We are delighted to welcome back author G.R. Case to Omnimystery News today.
We visited with G.R. last year when his debut thriller 30 Days was published, and now he has a new mystery out, Pernicious Intent (Cool Blue Books; March 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats), the first in his Miami series of crime novels.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with G.R. to talk more about his work.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the characters of your new series. What is it about them that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
G.R. Case
G.R. Case: The series came to me while I was running on a high school track some time ago. Images of the characters and setting were so visceral until I had to cut my five mile run short. I immediately went home and begin working on the outline that would become, Pernicious Intent. The story begins with Agent Carlos Perez speeding down a desolate street in an abandoned industrial park. He pulls up to the Inn which looks like a boarded-up building with graffiti on five steel doors facing the street. Perez sits patiently in the car waiting for the scanner mounted above the building to turn green before entering.
As a writer, I was drawn to the story because of its edginess within the Miami drug culture. Agents Carlos Perez and Reese Tyler comprise two of the five members of the Drug Reactionary Task Force (DRTF). A forensic technician, IT analyst and a Special Agent oversees the unit. Other units work within the Inn. I wanted to take the journey with the characters as they pursued a new type of ruthless, high-profile, college educated drug dealer.
OMN: How do you expect them to evolve over the course of the series?
GRC: As a sociologist and novelist, I fundamentally believe that everyone changes over time. However, the core of whom we are as social beings remain unchanged. Pernicious Intent is the first book of several more to come. I wanted the story to start off fast paced and didn't originally know it would become a series. After the first couple of chapters, I begin to realize that many more adventures awaited the secretive unit of the Inn. The great thing about writing a series is that I can pull readers further into the series by gradually introducing more backstory in subsequent novels.
OMN: Your first book was a stand-alone. Why did you decide to make Pernicious Intent the first of a series?
GRC: The stories normally find me when I'm doing mundane activities such as walking, cooking, by the way cooking is another passion of mine. I never know when or where characters will reach out to me to tell their story. I often tell people that the stories belong to the characters.
OMN: Into which fiction genre would you place this book?
GRC: Pernicious Intent is an action crime novel with intense car, motorcycle, and boat chases down the streets of Miami and out into the waters of Biscayne Bay. The book has elaborate fight sequences that rival those of any Hollywood blockbuster film.
OMN: Do you find genre categories limiting in any way?
GRC: It is okay because any novelist will know if his/her novel might be represented in multiple genres. If needed, as long as I can list my novel in multiple genres where applicable I'm fine.
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
GRC: I'm shopping around the adapted screenplay of Pernicious Intent, which I also wrote. I enjoy and appreciate writing in both mediums. Writing an adapted screenplay is extremely technical because one has to be concerned with slug lines and writing in the present tense. Compared and contrasted with writing in the past tense for chapters within a novel. It keeps you on your toes truncating a 364 page book like Pernicious Intent down to a 117 page screenplay. Novels are about embellishing. Screenplays are about what can be shown.
OMN: How does your professional experience play out in your books?
GRC: Make no mistake about it, my background with a B. S. in Criminal Justice and a Masters in Sociology allows me to delve into the criminal aspect of this series and my other psychological thriller, 30 Days, which in its second edition.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
GRC: Once the story finds me, meaning when I'm doing mundane activities such as grocery shopping, walking down a hallway, is when vivid, quick images of a story appears. I normally write what I see on paper as soon as I can. I may not re-visit the story for a few weeks or a few months. It depends on when more images appear to continue filling in what will become an outline. I am always working on other stories, so I'm not sitting around waiting on the full outline of one story to completely materialize. In regards to actively writing a chapter in a novel, additional characters naturally appear as needed to further the story.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a crime novelist and thus I am also …".
GRC: … very astute when it comes to analyzing a character's socialization. Also, I understand that scary, crazy, and funny exist around the world.
OMN: How did Pernicious Intent come to be titled?
GRC: Originally, it was called Nefarious Nights when I was writing the manuscript early on. I don't know, for one reason or another the title never warmed up to me. It just didn't feel right. I wanted a title that really spoke to the will of both protagonist (s) and antagonist (s). Roughly about two-thirds through the first draft, the title Pernicious Intent came to me and it fit the character's message. I said, "That's it! Baby that's it!"
OMN: Tell us more about the book's cover.
GRC: The finished cover with the two jackets on the hood of the car was not the original cover. It was the third version of the cover. The first version centered around four members of the DRTF unit on a roof at dusk peering out towards a yacht in Biscayne Bay. The second version was set around two open lockers with jackets hanging on each door. Perez and Tyler were written on the back of each jacket. Just like the title of the book, you just feel it as a novelist when something's not right. The final version with the downtown Miami backdrop at night across the water, along with the sports car, and two jackets with the agent's name conveyed the perfect pictorial synopsis.
OMN: What's next for you?
GRC: I have been slated to host a monthly show on ArtistFirst radio on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Listeners around the world can check it out on ArtistFirst.com by clicking on G. R. Case Show on the home page. I believe it is the next evolution in my career as a novelist, sociologist, and screenwriter.
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G. R. Case is a novelist and screenwriter residing just outside of the Chicago area with his family. His passion is crafting every story by taking the reader on a journey into the minds of vast characters. In addition to storytelling, he enjoys following his favorite Chicago sports teams. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Masters of Arts in Sociology.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at GRCase.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Pernicious Intent by G.R. Case
A Miami Crime Novel
Publisher: Cool Blue Books
Special Agent Diehl sits at his desk wondering whether or not he made the right decision. He taps his fingers on the desk while rubbing the wrinkles on his forehead with the other hand. The last time he oversaw Agent Carlos Perez and Agent Reese Tyler was a couple of years ago. Now, he has made the tough decision to let them work together again in the DEA's elite, Drug Reactionary Task Force (DRTF).
Tyrus Miller has made a power play to eliminate rival competitors and sell, Smile G, his new illegal designer drug in Miami. Smile G is consumed voraciously on college campuses and nightclubs throughout Florida by using a simple patch. Field Agents Carlos Perez and Reese Tyler of DRTF are charged with taking down Tyrus. DRTF functions as a five-person unit, including Special Agent Diehl. DRTF works within what appears as a dilapidated warehouse on the outside called the Inn on the outskirts of Miami. It is a state of the art clandestine facility inside filled with military weapons, forensic laboratory and exotic cars.
— Pernicious Intent by G.R. Case
