but my favorite thing about being an author is the readers. I’m a book nerd from way back, and it absolutely makes my day to hear that a reader has connected with my characters or enjoyed my stories.”
More information
LynDee Walker says she adores her family, her readers, and enchiladas. She often works out tricky plot points while walking off the enchiladas. She is working on her next novel. You can find her online at www.lyndeewalker.com.
Thanks for having me, Terry! This was a fun interview. 🙂
You are quite welcome. You’re a great guest!