After the success of the Detective Kay Hunter series, I was able to leave my part-time job and become a full-time writer about four months ago, which gave me the perfect opportunity to go back through some writing ideas that had been fermenting for a while.
I love writing my Dan Taylor spy novels, and I also have a real connection with Kay Hunter, and so that got me thinking: what if I could combine the two?
I had a (very!) rough draft of Assassins Hunted in my ideas folder – a lever arch file that contains novels that have a few key scenes written together with a rough synopsis, but which I hadn’t had time to develop on top of my Kay Hunter commitments.
Reading through the scenes I’d written over the course of 2015 and 2016, I realised that Eva Delacourt was a character I really wanted to work with and see where her story led her, and so the Eva Delacourt series was born.
What’s the difference between Dan Taylor and Eva Delacourt?
Apart from the obvious, you mean? 🙂
Well, whereas Dan has brawn on his side as well as brains, Eva’s quite diminutive in size and, like Kay Hunter, tends to use her wiles rather than her strength to solve problems.
What interested me most when developing Eva’s character was her utter focus on keeping Alex safe – it’s that “mummy bear” instinct we hear about time and time again when a woman’s child is in danger.
Eva’s history is a lot tougher than Kay Hunter’s, and that gives her a harder edge – although she isn’t perfect by any means
I think one of my ARC readers nailed it perfectly upon reading the first book in this new series: “I love Kay. She is a fierce woman. Well, you have created a total bad ass in Eva. She is smart, tough, and yet still human with human flaws” (thanks, David!).
And that, for me, is what is most important about my characters – I don’t want them to be perfect. I needed Eva to be good at what she does, but like Dan Taylor her skillset only goes so far. She needs backup.
What’s next for Eva?
That’s up to you! I’ve had a lot of fun completing the first three episodes in the Eva Delacourt series in between commitments to the Detective Kay Hunter books, and so if you’d like to read more about Eva and the team, drop me a line – I’m sure there are some more bad guys out there in the world the Assassins can take care of 😉
