Photo by Holly Tonini
Annette Dashofy is a USA Today best-selling author, and her Zoe Chambers mystery series includes five Agatha award nominees. Dashofy has also received acclaim for her short fiction.
She has spent her entire life in rural Pennsylvania and lives on property that was once part of her grandfather’s dairy farm with her husband and their cat, Kensi.
Before becoming a full-time author, Dashofy spent five years as an EMT with a local ambulance service.
Fatal Reunion, the eleventh novel in the Zoe Chambers mystery series will be released this month.
Her stand-alone mystery, Death by Equine, is set in the world of Thoroughbred horse racing.
Annette’s answers to our questions for Mystery Month:
1. What made you decide to write in the mystery/action thriller genre?
When I was a kid, I wrote in lots of different genres, but then I discovered Mary Higgins Clark’s Where Are the Children. After that, my fiction has always fallen into the crime category. A murder creates the ultimate conflict between those trying to solve the case and the killer, who’s trying to remain undetected. Plus, I love the puzzle aspect of mysteries. I love creating them and watching others try to solve them.
2. How do you balance the use of technology and good old-fashioned sleuthing in your books?
I write contemporary mysteries, so technology is always a big part of the story. It definitely creates difficulties. Cell phones allow us to keep in constant contact. As a mystery writer, I have to figure out why a victim or the sleuth doesn’t simply pick up their phone and call 911. Or why don’t the cops just trace the missing person’s cell signal? But old-fashioned sleuthing is still vital. Despite technology, it all comes down to the hero figuring out the clues to solve the crime and catch the killer.
3. How important is research for this genre?
Very. There was a time when I was just starting out, I just wanted to make up my stories. Research felt like it got in the way. But then I took my first Citizens Police Academy and became addicted to research. Truth really is stranger than fiction and so often when I speak with someone in law enforcement about a plot line, they give me information that is a million times better than anything I could have thought up. There’s also the fact that readers are smart. If I get something wrong, they’ll call me on it. There can be a fine line—I do write fiction, after all. But while I may take creative license from time to time, the details always have to be plausible.
4. Who are your favorite authors? Favorite mystery/action thriller author?
I could list twenty or thirty favorite authors easily. The two that turn me into a total fangirl are Julia Spencer-Fleming (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series) and Craig Johnson (Walt Longmire series). But we have a lot of fabulous local mystery/thriller authors as well including Liz Milliron, Peter W.J. Hayes, Jeff Boarts, Rebecca Drake, and Kathleen George. They’re all awesome.
5. What can you tell us about your latest work in progress?
Which one? I have two that I’m working on right now. One is the first of a new series featuring an Erie (PA) city detective and a freelance photographer who’s hiding from a stalker. Both characters are dealing with survivor’s guilt from past tragedies and must learn to trust each other to bring down a killer. It should be released sometime in 2023. The other is the next in my Zoe Chambers series, which also will come out next year. In it, Pete and Zoe are battling the remnants of a major hurricane and the resulting floods to capture a murderer and rescue a kidnapped child.
6. Do you have any upcoming book signings or video chats?
Oddly, after the last two years, I don’t have any video appearances on the calendar at the moment, but I do have a lot of upcoming in-person events. I’ll be teaching at the Pennwriters Conference in Lancaster in May. In June, I’ll be at Mystery Lovers Bookshop on the 12th to talk about Fatal Reunion, my 11th Zoe Chambers mystery. On the 15th, I’ll be at the Gathering Place in Burgettstown for Lunch with the Author. And on the 16th, I’ll be joining James Patterson (also one of my favorite authors!) on stage at the Steamfitters Event Center in Harmony PA to discuss his upcoming memoir The Stories of My Life: James Patterson with him. What was I saying about being a fangirl? For details on these and other appearances, check out the Events page on my website.
Books by Annette Dashofy:
Zoe Chambers Mysteries
Circle of Influence
Lost Legacy
Bridges Burned
With a Vengeance
No Way Home
Uneasy Prey
Cry Wolf
Fair Game
Under the Radar
Til Death
Fatal Reunion
Crime in the Country (a collection of short stories about
Stand Alone Novel
Death by Equine
Collaborations with other Authors:
Guppy Anthology Books
Fish Tales
For more information visit, https://www.annettedashofy.com/