A Conversation with Forensic Mystery Author Jen J. Danna

with Jen J. Danna

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Jen J. Danna to Omnimystery News today.

Jen's new mystery is Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It (Five Star; June 2013 hardcover), which introduces homicide detective Leigh Abbott and forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell.

We recently had the opportunity to talk to Jen about her new series.

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Omnimystery News: Why did you choose to write Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It as the first in a mystery series?

Photo provided courtesy of
Jen J. Danna

Jen J. Danna: I've always loved series. From Sherlock Holmes to Perry Mason to Inspector Gamache to Eve Dallas and Roarke, I love getting to know characters and then travelling with them as they grow and evolve over a long arc. So when I first started to plan the Abbott and Lowell forensic mysteries, that kind of long arc storytelling was always my intention. So far, two novels and a novella are written and even in that short span, the characters are growing and deepening in great ways.

OMN: What kind of "mystery" is it?

JJD: A forensic mystery. My publisher would label it a forensic thriller, and it definitely has thriller aspects to it, but at its heart it's a forensic mystery. I don't think there's a disadvantage to marketing it as such as that's really what it is. It may not appeal to all mystery lovers, but there absolutely is a group who love that kind of sub-genre.

OMN: The book has a very interesting title. Is there a backstory to it?

JJD: The title for Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It is actually a line from a poem entitled "Across the Lines" by Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers. Composed during the American Civil War, the poem tells of a Union soldier, fallen on the battlefield and on the brink of death, who fears being buried in an unmarked grave without a headstone to tell the world of his passing. It was a perfect fit for the main theme of the novel.

Dead? and here — where yonder banner
Flaunts its scanty group of stars,
And that rebel emblem binds me
Close within those bloody bars.
Dead? without a stone to tell it,
Nor a flower above my breast!
Dead? where none will whisper softly,
"Here a brave man lies at rest!"

OMN: Describe your writing process for us.

JJD: My writing process is a little different than most authors as I write with a partner. Ann Vanderlaan and I have been writing together since 2007. What initially started out as an author-beta relationship quickly evolved into something much stronger as Ann became an equal partner in the story planning and brainstorming. Ann is often the brain behind the writer because it's her flashes of insight that produce the best twists in our storytelling. It's definitely a case of two heads are better than one.

Once we have the basic story outlined, leaving enough gaps to allow for creative leeway during drafting, I write each chapter and then we edit that chapter several times together before moving on. Once the novel is complete, we do a full story edit before sending it out to our fantastic critique team. Only once we've done one more edit based on their comments is the book ready to go to our editor.

OMN: You're a scientist yourself. Did you include any of your own experience into the book?

JJD: There's a lot of me in one of the two main characters — forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell. Matt is a scientist surrounded by grad students in an academic setting, which is me in my day job. A lot of what comes out of Matt's mouth has come out of mine to my own grad students. His logical thought patterns and scientific method come directly from my own training. Also, many of his mannerisms are mine; my daughters enjoy picking those parts out of the book because they're so recognizable, at least to them.

OMN: As a modern forensic mystery, we're guessing there is a lot of real science to the story.

JJD: I'm a bench scientist by trade, and Ann is a retired scientist, so real fact checking and boots-on-the-ground research is crucial to us. All the science in the book is real and accurate, coming straight from learning the field of forensic anthropology from professional papers written by the top scientists in their field. I visited Boston and Salem twice for research so the locations and people in the book are absolutely true to life. I'm so very grateful for the support and assistance I've received from the Massachusetts State Police, the Essex District Attorney's Office and the Salem Fire Department. Everyone is always so willing to share their knowledge and experiences, and that makes a huge difference when trying to set your series in the real world.

OMN: Tell us about the setting for the book, more specifically the "lonely stretch of coastline" mentioned in the tagline.

JJD: I definitely try to be as true to the setting as possible. In fact, many aspects of the story have come directly from travelling to the area and discovering real places. For instance, the body dump site chosen for Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It changed as I stood on Essex Bay looking out over the coastline. The location of that site is a real place, chosen specifically for its characteristics.

OMN: Who are some of your favorite series characters?

JJD: J. D. Robb writes the "In Death" series. I love the characters in that series, not just the leads, but the entire ensemble. Robb has allowed both the main and secondary characters to grow as the series progresses and that makes for a fuller reading experience.

OMN: When will we next have an opportunity to meet with Leigh and Matt?

JJD: Ann and I have just finished our first series novella, No One Sees Me 'Til I Fall, which occurs in the timeline between Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It and the second book in the series, A Flame in the Wind of Death (release date, May 2014). The novella is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2013. We're hoping to have the third book in the series planned in the next month or so and drafted over the summer for our editor to look at by mid-autumn. We've already got some of the major plot points in place and we're looking forward to being able to continue some of the long arc subplots started in the second book. This time around, we'll be using some of the history of the area to our advantage in an interesting way, and that should make for some very entertaining storytelling.

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A scientist specializing in infectious diseases, Jen J. Danna works as part of a dynamic research group at a cutting-edge Canadian university. Her true passion, however, is indulging her love of the mysterious through her writing. Together with her partner Ann, she crafts suspenseful crime fiction with a realistic scientific edge. Jen lives near Toronto, Ontario with her husband and two daughters, and is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada.

For more information about Jen, please visit her website at JenJDanna.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter. You can also reach her at jenjdanna@gmail.com.

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Dead, Without a Stone To Tell It
Jen J. Danna with Ann Vanderlaan
A Leigh Abbott and Matt Lowell Mystery (1st in series)

When a human bone is found on a lonely stretch of coastline, a determined homicide detective and a reluctant scientist risk their lives as they join forces to bring a serial killer to justice.

Homicide detective Leigh Abbott has something to prove both to herself and to the men in her department.

She's been assigned a difficult challenge: solve a murder where the only evidence is a single bone. To identify the victim and find the killer she must join forces with forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell. Matt's initial refusal is only the first in a series of setbacks.

Matt and Leigh's skills and tenuous partnership are tested when the evidence leads them to a burial ground of unidentified victims where to their horror they stumble upon a freshly ravaged corpse. Before long the serial killer raises the stakes and Matt and Leigh find themselves marked as targets. Now they must stop the killer before they become the next victims.