CANR
WORK TITLE: Bad Liar
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.tamihoag.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 297
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 20, 1959, in Cresco, IA; daughter of Melanor (in insurance sales) and Joyce (a homemaker) Mikkelson; married Daniel Hoag (a computer programmer and business manager), September 24, 1977 (marriage ended).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, 1987—. Formerly worked as a horse trainer and as a salesperson.
AVOCATIONS:Collecting and restoring antique furniture, studying regional American dialects, horseback riding, psychology, and mixed martial arts.
AWARDS:Career Achievement Award, RT Book Reviews.
WRITINGS
Night Sins was adapted as a four-hour television miniseries starring Valerie Bertinelli and Harry Hamlin and was first broadcast by the Columbia Broadcasting System in February, 1997; the television rights for Guilty as Sin, A Thin Dark Line, and Kill the Messenger have been optioned for film.
SIDELIGHTS
Tami Hoag is a novelist whose romances and suspense novels have consistently topped the best-seller lists. Hoag had never been a fan of romances until she found herself in a broken-down vehicle with nothing to do but wait for the tow truck and read the romance novel she happened to have with her. She quickly became addicted to the genre, and she decided to try writing one. Her first novel was a success, and her career was established. Hoag worked hard at her craft, writing seven days a week for many hours a day. Gradually, her books began to include more and more elements of suspense and crime, and in the mid-1990s, she shifted her focus to write straight suspense novels. This only increased Hoag’s popularity with readers, and her titles continued to be top sellers that also won praise from book reviewers.
Hoag’s suspense novels frequently feature gruesome crimes that leave communities feeling helpless and terrorized. The author handles her subjects in an evenhanded style and with great attention to detail, critics have noted. Bridget Kinsella commented in a profile for Publishers Weekly: “Considerable background research is another component of Hoag’s work, and she says her compulsion for real details has increased with each title.” Besides the factual accuracy of her work, Hoag also shows skill with the emotional aspects of her stories, according to Joyce Slater in People: “Even though her books deal with gruesome crimes, her sense of morality really comes through. … You actually care about the characters.” In fact, according to Kinsella, “her stories always seem to emerge from her characters.”
In Night Sins and Guilty as Sin, Hoag spins the story of the kidnapping of an eight-year-old boy and its effect on a small town outside Minneapolis. The horror begins when a female doctor’s son is kidnapped by someone who leaves taunting notes behind. Megan O’Malley, a state trooper, is called in to assist the local authorities. O’Malley is hospitalized in Guilty as Sin, but the quest for the perpetrator is carried on by prosecutor Ellen North.
“Those unfamiliar with Night Sins will need some time to sort out the characters’ Peyton Place-like involvements,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. “Readers new and old, however, will enjoy the political infighting, the legal jockeying and the several jolts of Grand Guignol violence. Hoag, who knows how to push the right buttons, is a suspense writer to watch.”
Although A Thin Dark Line is set in Louisiana, it grew out of a crime that took place in Minnesota. A string of rapes and murders has the area in a state of panic, and the main suspect eludes trial because of a legal technicality. Annie Broussard, a deputy for the sheriff’s department, takes up the case.
“This latest thriller wastes no time,” stated a Publishers Weekly contributor; “it’s creepy from the prologue, a tortured poem written by the murderer, which both establishes the tone and cleverly sets up the ending.” Even though Hoag has stepped beyond the familiar confines of her home state of Minnesota, she “displays a firm grasp on locale,” the reviewer added. “There’s plenty of suspense in waiting to see how it will all be resolved. Psychopathic villains are common enough, but Hoag has managed to endow hers with a scarred entourage that provides a tragic note.”
Ashes to Ashes and its sequel, Dust to Dust, are based on a series of grisly murders in Minnesota, in which a man killed prostitutes and burned their bodies. The killer was eventually arrested, but Hoag was shocked by the lack of public outrage at the crimes. In Ashes to Ashes, she explores how victims are perceived. Dust to Dust focuses more specifically on those attitudes within the police world, as seen in a case involving the death of a gay officer.
Tom Long, a reviewer for the Detroit News, noted: “Hoag has the patter down as well as anyone ever has”—the sarcastic way policemen talk in order to cover their emotions about the horrific things they witness. Hoag makes it “funny, harsh and quick,” said Long. Praising the intricate plotting in Dust to Dust, Long noted that in the end, “it’s the characters, the give-and-take between partners, the relationships that never work the way they should in an easier world, that make this book a stone-solid read. A fine blend of cynicism, romance, suspense and tragedy.”
Hoag, an accomplished equestrienne, brought her knowledge of horses to her novel Dark Horse. Set in the world of horses, the story involves a precocious twelve-year-old girl and a troubled ex-cop who team up to find the girl’s missing sister. Elena Estes, the main character, came from a moneyed family, but she turned her back on that world to become a policewoman. Then she was rejected from the police world after a mistake on her part cost an officer his life. The complex, dark story reveals the greed and treachery that lie beneath the well-groomed surface of the horse world as well as “the realistic introspection of one very troubled ex-cop,” wrote Patty Engelmann in Booklist.
Hoag got the idea for her next novel, Kill the Messenger, while watching a television show segment about bike messengers in the city of Los Angeles, California. From information detailing their involvement with the city’s court system, Hoag developed the character of Jace, a nineteen-year-old bike messenger in Los Angeles who works to support his younger sibling. The orphaned brothers have been dodging Child Protective Services for six years in an attempt to stay together, only to come to attention after Jace becomes indirectly involved in a murder investigation—the intended recipient of a late-night delivery is killed, and someone is out to nab the package. Writing for Booklist, Kathleen Hughes maintained that “Hoag’s loyal readers and fans of police procedural suspense novels will definitely love it.” A Publishers Weekly contributor appreciated the novel’s “clean, measured prose—full, balanced sentences delivered at a steady pace.”
