Behind the story of Uneasy Prey by Annettte Dashofy

Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series. She’s been nominated for multiple awards and has spent her entire life in rural Pennsylvania surrounded by cattle and horses. Her new mystery is Uneasy Prey, which revolves around issues affecting the elderly. Here’s the story behind Uneasy Prey.

Uneasy Prey began close to home

“I focus on several issues in Uneasy Prey, all dealing with the elderly. First, there’s Alzheimer’s (the return of Pete Adam’s father Harry, who first appeared in Lost Legacy), then there’s the plight of caregivers (Pete’s sister Nadine, who has been caring for Harry, is exhausted and forced to make some hard choices), and the main plot of the story deals with those con artists who prey on the elderly by posing as utility workers to gain access to their homes.”

For Annette, these issues are not just something she’s seen at a distance. She explained how her own mother was once affected. “When my mother still lived at home—two doors away from me—she called me one day to tell me she’d done something bad. That “something bad” was allowing a man from the water company into her house to check the water pressure. The kicker is we don’t have city water! I thought I’d trained her better than that. Thank heavens, they didn’t harm her or steal anything, but that incident has been lurking in the back of my mind for years. I had to wait until she was no longer able to read my books to write it though, or she’d have been mortified to learn I ratted her out.”

Annette also said the character of Harry is based partly on her father, who died of Alzheimer’s. “Writing this character is a challenge and a joy because it’s like spending time with Dad,” she said. “Also, when Lost Legacy came out, I pledged to donate a portion of my royalties from its sale to the Alzheimer’s Association. I continue to uphold that pledge and will as long as the book is in print.

Most difficult book ever

“Uneasy Prey was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. Not because of the story but because of my life situation at the time. When I wrote Lost Legacy, my dad had been gone for a number of years, so there was an emotional buffer of time. However, Uneasy Prey partly takes place in a senior care home, and my mom was living in one while I was writing it. And she passed away during that time as well. There was no buffer whatsoever. There’s a lot of my heart on those pages.

“The most fun I ever had researching a book wasn’t this one,” Annette said. “It was for No Way Home, which is currently nominated for an Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel of 2017. In it, I take Zoe Chambers out of her comfort zone to the badlands of New Mexico. My best friend lives out there and her son is a deputy sheriff. To help me research, he took me into the canyons, way beyond anything a tourist might see. We hiked out to a cliff overlooking a deep ravine (I’m terrified of heights!) where they’d found dead bodies. He drove me past houses where drug dealers lived. And he took me on a personal tour of the Sheriff’s Office. Best vacation ever! Maybe not for normal people, but I had a blast!”

Learn more about Annette at www.annettedashofy.com.

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