NaNoWriMo was upon us in 2011 and I had transitioned from writing fantasy to crime fiction. My reading habits had maybe matured and I spent a lot of time with fictional detectives, so much so that I thought I could write one. The biggest problem was that spent a lot of time reading (or watching) American cop dramas and that left me woefully ill-equipped to write about an Australian Detective (and just as ill-equipped to write an American one!) Despite my own short comings, Lu Price or Detective Senior Constable Tallulah Price walked into my head and took up residence.
Still, the story wanted out and what could I do? I wrote like a maniac, having forgotten about NaNoWriMo for so long, I missed the first three days and managed to finish five days early. To this day, it's still one of my better NaNoWriMo attempts, with over 56,000 words written!
Book 1 in what I had imagined to be a series featuring the intrepid detective was "Mahogany," which was about Lu's time undercover working in a club in King's Cross and the investigation that followed as her operation fell apart.
Of all the Lu Price stories, Mahogany is the only one with a completed manuscript.
(Details as taken from my NaNoWriMo.com entries)
Story Summary:
After fourteen months undercover, Detective Senior Constable Tallulah Price is hit with something she hadn't been expecting. A proposal to her alias. Confused and unsure of how to proceed, she turns to her handler and mentor for guidance, only to be ambushed after their meeting. In the aftermath of a deadly shootout, Tallulah is the only one left alive.
Now, it's up to her to finish the case her mentor had worked so hard on. With the help of her former partner from Melbourne and two local Detectives with their own stake in the investigation, they'll scour Sydney to identify the real perpetrators of a series of heinous and deadly crimes, clear the name of the man always thought to be the mastermind and take down a ring of dirty cops.
Aside from the investigation, Tallulah must deal with the personal fallout of her year long deception to her new friends and the man who believed that he was in love with her.
Story Excerpt:
“Lorna?”
Tallulah paused in the doorway when he spoke. She could hear the confusion in his voice and could already identify the pain. Pain he knew he should feel, but didn’t yet know why. He stood from the chair he’d been sitting in and just looked at her.
Tallulah swallowed thickly and looked at the ground as she closed the door behind her. Malcolm watched, his confusion growing as Tallulah locked the door and then walked over to the window, where she pulled the blind. Still she said nothing. He just stood there, watching as she then went to the table a and disconnected the microphone. He saw that there was no hesitation in her movements. Her actions were confident. She knew exactly what she was doing and could do it, as though she’d been doing it forever. When she finished though, and had nothing to occupy her hands with, she just stood there. She stared down at the table.
“Lorna?” he asked again.
He heard her take a deep breath, then in a voice so soft, he couldn’t be sure she’d even spoken he heard. “I’m so sorry,” she still didn’t look at him though.
Malcolm walked up to her. She looked different he thought. It wasn’t just the lack of make up or the addition of the suit, or even her hair being tied back, which she never did. It was just her. Her stance was different, her posture and her attitude. “What’s going on here?” he asked.
“Sit down,” she said, “Please Malcolm,” she added when he didn’t move.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t think I will,” he said. “But perhaps you could do me the courtesy of actually looking at me,” he suggested.
With a sigh, Tallulah looked at him. “Malcolm,” she said softly. “I...” she sighed again. Couldn’t help it. “I don’t even know where to start. I had this whole stupid speech prepared, but it was a load of crap,” she said finally. She turned and walked a few paces away from him, as she ran her hands over her face.
“You could start at the beginning,” Malcolm suggested.
Tallulah turned to face him. “My name’s not Lorna Nellwyn,” she said. “It’s Tallulah,” sshe paused, letting it sink in, then hit him with the what she considered to be the worst of the news, “Detective Tallulah Price.”
She heard him suck in a breath. “You’re...” he started. “You’re a cop?” he asked.
Tallulah nodded. She couldn’t think of anything to say. She was proud of being a cop. She’d worked hard at it. Worked hard to pass her Detective’s exam and worked damn hard to be taken seriously. But at that moment, when she looked at the face of Malcolm Dryder, she’d never felt more ashamed of who she was. She knew that she’d done a lot of good when working undercover. But what she’d told Craig had been true. Sometimes, good people got hurt in the mix. She’d just never hurt anyone as bad as she was currently hurting him. “I...” nothing would come out. Nothing sounded good enough.
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