In Prior Bad Acts, the seemingly standard decision of a judge has unintended consequences. Judge Carey Moore decides that crimes perpetrated by a murderer prior to those for which he is standing trial are inadmissible. Not long after, the judge is brutally assaulted and the alleged criminal escapes from custody, kicking off an investigation headed by two characters—Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska—from Ashes to Ashes. Kliatt contributor Francine Levitov appreciated the novel’s “ingenious plotting, well-drawn characters, crackling dialogue and just the right amount of romance.” Writing for Publishers Weekly, a reviewer maintained that the novel places Hoag “above the competition, creating complex characters who evolve more than those in most thrillers.”
Returning to the world of ex-policewoman Elena Estes, Hoag next wrote The Alibi Man. The novel is set in posh Palm Springs as Elena is determined to track down the killer of a friend, a beautiful, young horse groom. Booklist contributor Patty Engelmann found the story “written in a staccato style that will have readers racing through the pages.”
Hoag’s next suspense novel, Deeper than Dead, is the first in her “Oak Knoll” series. The novel is set in 1985, an era when high-tech crime scene investigations were largely unknown and criminal profiling was in its infancy. A group of fifth-grade children come across a woman’s body in a park in Oak Knoll, California, and readers soon learn that one of the children’s parents is the murderer and possibly a serial killer.
“Over the years of studying serial killers, I have become particularly fascinated with the men who are able to so compartmentalize their minds and their lives that they are perfectly capable of having careers, having families and having this sick compulsion to kill,” the author told Kylie Brant in an interview for the RT Book Reviews Web site. “I wanted to explore that kind of character and the impact he would have on the lives of the people closest to him.”
Each of the children is affected deeply by the discovery but in different ways. In addition, each of their parents shows troubling traits, from abusiveness to narcissism. The children’s teacher, Anne Navarre, tries to help them deal with their gruesome discovery and eventually becomes involved in the investigation when Vince Leone, an attractive criminal profiler for the FBI, appears on the scene.
“Hoag has built a reputation for highly entertaining thrillers, but in this novel … the … author delves deeper for a complex story that is full of surprises,” wrote Oline H. Cogdill in a review for the Sun-Sentinel Online. Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley remarked: “The chilling premise and exciting twists make Hoag’s latest a thriller in every sense of the word.”
The series continues with Secrets to the Grave. The See-No-Evil killer—as Peter Crane, the accused murderer from the Deeper than Dead, has become known—is about to go on trial when the discovery of a woman’s mutilated corpse unsettles the town of Oak Knoll. The victim, talented young artist Marissa Fordham, is found stabbed to death at her isolated cottage. Lying atop Marissa’s corpse is her four-year-old daughter, Haley, badly injured but alive. Detective Tony Mendez is assigned to the case, and he enlists the help of Vince Leone, the FBI profiler who helped put the See-No-Evil perpetrator behind bars. Now retired, Leone has married Anne Navarre, who had barely escaped becoming one of that killer’s victims and has become a court-appointed child advocate. Navarre persuades the authorities to let her and Vince take custody of Haley. The detectives uncover some unsavory details about Marissa and come up with a long list of suspects. Among these are adulterous attorney Steve Morgan, whose stepdaughter Wendy had found one of Crane’s victims, suggesting that Morgan may be linked in some way with the See-No-Evil murders; the son of Marissa’s wealthy patron, Milo Bordain, who works as a Mercedes dealer; and a local college professor and math genius with Asperger’s syndrome. Hoag adds more layers to the story with subplots involving Anne’s counseling of a violent middle-school student and the disappearance of Marissa’s best friend, Gina.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor praised Secrets to the Grave as a literate, complex story with a satisfying conclusion and memorable characters. In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer described the book as a “chilling sequel” that is “rich in pre-DNA detecting methods.” Booklist writer David Pitt also admired the novel, observing that the author excels in “exploring how a shocking crime can affect a small community.”
The third book in the series, Down the Darkest Road, also received stellar reviews. The story revolves around a newcomer to Oak Knoll. Lauren Lawton, grieving after the unsolved kidnapping and probable murder of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Leslie, has moved from Santa Barbara to Oak Knoll with her younger daughter to recover from the traumas. Her husband, permanently scarred in the aftermath of Leslie’s disappearance, has died—apparently by his own hand—and Lauren has alienated friends as well as the Santa Barbara police through her relentless pursuit of Roland Ballencoa, the man she believes, without concrete evidence, to be Leslie’s kidnapper. Nor can Lauren let matters rest once she establishes herself in Oak Knoll. It turns out that Ballencoa, a photographer with a youthful sex crime in his past, has followed Lauren to town. Though the Santa Barbara police had dismissed Lauren’s suspicions about Ballencoa, Oak Knoll police detective Tony Mendez is inclined to believe her, and he sets out to investigate the case of the missing girl. He persuades Danni Tanner, the Santa Barbara detective who had handled the original investigation, to team up with him, and romantic sparks being to fly between them as they struggle to find out what really happened to Leslie.
Laura, meanwhile, is not only exhausted by the stress of Leslie’s disappearance but also worried that her focus on the case has led her to neglect her younger daughter, Leah, who has now reached the same age that Leslie was when she went missing. As Mendez’s investigation grinds on without much solid evidence against the shadowy Ballencoa, Laura is driven almost to the breaking point and is tempted to take the law into her own hands to obtain justice.
“I have enjoyed exploring law enforcement in that time before all the sophisticated forensic science we have today,” said Hoag in comments on her home page, explaining her decision to set the “Oak Knoll” series in the 1980s and early 1990s. “Today we can derive a lot of information from a very small DNA sample,” she continued, but this was not the case in 1990, and the fact that the police have only a tiny sample of blood from the kidnapping case in Down the Darkest Road makes it impossible for them to run tests on this evidence. Laboratories did not yet have the ability to multiply a DNA sample, and because running a test on a sample would destroy it, police could not take this step. Hoag further observed that she had not initially planned to write a series about Oak Knoll, but she became so fascinated by the characters in the first book that she wanted to continue writing about them. “They’ve become like family to me,” she explained.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the novel’s plot and characters stereotypical, concluding that Down the Darkest Road is not among Hoag’s best suspense novels. But the book won praise from many other reviewers, among them Mary Frances Wilkens, who commented in a Booklist review that Hoag’s “consummate skill as a plotter … will leave fans breathless.” Expressing similar praise, a writer for Kirkus Reviews hailed Down the Darkest Road as “a mesmerizing psychological drama on loss, guilt, frustration and implacable, unexplainable evil.”
Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska return in the 2013 installment, The 9th Girl, in which the two Minneapolis homicide detectives are on the trail of a serial killer whose most recent victim pops out of the trunk of a car accidentally rear-ended on New Year’s Eve. The horribly mutilated body of this young woman cannot be identified, but Liska and Kovac are tasked with discovering who this so-called “Zombie Doe” is and who disliked her enough to kill her with such violence. A number of other young women still lie unidentified in the refrigerators of the medical examiner. Because these murders have all taken place on or near holidays, the killer has been dubbed Doc Holiday, and now they are desperately seeking clues to end his reign of terror. Liska is also dealing with private problems, attempting to protective her sensitive son Kyle from social-media bullying. Meanwhile, a talented young newscaster, Dana Nolan, has become the ninth intended victim of Doc Holiday, abducted and tortured by the killer. As time runs out for her, Dana must rely on her own skills to save herself.
Reviewing The 9th Girl in Bookreporter.com, Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum noted: “Fans of Tami Hoag and newcomers to her work will find this pulse-pounding police procedural to be fascinating. A strong list of characters, sharply written dialogue, creepy murders and a pair of likable cops make for terrific reading that is not to be missed this summer.” Similar praise came from Minneapolis Star Tribune Online writer Carol Memmott, who felt that “fans will experience an uncontrollable urge to seek out Hoag’s other Kovac/Liska novels” after reading The 9th Girl. Booklist critic Donna Seaman also had a high assessment of this novel, observing: “Hoag’s prose is martial-arts quick and precise, … and the extreme psychosis of a serial killer are knowing and thought provoking.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer also commented: “By the surprising conclusion, the investigation has uncovered chilling tragedy and banal evil in almost equal proportions.”
Cold Cold Heart features Dana Morgan a year after her attack by serial killer Doc Holiday. She has returned to her small hometown to recuperate, but her stepfather, a state senator in a close reelection campaign, is not too happy about having her around after media coverage about her ordeal. In town she meets up with her high-school boyfriend, Tim Carver, now a deputy in the local police department, and learns that her best friend, Casey, has been missing for seven years. Local girls continue to go missing as the story develops, and Dana is determined to get to the bottom of this, which puts her own life in danger once again.
On her home page, Hoag talked about resurrecting Dana Nolan from The 9th Girl as the protagonist of Cold Cold Heart: “I have a fascination with ordinary people who endure and survive horrific events against all odds. How did they do it? What did that person have inside them that got them through something many would not have survived? How does their experience impact their lives going forward? How does it change them? Survival of the event is by no means the end of their story. I wanted to explore that aftermath and see how Dana would redefine herself in the wake of the nightmare of being abducted and tortured by a serial killer.” The author also remarked that she had to do a “ton of research” on traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, as Dana suffered from these at the hands of the serial killer, Doc Holiday, in The 9th Girl. Speaking with Joyce Lamb on USA Today Online, Hoag further commented on the difficulties in writing a character suffering from such difficult issues: “I’ve written characters with PTSD before, and that’s always emotionally taxing. The traumatic brain injury was a fresh kind of hell. It literally made my head hurt as I struggled to imagine what Dana was dealing with—the pain, the holes in her memory, the inability to remember how to accomplish routine tasks, searching for the right words when words had literally been her life, the struggle of coming to grips with the fact that she isn’t who she was before, that she has to rebuild her life from nothing.”
Reviewing Cold Cold Heart in the online Huffington Post, Jackie K. Cooper noted: “This is one of Hoag’s most suspenseful and well written books yet. … For a frantic ride in a great tale of suspense and danger, Cold Cold Heart delivers the goods. Hoag has always been a good writer but this book elevates her to a new level.” Similarly, Gershenbaum. writing in Bookreporter.com, found this novel “terrific reading.” Further praise came from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Online contributor Christina Varrasso, who observed: “Hoag weaves the intensifying plot in Cold Cold Heart with the expertise of a master seamstress blind stitching the facts, moving through multiple characters’ voices, taking readers on a journey into the inner depths of her characters’ minds, and in Hoag style, delivering a walloping ending.” Likewise, a Publishers Weekly critic termed the book a “chilling psychological thriller,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer dubbed it a “top-notch psychological thriller.”
In an interview on her home page, Hoag stated: “I’ve heard it said that producing a book is a lot like having a baby. Conception is the fun part. In the beginning there is idealism, and perfection seems possible. Then the book starts to grow and change and take on a personality of its own, and suddenly I realize the enormity of what I’ve taken on. By the time I deliver the thing, I—and all around me—have begun to question my sanity. I want to strangle my muse and scream: Why did I ever let you talk me into this?! Then one day there it is in my hands: A real, ‘honest-to-goodness’ book, with a striking cover with my name in big letters. At that point, that book becomes the most wonderful brilliant thing I’ve ever done.”
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Continuing the “Kovac-Liska” series based in Minneapolis, Bitter Season sees Detective Nikki Liska, who wants more time to spend with her kids, working on a cold case of the twenty-year-old unsolved murder of Ted Duffy, a sex crimes detective and community leader shot down in his own yard. She misses the urgency and hustle of a current case. Meanwhile her once partner Detective Sam Kovac is breaking in a rookie on a double homicide of Lucien Chamberlain, an Asian studies professor, and his wife, Sondra, bludgeoned in their home and hacked to death with a Japanese samurai sword. Kovac has an abundance of suspects—not even Chamberlain’s children, Charles and Diana, liked him. Soon Kovac and Liska’s cases intertwine.
“With an ear for sardonic cop dialogue and humor…Hoag livens up these two already fast-paced, ripped-from-the-headlines mysteries with interesting factoids about such things as the history of female samurai,” noted a writer in Kirkus Reviews. In Publishers Weekly, a critic commented: “Hoag has a gift for creating dynamic suspense, three-dimensional characters, and sharp dialogue,” and the fast-moving police procedural will appeal to newcomers and fans alike. Writing for Booklist, Stacy Alesi remarked: “This is a dark, gritty thriller, but Hoag manages to lighten it up now and then.”
