We are delighted to welcome back author Liz Lazarus to Omnimystery News today.
Last month we featured an excerpt from Liz's new novel of suspense Free of Malice (Mitchell Cove Publishing; February 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and recently we had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about it.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Free of Malice.
Photo provided courtesy of
Liz Lazarus
Liz Lazarus: Free of Malice is a psychological, legal thriller about a journalist, Laura Holland, who is attacked in her home. Her assailant escapes leaving her to hypothesize that she could have shot him when he was fleeing her home. The thought inspires her to write a hypothetical story about the legal ramifications she would have faced. She consults with a young, black lawyer, Thomas Bennett, who proves to be an expert in the criminal defense system but knows more about her and that night than he should. Her suspicion of him escalates — could he possibly be her attacker or is she losing her mind?
OMN: How did you go about researching the plot points of the story?
LL: My senior year of college. I was living in a small house in Home Park, just off the Georgia Tech campus. It was a spring evening like any other and I was getting ready for bed when I had a weird feeling — like my sixth sense had triggered. I yanked back the curtains to see if anyone was outside but just saw darkness. Not able to shake the odd feeling, I did two things outside my normal routine. First, I changed clothes in the bathroom where it was more private and secondly, I locked the flimsy bar latch to my bedroom door. Then, I went to sleep.
At 4 am, I awoke to the sound of my bedroom door crashing open. Instantly, I was jolted from a deep sleep to sitting upright in bed. As I looked to the source of the noise, I saw a black silhouette in the doorway and felt a sinister vibe radiating toward me.
This part of the book, the attack, was real and drawn from my personal experience. The feelings of paranoia and hypervigilance after the attack were also real. For example, for months afterward I couldn't leave a knife out in the open because he had one during the attack. I just didn't feel safe with any knives lying around the house.
The rest of the story, the EMDR therapy and the hypothetical legal case are fiction. Because I'm not a therapist or lawyer, I consulted with a few experts, namely Allison Frutoz, a criminal defense attorney in Douglas county and Karen McCarty, and EMDR-trained psychotherapist. Both women gave so generously of their time and experience, It was a pleasure to work with them and so grateful for their assistance that the acknowledgement at the back of the book doesn't begin to thank them enough.
OMN: How true are you to the book's setting?
LL: My book is a taste of Atlanta and incorporates many locations that will be familiar to those who live here: Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse, Eddie's Attic, Sandy Springs Gun Club and Range, Red Martini bar, St. Regis hotel, Fat Matt's Rib Shack, and Mama Mia's, to name a few. I love living in Atlanta and I'm thrilled to share some of my favorite places in Free of Malice.
As part of our marketing plan, we've reached out to these locations and have received a really positive response. Most of them have a "look for us in the book" poster up onsite, will be hosting events with us throughout the year and several of the restaurants featured their signature dishes at the March launch party which was held at Red Martini bar, which is in the book.
OMN: What kinds of television shows do you watch for entertainment?
LL: I have two favorite television shows right now — Suits and Nashville.
Suits is about a law firm in New York: "big-time Manhattan corporate lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) hires the only guy who impresses him — college dropout Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams). The fact that Ross isn't actually a lawyer isn't lost on Specter, who believes his new right-hand man is a legal prodigy with the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler." I love really clever shows and Suits does not disappoint. The plot line, characters and acting are superb, and this season is getting really hot as Mike's secret is starting to unravel.
Nashville, my other favorite, is about country music singers Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) and the drama that surrounds their larger than life stardom. Besides the incredible storyline and characters so real that I almost forget its fiction — the music of Nashville has taken over my playlist. Every song is a hit in its own right.
OMN: Suppose Free of Malice were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the key roles?
LL: I actually have potential actors for the main characters on my Pinterest page. At some point, maybe we'll have a poll to see who the readers would choose?
Laura Holland — Jennifer Garner or Jessica Alba?
Chris Holland — Josh Duhamel or Ben Affleck?
Barbara Cole — Barbra Streisand or Linda Evans?
Thomas Bennett — the real Thomas Barnette?
OMN: What's next for you?
LL: Over time, I've created a bucket list, not to give myself pressure or create bragging rights, but to always have a goal ahead of me. So far, I've lived in France and learned to speak French, earned my MBA, got my pilot's license, and just recently launched this book. By the way, launching the book was the most challenging of them all! Next on my list, getting married to my fiancé, Richard. As you might have seen in my book acknowledgements, he is my rock of support and soft place to land. If this book is successful, we'll have a big party. If it isn't, well, let's still have a big party!
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Liz Lazarus grew up in Valdosta, GA, known for its high school football and the last watering hole on highway I-75 before entering Florida. She was editor of her high school newspaper and salutatorian of her class. She followed in her father's footsteps, graduating from Georgia Tech with an engineering degree and went on to a career at General Electric.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at FreeOfMalice.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Free of Malice by Liz Lazarus
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Mitchell Cove Publishing
Laura Holland awakes in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing in her bedroom doorway. She manages to defend herself from the would-be rapist, though he threatens to return as he retreats. Traumatized with recurring nightmares, Laura seeks therapy and is exposed to a unique treatment called EMDR. She also seeks self-protection — buying a gun against the wishes of her husband.
When Laura learns she could have gone to prison had she shot her fleeing assailant, she decides to write a hypothetical legal case using the details of that night. She enlists the help of criminal defense lawyer, Thomas Bennett, who proves to be well versed in the justice system but has an uncanny resemblance to her attacker. As the two work together to develop the story, Laura's discomfort escalates particularly when Thomas seems to know more about that night than he should. Reality and fiction soon merge as her real life drama begins to mirror the fiction she's trying to create.
— Free of Malice by Liz Lazarus. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
