Linda Berry’s love of the written word and the visuals arts culminated in a twenty-five-year career as an award-winning copywriter and art director. Now retired, Linda writes mysteries and intense, fast-paced thrillers. As our Author of the Day, she tells us all about her latest book, Girl with the Origami Butterfly.
Please give us a short introduction to what Girl with the Origami Butterfly is about.
This is a suspenseful story of a murder that takes place in rural Oregon—a setting of rolling ranchland, stunning forests, a pristine lake, and a perfectly preserved historical town that boasts of hardworking cowboys and farmers.
The town has seen little crime other than the usual rash of misdemeanors, but then a young woman is found murdered in the forest. The staging of her body is chilling—similar to that of another woman murdered three years earlier, which confirms the worst—a serial killer is loose in their county. That changes everything. A climate of suspicion and fear descends upon the residents.
The job of apprehending the killer falls upon the small police force, composed of a seasoned police chief, Sidney Becker, and three inexperienced officers. Understaffed, and pitted against a cunning and dangerous killer, they must perform at optimum capacity, on little sleep, before the murderer strikes again.
Woven into the central story of murder is the delicate stirrings of romance, the devoted relationship Sidney has with her younger sister, and her steadfast commitment to protecting her junior officers, whose safety she holds in her hands.