Third in the “Broussard and Fourcade” series, Bad Liar finds Louisiana sheriff’s detective Nick Fourcase investigating the murder of a man found on a country road with his face and hands shot off. The victim might be Marc Mercier, the town’s football hero, who disappeared. Or the body could be Robbie Fontenot, recovering drug addict and missing adult son of B’Lynn Fontenot, the case sheriff’s detective Annie Broussard, Fourcase’s wife, is working on. Decades ago, Robbie was a promising football star until an injury ended his career and he became addicted to painkillers. Broussard attracts the ire of local police who decline to investigate a missing drug addict.
“Spousal abuse, drug addiction, jealousy, and revenge cloud the lives of victims and suspects alike while characters like Nick pepper their dialogue with a Cajun patois,” noted a Kirkus Reviews critic. According to Emily Melton in Booklist, Hoag perfectly captures the “claustrophobia of small-town life, lost dreams, dashed hopes, and tragic lives in this five-star read with a powerful, sucker-punch ending.” Hoag creates “Robby, Marc, and B’Lynn with remarkable depth and sensitivity, and keeps the plot moving at a brisk clip,” declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 1992, Cynthia Ogorek, review of Lucky’s Lady, p. 811; December 15, 1994, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Night Sins, p. 714; January 1, 1996, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 749; January 1, 1997, Melanie Duncan, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 778; January 1, 1999, Patty Engelmann, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 792; June 1, 2000, Kathleen Hughes, review of Dust to Dust, p. 1797; December 1, 2000, Nancy Spillman, review of Dust to Dust, p. 739; December 15, 2000, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 839; December 15, 2001, Candace Smith, review of Dust to Dust, p. 746; March 15, 2002, Candace Smith, review of Cry Wolf, p. 1270; August, 2002, Patty Engelmann, review of Dark Horse, p. 1886; January 1, 2003, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Dark Horse, p. 917; May 1, 2003, review of Dark Horse, p. 1527; July, 2004, Kathleen Hughes, review of Kill the Messenger, p. 1799; November 1, 2004, Candace Smith, review of Kill the Messenger, p. 504; February 1, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Prior Bad Acts, p. 4; March 1, 2007, Patty Engelmann, review of The Alibi Man, p. 38; April 1, 2009, Sheri Melnick, review of Rumor Has It, p. 72; September 15, 2009, J. Mary France Wilkens, review of The Trouble with J.J., p. 72; October 15, 2009, Kristine Huntley, review of Deeper than Dead, p. 4; May 1, 2010, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Deeper than Dead, p. 56; December 1, 2010, Brad Hooper, “High-demand Hot List,” p. 4; December 15, 2010, David Pitt, review of Secrets to the Grave, p. 26; May 1, 2011, David Pitt, review of Secrets to the Grave, p. 52; December 15, 2011, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Down the Darkest Road, p. 27; May 15, 2013, Donna Seaman, review of The 9th Girl, p. 18; December 15, 2015, Stacy Alesi, review of The Bitter Season, p. 23; August 2024, Emily Melton, review of Bad Liar, p. 31.
Bookseller, August 19, 2011, review of Secrets to the Grave, p. 33.
Bookwatch, May, 1996, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 7; March, 1998, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 8; November, 2006, “HighBridge Audio.”
California Bookwatch, March, 2010, review of Deeper than Dead.
Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 1997, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 14.
Detroit News, August 12, 2000, Tom Long, review of Dust to Dust, p. 26.
Entertainment Weekly, March 30, 2007, Tina Jordan, review of The Alibi Man, p. 78.
Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), February 27, 1999, review of Ashes to Ashes; September 14, 2002, review of Dark Horse; September 28, 2002, review of Dark Horse; August 7, 2004, Margaret Cannon, “Crime Books”; April 29, 2006, Margaret Cannon, “Crime Books.”
Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2009, review of Deeper than Dead; November 1, 2014, review of Cold Cold Heart; December 15, 2015, review of The Bitter Season; August 1, 2024, review of Bad Liar.
Kliatt, July, 1998, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 53; January, 2003, review of Dark Horse, p. 42; January, 2005, Mary Purucker, review of Kill the Messenger, p. 45; September, 2006, Francine Levitov, review of Prior Bad Acts, p. 50.
Library Journal, January, 1995, Erna Chamberlain, review of Night Sins, p. 137; February 1, 1996, Marylaine Block, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 98; February 15, 1997, Laurel A. Wilson, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 162; March 1, 1998, Nancy Paul, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 143; February 1, 1999, Alicia Graybill, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 120; June 1, 1999, Joanna M. Burkhardt, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 204; October 15, 2001, Joanna M. Burkhardt, review of Dust to Dust, p. 125; June 15, 2002, review of Dark Paradise, p. 109; September 15, 2002, Joanna M. Burkhardt, review of Night Sins, p. 109; February 1, 2003, Joanna M. Burkhardt, review of Dark Horse, p. 135; December, 2009, Jane Jorgenson, review of Deeper than Dead, p. 97; April 15, 2015, Ilka Gordon, review of Cold Cold Heart, p. 46.
Literature and Psychology, fall, 2001, Joanne Di Raimo, review of Dust to Dust, p. 58.
New York Times Book Review, May 12, 1996, Erik Burns, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 19; March 2, 1997, Marilyn Stasio, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 20; September 10, 2000, Marilyn Stasio, “Crime,” p. 38.
Observer (London, England), August 8, 1999, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 14; October 1, 2000, review of Dust to Dust, p. 12; October 7, 2001, “Writer Earns Her Spurs,” p. 20.
People, February 24, 1997, Joyce Slater, p. 15.
Publishers Weekly, December 4, 1995, review of Night Sins, p. 58; November 4, 1996, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 71; July 7, 1997, review of Dark Paradise, p. 66; January 11, 1999, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 53; July 3, 2000, review of Dust to Dust, p. 46; July 29, 2002, review of Dark Horse, p. 55; June 21, 2004, review of Kill the Messenger, p. 44; January 30, 2006, review of Prior Bad Acts, p. 42; February 19, 2007, review of The Alibi Man, p. 150; October 19, 2009, review of Deeper than Dead, p. 36; April 29, 2013, review of The 9th Girl, p. 112; November 17, 2014, review of Cold Cold Heart, p. 37; November 2015, review of The Bitter Season, p. 50; July 8, 2024, review of Bad Liar, p. 155.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, June, 2011, Theodore Feit, “Theodore’s Bookshelf.”
