I came home one day with the idea of an assisted suicide “club,” a variation on the ever-popular “strangers on a train” scenario, updated for modern times with chatrooms and passcodes—and best yet, I’d never heard of such a plot. (It’s probably been done, but I’ve never read or seen it—email me at tobyneal 0 @gmail.com (remove spaces) if you find a book or movie with this plotline!)
It’s challenging to write modern crime fiction with only a basic knowledge of computers, and I’d dodged that bullet by having Lei be a bit of a technophobe, clinging to her spiral notebook and flip phone. Enter Sophie Ang, a character who had begun to capture my imagination when she first appeared in Broken Ferns—a woman of mystery, of foreign birth, and of contrasts: an MMA-fighting female agent who’s a genius with computers. So much of this investigation was taking place online that I gave her a second point of view in the book—and if you’ve read my other fiction, that’s unprecedented. Only the “bad guy” and Lei get a point of view—but through the device of Sophie’s perspective, I wanted the reader to better understand the process of tracking criminal activity online.
From the moment she appeared on the page, Sophie Ang was in danger of taking over this important book of Lei’s. The tension between writing from Sophie’s POV and working through so many delicious subplot threads (Marcus Kamuela and the Kwon murder! The relationship with Consuelo! The twist at the end and the IA investigation! Stevens and Lei’s reunion!) kept my fingers flying, and I blazed through this story in a mere three months.
I discovered, sniffling over the scene with Lei and Stevens on Maui, that Twisted Vine isn’t the end of the Lei Crime Series™ after all.
I’m just not done with them yet.
I’ve really come to love this mythic couple, and I want to see them move forward into life together and struggle with the same things we grapple with: marriage, children, temptations, aging, health, and careers even as I continue to explore the way the twisted vine of the past reaches its tendrils into the present.
Many thanks go to retired Capt. David Spicer who provided valuable feedback on the procedural aspects and particulars of dead bodies and suicide victims. Thanks to Jay Allen, internet detective extraordinaire, who took time out of his busy schedule to read several of the Sophie scenes and advise me on write-blockers and other computer arcana used in computer investigation work. Thanks also to Dan, Holly Robinson’s computer engineer husband, who also gave small but important language tweaks to a world I don’t pretend to understand.
Matt Rogers, another writer friend, does MMA and he helped with the scene between Alika and Sophie—thanks for the “spiral ride,” Matt!
My editor, Kristen Weber, earned her money as I fired the rough manuscript off to her “on deadline” before taking a month with my husband to travel the National Parks, out of internet range most of the time. Thanks Kristen! And thanks always to my awesome beta readers Holly Robinson (whose literary influence has singlehandedly deepened my characters and sharpened my writing more than any other) Noelle Pierce, Bonny Ponting and now, my mom Sue Wilson. Each of you had a hand in shaping and developing Twisted Vine, and I’m forever grateful.
Most of all, thanks to my amazing husband Mike Neal, whose creative flame fans mine. We truly rediscovered love, adventure and companionship on our epic road trip while Twisted Vine was at the editor—and because of twenty seven years with you, I know the best is yet to come for Lei and Stevens too.
Toby Neal, 2013
Sign up for news of upcoming books at http://www.tobyneal.net/
Watch for these titles:
Lei Crime Series:
Blood Orchids (book 1)
Torch Ginger (book 2)
Black Jasmine (book 3)
Broken Ferns (book 4)
Twisted Vine (book 5)
Companion Series:
Stolen in Paradise:
a Lei Crime Companion Novel (Marcella Scott)
Unsound: a novel (Dr. Caprice Wilson)
Wired in Paradise:
a Lei Crime Companion Novel (Sophie Ang)
Middle Grade/Young Adult
Path of Island Fire
Sign up for news of upcoming books at http://www.tobyneal.net/
About the Author:
Toby Neal was raised on Kaua`i in Hawaii. She wrote and illustrated her first story at age five and credits her counseling background with adding depth to her characters–from the villains to Lei Texeira, the courageous multicultural heroine of the Lei Crime Series. “I’m endlessly fascinated with people’s stories.”
Table of Content
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Acknowledgements:
Watch for these titles:
About the Author:
Table of Content