If you follow my blog, you know that my favorite genre is suspense and mystery, so when today’s author contacted me and asked if I would read and review her debut novel, I unfortunately had to say no because I am so far behind in my requested review TBR schedule. However, that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to get to know about her or her book for the day when I am caught up and start reading from my personal TBR pile, which I have placed her book on. I also wanted to share her and her book with you. So please help me welcome Ms. Traci Hohenstein!!!
Over 2300 hundred people are reported missing every day. That thought stuck in my mind after watching a show about missing persons. I started looking into other disappearance cases that have left investigators just shaking their heads. What happened to these people? Where are they now?
Readers always ask me where I get my ideas from. Well, just watch any news show and you will have thousand of ideas for stories. Following the Natalie Holloway case was the beginning of an idea of a new suspense series featuring a woman who started a search and rescue organization – specifically for locating missing persons.
My main character, Rachel Scott, founded Florida Omni Search after the disappearance of her three year old daughter Mallory. Mallory disappeared while playing in the front yard of their Miami home and was never found. Rachel was frustrated at the lack of leads in the case and took matters into her own hands and
started Florida Omni Search.
I modeled Florida Omni Search after Texas Equuseach, which is the same company that assisted in the Natalie Holloway case as well as other high profile cases like Caylee Anthony. Texas Equusearch is one of the few specialized volunteer teams in the US that search for missing persons.
My first book written in the Rachel Scott series is Burn Out. Burn Out features Samantha Collins, who is a firefighter that vanishes during a warehouse fire. Samantha leads her firefighter crew into a burning warehouse to locate the owner’s son. After he is pulled out, one of the crew members realizes that Samantha is missing. The warehouse roof collapses and she is presumed dead. Her helmet is found outside the rear parking lot but her body is never found. Samantha’s mother contacts Rachel and Florida Omni Search to help found out what happened to her missing daughter. The novel takes the reader through the investigation as Rachel starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
This book was fun to research and write. My husband is a firefighter and I relied heavily on his expertise when it came to questions about various firefighting techniques.
I’m currently working on the next book in the series where Rachel is called to the Bahamas to locate missing teenager, who is also the daughter Florida governor John Knowles. She disappeared while on a cruise to the Bahamas and this story is reminiscent of the Natalie Holloway case. This book, Asylum Harbor, will be out
Summer 2011.
Lt. Samantha (Sam) Collins, a firefighter, vanishes after a warehouse fire the week before she was to testify at her estranged husband’s trial for drug charges. The only clue to her disappearance is a firefighter helmet that was left behind at the scene.
Rachel Scott founded Florida Omni Search after her own daughter disappeared when she was four. She has worked with law enforcement agencies all over the United States in locating missing people. Sam’s mother calls Rachel for assistance in locating her daughter. However, the search for Sam takes her on a journey that
she never expected.
As she digs deeper into Sam’s past, she finds out more about the marijuana operation her husband Ken, a former police officer, was involved with. In her desperate, terrifying search for Sam, Rachel also discovers clues about her own missing daughter, Mallory.
Will she locate Samantha in time and also find out what happened to her own daughter?