Romance Reader, March 23, 1999, review of Ashes to Ashes; August 26, 2000, review of Dust to Dust; August 25, 2002, review of Dark Horse.
Times Literary Supplement, November 17, 2000, Justin Warshaw, review of Dust to Dust, p. 21.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), March 26, 1995, review of Night Sins, p. 6; April 21, 1996, review of Guilty as Sin, p. 7; April 6, 1997, review of A Thin Dark Line, p. 5.
Wall Street Journal (western edition), August 23, 2002, Tom Nolan, review of Dark Horse.
Xpress Reviews, December 3, 2010, Jane Jorgenson, review of Secrets to the Grave.
ONLINE
Allure of Books, http://theallureofbooks.com/ (February 8, 2012), review of Deeper than Dead.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (August 2, 2013), Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum, review of The 9th Girl; (January 16, 2015), Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum, review of Cold Cold Heart.
Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (August 16, 2010), Steven Rosen, review of Deeper than Dead.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (January 20, 2015), Jackie K. Cooper, review of Cold Cold Heart.
Irish Independent Online, http://www.independent.ie/ (May 10, 2010), review of Deeper than Dead.
Minneapolis Star Tribune Online, http://www.startribune.com/ (June 15, 2013), review of The 9th Girl.
Mystery Reader, http://www.themysteryreader.com/ (August 16, 2010), Thea Davis, review of Deeper than Dead.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Online, http://www.post-gazette.com/ (January 11, 2015), Christina Varrasso, review of Cold Cold Heart.
RT Book Reviews, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (August 16, 2010), Jill M. Smith, review of Deeper than Dead; Kylie Brant, “When She Isn’t Horsing Around … Tami Hoag’s One of the Hottest Suspense Authors out There.”
Sun-Sentinel Online, http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ (January 3, 2010), Oline H. Cogdill, review of Deeper than Dead.
Tami Hoag website, http://www.tamihoag.com (May 15, 2015).
USA Today Online, http://www.usatoday.com/ (January 13, 2015), Joyce Lamb, author interview.*
Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, including her latest thrillers—THE BITTER SEASON, COLD COLD HEART, and THE 9TH GIRL. Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller List with NIGHT SINS, and each of her books since has been a bestseller.
When she penned her first work of fiction, a third grade project about two children and a pony, she never imagined she would eventually have more than forty-million books in print all over the globe. “It’s an amazing thing to have people tell me they’ve seen my books in India, in China, on remote Greek islands. Writing is such a solitary, all-consuming pursuit. I sit in my office with my dogs for company, having conversations with imaginary people, and touch the hearts and minds of real people on the other side of the world. That’s incredible to me.”
Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag prides herself on her research-based realism, crackling dialogue, and spot-on police procedure. “My first obligation as a writer is to be as true as possible to the characters I’m writing about, to the jobs they do, and to the world they inhabit.” To that end, Hoag has become a crack shot with both hand guns and long guns, studied forensic psychology with top experts in the field, learned to drive a police car in pursuit of bad guys, and developed knockout power in her right hand while cultivating a taste for mixed martial arts fighting.
Tami Hoag lives in the greater Los Angeles area where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage.
Q&A
Q: Are there certain songs that inspired you while writing The Boy? Do you have different playlists for different books?
A: It depends on the book and the setting, but I usually do have something of a playlist, a soundtrack for the story. For the books set in South Louisiana, that’s a must. Music is a part of the place, a part of the culture–from the traditional Cajun music of Beausoleil to the Zydeco music of Zachary Richard to the soulful country-blues sound of Marc Broussard. The music is part of the rich atmosphere of the area and the soul of the people there.
Q: Which character in The Boy would you say most resembles you and why? (Was the resemblance intentional or unintentional?)
Annie Broussard. My heroines and I spend a lot of time together in my head, so they have to be women I can relate to on some level, women I would be friends with in real life. Annie is very down-to-earth, just a normal woman trying to juggle all the aspects of her life–work, motherhood, her relationship with her husband. She’s a small town girl–we have that in common. And she has the courage of her convictions. I admire that. I love that while everyone else is terrified of Nick, Annie has always stood up to him, and he loves her for that.
Q: How do you like to work? Do you have a schedule, or is it more of a mood that dictates your writing habits?
A: I have to work my way into the story, so at the beginning I’ll work a few hours then leave it be, think about it, come back and tinker with it until I have more of a feel for it. Once I find my rhythm, the hours become longer and longer, and I tune out other aspects of my life. The book becomes all-consuming.
Q: What shows do you like to watch? Are you a fan of television crime shows? British or American? Does television ever inspire events in your novels?
A: I don’t watch any American crime fiction on network TV. I know too much about how a real investigation works, and most of the cop shows here bear little resemblance to reality. That bothers me. I work really hard to try to accurately portray the jobs and the people I write about, so that’s what I want to see. I’m a political junkie, so I watch a lot of news, but I also watch true crime shows for research and inspiration. I also like some British crime shows, which tend to be more character based than action based. Nobody solving crimes with holograms and crazy nonsense like that. My current favorites are Shetland and Vera. I’ve only just discovered Netflix, and I’m finding some good shows there, as well.
Q: What is the research process like when it comes to writing a book that deals so much with police work/criminal behavior?
A: I’ve been at this for a long time, so I have a good grasp of how to run a homicide investigation. I’ve done loads of research over the years, including a lot of hands-on research with people in all aspects of law enforcement, from homicide detectives to sex crimes detectives to FBI agents, forensic psychologists, ballistics experts, blood evidence experts. I’ve driven police cars, shot all manner of weapons, discussed cases with profilers. Every summer I go to a police academy conference specifically for crime writers where we take the same courses as the professionals, taught by their instructors. It all adds to the realism of the story.
Q: What space in your home is the best reflection of your personality, and why? Where are you most comfortable writing? Please describe that space so we can picture it.
A: I live alone with my dog, so every part of my home reflects who I am and what I like. I surround myself with art and with things I’ve collected. I’m a nester, so I like to work in my office where I’m surrounded by books and everything I might need. Last fall I was displaced from my home by a massive wildfire. My neighbor’s house burned to the ground. My house had extensive smoke damage, and part of the process of restoration is having literally everything you own taken away to be cleaned, which takes months. It seemed the perfect time to do a bit of remodeling, so I had a cabinet maker come in and do my office. He built a huge wall of cupboards with open bookcases above that go nearly to the ceiling, very traditional in style in a clean soft white. He also did matching built-in cabinets flanking the fireplace which has a white stone French art nouveau-style mantel. Above the mantel is a five-foot tall painting of one of my horses, Feliki. She was a fierce competitor. Now she keeps an eagle eye on me as I work. No slacking with Feliki watching! One end of the room is a unique curved bay of floor-to-ceiling windows and a door that leads out to the patio and the pool, and beyond the pool is woods. My house is built on a hillside, so I’m at canopy level of the trees. It’s a very private, peaceful property. I have two big, plush wing chairs that sit in that alcove beyond my desk, and this is where my cocker spaniel, Miss Molly, hangs out while I work. It’s a very lovely, calm, space.
Q: What true crime story particularly piques your interest? Anything specifically intriguing about that case?
A: There are too many to name. The things people will do to one another and their motivations for doing them never cease to amaze me.
Q: Why have you chosen to set so many books in Louisiana?
A: It’s a special, unique place, so rich in atmosphere and history. All I have to see is a scene with those big live oak trees draped in moss, and the fog hanging over the swamp, and already I’ve got a stage set for suspense. There’s a built-in sense of mystery about a place like that, where you have civilization camped at the edge of raw wilderness that I think people find intriguing. And the mix of people and cultures in south Louisiana also adds a richness and a texture to the story before I’ve done anything at all. I just find it a fascinating place.
Q: What was the first part of The Boy that you started writing? Where did the story begin in your mind?
A: I write in chronological order, so I start at the beginning and finish at the end. I saw that opening scene–Genevieve running down that bayou road in the dead of night, terrified, flashbacks from the scene in her home racing through her head–and had to to know what had happened and why. I find out the answers to those questions as I go. I don’t write from an outline. I want the revelations to shock me. I figure if I’m surprised, my readers will be as well.
Q: Some people believe that pets can have a positive effect on a person’s mental health/self-development. Do you feel that they impact your writing? If so, in what ways?
A: Oh yes! I have to have my animals around me to calm and center me. I’m like a racehorse that needs a stable pony. I currently have just the one dog, but I usually have two or three. Dogs keep life real and in the moment, while I’m usually barely tethered to reality because I live in this alternate universe in my head so much of the time.
Q: What type of snacks do you keep within reach while you’re in the writing zone? Do your eating habits change when you’re in the zone?
A: I used to be a junk food junkie while on deadline, but I’ve recently changed my wicked ways and started eating a healthier diet. There was a brief period of mourning over the loss of my Cheetos, but I’m over it now. I’ll sneak a few from time to time so as not to feel deprived, but now my body immediately calls me on it, so it happens less and less. Now I’m all about the green tea and healthy snacks. So boring, I know! But I haven’t given up vodka and tonic. I just add a lot of lemon to make it healthy! LOL.
Q: Who is the first person you show your work to, and why?
A: My agent and then my editor. I’m a lone wolf. No critique partners or writing group for me. I have a clear idea of what I want to do in a story, and I only want the opinions of the people who pay me to do what I do. I don’t want a lot of other voices in my head. I want to keep my focus narrow.
Q: Every writer gets stuck at some point in a project. What was the hardest part of The Boy to write?
A: I had a lot of external stress while I was writing this book, things that stopped my creative process hard in its tracks, and then I would have to pull myself out of that funk and try to move forward. Then the next catastrophe would hit and derail me, and I would have to pull myself up out of the weeds again and drag myself on. I had a big move across the country from Florida back to California, which was a positive thing, but also very stressful and time-consuming. Then I lost my older dog, which was heartbreaking. She had been with me through so much in my life. Then the country took what I felt was a catastrophic political turn, and that knocked me sideways. Then my mother, who had struggled with Alzheimer’s for several years, passed away, and I lost another dog to illness several days later. It was just one thing after another. Honestly, I was lucky to be writing characters who are so alive to me. It wasn’t that they weren’t cooperating. They had to wait for me.
Q: Can you describe something about Genevieve or another character that you never added to The Boy but have established in your mind?
A: Something that I only touched on in THE BOY was Annie’s background and the mystery her mother took with her to her grave. I know that her mother just showed up in Bayou Breaux, pregnant and alone, and that Sos and Fanchon Doucet took her in, and later raised Annie after her mother’s death. This history is something Annie lives with that gives her a unique perspective when dealing with Genevieve Gauthier–also a single mother with a mysterious past. But I have yet to solve Annie’s mystery. I walk around with that in my head just as she does. I don’t really know the answers yet, which I’m sure sounds strange, but one day all will be revealed to Annie and to me!
Q: Who is your favorite character in The Boy and why?
A: I love writing Nick Fourcade because he is so complex and difficult. He’s WAY smarter than I am, which is a challenge. I’m often impressed with his thinking, which sounds completely bonkers since I’m writing him. It’s a weird process, to be sure. I love the intricate workings of his mind, his elaborate philosophies, the very particular way he speaks. He’s a hard-ass, but I understand where he came from and how much he cares about getting justice for victims, it just makes me love him more. I love how in love he is with his wife, and how much he loves being a father. He’s the guy I would go for, for sure–difficult but good as gold.
Q: Are there any books you keep by your side while you write, classic crime thrillers or anything that inspires you? Do you read suspense while you’re writing it?
A: I don’t read suspense while I’m writing suspense because I’ll be distracted by it and I’ll be too analytical about it to enjoy it. That’s reading I save for when I’m on hiatus from work. While I was writing THE BOY, I had to have a copy of the first Nick and Annie book–A THIN DARK LINE–close at hand for reference. I wrote that book more than 20 years ago, so to say the details were sketchy in my mind would be a huge understatement. I ended up re-reading it again to refresh my memory and to get the voices of the characters firmly back in my mind.
Q: Is The Boy a book that your younger self would have picked up to read? How would younger Tami respond to The Boy?
A: Definitely. I’ve always loved books that delve into the psychological complexities of the characters and their relationships. Throw in some moral ambiguity, and emotional torment, and I’m totally hooked!
Q: What was the first thing you did when you finished writing The Boy?
A: Deadline is so brutal. By the end of this book I was working insane hours, pulling all-nighters. I was completely done in by the time I typed THE END. Add to the brain drain the fact that I’m a beat-up old athlete with a terrible back. I remember I went directly from my desk to a steaming hot salt bath, and then to bed at the crack of dawn. And when I woke up a few hours later, I went straight back to my desk to work on revisions because I was so terribly late getting the book turned in to my publisher. That’s the glamorous life of the best-selling writer!
Tami Hoag
USA flag (b.1959)
Tami Hoag is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide. Renowned for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, Hoag first hit the New York Times Bestseller list with NIGHT SINS, and each of her books since has been a bestseller.
She leads a double life in Palm Beach County, Florida where she is also known as a top competitive equestrian in the Olympic discipline of dressage. Other interests include the study of psychology, and mixed martial arts fighting.
Genres: Mystery, Romance, Romantic Suspense
New and upcoming books
September 2024
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Bad Liar
(Broussard and Fourcade, book 3)
Series
Hennessy
1. The Trouble with J.J (1988)
2. Magic (1990)
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Quaid Horses
1. Rumor Has It (1988)
2. Man of Her Dreams (1989)
3. Tempestuous (1990)
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Rainbow Chasers
1. Heart of Gold (1989)
2. Keeping Company (1990)
3. Reilly's Return (1990)
4. Magic (1990)
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Doucet
1. The Restless Heart (1991)
2. Lucky's Lady (1992)
3. Cry Wolf (1993)
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Deer Lake
1. Night Sins (1995)
2. Guilty As Sin (1996)
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Broussard and Fourcade
1. A Thin Dark Line (1997)
2. The Boy (2018)
3. Bad Liar (2024)
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Kovac and Liska
1. Ashes to Ashes (1999)
2. Dust to Dust (2000)
3. Prior Bad Acts (2006)
3.5. The 1st Victim (2013)
4. The 9th Girl (2013)
5. The Bitter Season (2015)
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Elena Estes
1. Dark Horse (2002)
2. The Alibi Man (2007)
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Oak Knoll
1. Deeper Than the Dead (2008)
2. Secrets to the Grave (2010)
3. Down the Darkest Road (2011)
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Novels
McKnight in Shining Armor (1988)
Mismatch (1989)
Straight from the Heart (1989)
Sarah's Sin (1991)
Heart of Dixie (1991)
The Last White Knight (1992)
Still Waters (1992)
Dark Paradise (1994)
Kill the Messenger (2004)
Cold, Cold Heart (2014)
Collections
The Putt at the End of the World (2000) (with others)
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Series contributed to
Heartthrobs
Taken By Storm (1992)
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Omnibus editions hide
The Tami Hoag Omnibus (2001)
Three Great Novels (2001)
Two Great Novels: Night Sins / Guilty as Sin (2003)
Three Great Novels: The Thrillers (2003)
Tempestuous / Restless Heart (2007)
9 Great Novels (2012)
Tami Hoag Collection (2016)
Dark Paradise / A Thin Dark Line (2017)
Still Waters / Cry Wolf (2017)
Tami Hoag
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tami Hoag
Born Tami Mikkelson
January 20, 1959 (age 65)
Cresco, Iowa, U.S.
Occupation Novelist
Language English
Nationality American
Period 1988–present
Genre contemporary romance, suspense
Website
www.tamihoag.com
Tami Hoag (born Tami Mikkelson; January 20, 1959) is an American novelist, best known for her work in the romance and thriller genres. More than 22 million copies of her books are in print.
Biography
Hoag was born in Cresco, Iowa and raised in the small town of Harmony, Minnesota, where her father sold insurance.[1][2] From childhood, she knew she wanted to be a writer. "I had to spend a lot of time entertaining myself," she told an interviewer in 2016. "I found books at a really young age and fell in love with books."[3]
Hoag's first job after graduating from high school was in the La Crosse Tribune circulation department.[3] Before publishing her first novel, she also worked as a photographer's assistant, trained show horses, and sold designer bathroom accessories. She married and divorced Daniel Hoag, whom she had dated in high school.[1]
Hoag began her career as an author in 1988, writing category romances for the Bantam Books Loveswept Line. After several years of success in that field, Hoag switched her focus to single-title suspense novels. She has had thirteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including five in a 20-month span.[4] Her novel Night Sins became a TV miniseries starring Valerie Bertinelli and Harry Hamlin. Hoag has been invited to do a reading at one of Barbara Bush's literacy functions.[4]
Hoag and three other authors who made the leap from romance to thrillers at roughly the same time (Eileen Dreyer, Elizabeth Grayson, and Kimberly Cates) have formed a group they call the Divas. The group provides support and encouragement for each other, and Hoag often thanks them in the acknowledgement section of her books.[5]
Hoag owns horses, and often goes for a ride to combat writer's block. She has competed in dressage at a national level, but stopped competing after breaking five vertebrae in her back during a fall while trying out a horse for a friend.[6] Hoag fully recovered from her accident, and has returned to the competition arena. As of 2012, she was living in Malibu, California, and Wellington, Florida.[7]
Bibliography
Standalone novels
McKnight in Shining Armor (1988, Loveswept #276), (2009) Reissue
Mismatch (1989, Loveswept #315), (2008) Reissue
Sarah's Sin (1991, Loveswept #480)
Heart of Dixie (1991, Loveswept #493), (2008) Reissue
Taken by Storm (1992, Loveswept #532), (2007) Reissue
Still Waters (1992, Bantam Fanfare)
The Last White Knight (1992, Loveswept #561)
Dark Paradise (1994, Bantam Books)
Kill the Messenger (2004, Bantam Books)
Oak Knoll series
Deeper than the Dead (2009)
Secrets to the Grave (2010)
Down the Darkest Road (2011)
Elena Estes series
Dark Horse (2002)
The Alibi Man (2007)
Kovac & Liska series
Ashes to Ashes (1999)
Dust to Dust (2000)
Prior Bad Acts (2006) also known as Dead Sky
The 1st Victim (2013, an e-book short story)
The 9th Girl (2013)
Cold Cold Heart (2015, Dutton)
The Bitter Season (2016)
Deer Lake series
Night Sins (1995)
Guilty as Sin (1996)
Doucet series
The Restless Heart (1991, Loveswept #458), (2007) Reissue
Lucky's Lady (1992)
Cry Wolf (1993)
A Thin Dark Line (1997)
The Boy (2018)
Bad Liar (2024)
Hennessy series
The Trouble with J.J. (1988, Loveswept #253), (2009) Reissue
Magic (1990, Bantam Fanfare, also in The Rainbow Chasers series)
Lynn Shaw
Straight from the Heart (1989, Loveswept #351), (2007) Reissue
Last White Knight (1992, Loveswept #561), (2008) Reissue
Quaid Horses series
Rumor Has It (1989, Loveswept #304), (2009) Reissue
Man of Her Dreams (1989, Loveswept #331) (2008) Reissue
Tempestuous (1990, Loveswept #434), (2007) Reissue
The Rainbow Chasers series
Heart of Gold (1990, Loveswept #393), (2010) Reissue
Keeping Company (1990, Loveswept #405), (2010) Reissue
Reilly's Return (1990, Loveswept #417), (2010) Reissue
Magic (1990, Bantam Fanfare, also in the Hennessy series)
The Bitter Season. By Tami Hoag. Jan. 2016.368p. Dutton, $28 (9780525954552).
This is the latest entry in the popular Kovac-Liska series, but the two are no longer working together for the Minneapolis police homicide unit. Detective Nikki Liska is now with the new cold-case squad in hopes of spending more time with her teenage sons. Detective Sam Kovac is lost without her but learning to deal with a young, green partner on a new case: a brutal home invasion. An Asian-studies professor and his wife were killed by a samurai sword from the professor's collection. Liska is assigned a 25-year-old murder of a highly honored sex-crimes detective, but for some reason, his family does not want the case reopened. There is no DNA, which is the primary resource to help solve cold cases, but Liska is determined to do the best she can anyway, even while envying her old partner his new case. This is a dark, gritty thriller, but Hoag manages to lighten it up now and then with some black humor. A real page-turner that is sure to please her legion of fans.--Stacy Alesi
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Alesi, Stacy. "The Bitter Season." Booklist, vol. 112, no. 8, 15 Dec. 2015, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A439362540/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bcab8d6a. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
Hoag, Tami THE BITTER SEASON Dutton (Adult Fiction) $28.00 1, 12 ISBN: 978-0-525-95455-2
In Hoag's (Cold, Cold Heart, 2015, etc.) latest, Minneapolis homicide detective Sam Kovac has been separated from his longtime partner, the diminutive yet hard-charging Nikki Liska. Nikki wanted more time with her teenage sons, so she sought assignment to the department's new cold case unit, where she's intrigued by the decades-old unsolved murder of Ted Duffy, a sex crimes detective, despite push back from a retired detective close to his family. Sam's first case without Nikki is the double murder--"raw animal violence"--of Lucien Chamberlain, an Asian studies professor, and his wife, Sondra, who were slashed to death with the professor's own antique samurai weapons. Chamberlain was an egotistical, misogynistic megalomaniac. Even his adult children hated him. Son Charles is damned by OCD and his father's unachievable expectations. Daughter Diana is bipolar and hypersexual. Nikki's and Sam's cases become parallel stories of anger, isolation, ambition, violence, revenge, and perversion. With Duffy's widow married to his prosperous twin brother and reluctant to cooperate, Nikki has no lead until she discovers Evi, Duffy's long-ago foster child. Sam has too many suspects, including an ex-con working for a handyman service, Charles and Diana, and professor Ken Sato, Diana's lover and Lucien's rival for department chair. Hoag adds depth to the tale with secondary characters like the preening Sato; fragile librarian Jennifer Duffy, broken and isolated by her father's murder; and the new homicide lieutenant, Joan Mascherino, who's tough-minded and empathetic, with knife-keen intelligence hidden under a prim personality intolerant of swearing. With an ear for sardonic cop dialogue and humor--Sondra Chamberlain regularly ended her day with a "bottle of Chateau Blackout"--Hoag livens up these two already fast-paced, ripped-from-the-headlines mysteries with interesting factoids about such things as the history of female samurai. This tense psychological thriller shows Hoag at the top of her game.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Hoag, Tami: THE BITTER SEASON." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2015. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A437247838/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6500e575. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
The Bitter Season
Tami Hoag. Dutton, $28 (368p) ISBN 978-0525-95455-2
Bestseller Hoag's riveting fifth novel featuring Minneapolis detectives Nikki Liska and Sam Kovac (after 2013's The 9th Girl) finds Nikki transferred to the newly funded cold case unit, where she hopes more regular hours will allow her to spend additional time with her adolescent sons. Her first case lacks leads and evidence: the 20-year-old homicide of a sex crimes detective shot down in his own yard by rifle. The razor-tongued Liska attacks the case with her usual dogged persistence, despite her initial hesitation, and tracks down old witnesses in the hopes of uncovering a new direction for the investigation. Meanwhile, Sam and his new partner look into the brutal murder of a university professor and his wife--by samurai sword. The two cases ultimately collide as the body count rises. Hoag has a gift for creating dynamic suspense, three-dimensional characters, and sharp dialogue. Newcomers and fans alike will find this fast-moving police procedural intensely satisfying. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency. Jan.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"The Bitter Season." Publishers Weekly, vol. 262, no. 47, 23 Nov. 2015, p. 50. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A436439870/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e54b2519. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
The Boy.
By Tami Hoag.
Dec. 2018.496p. Dutton, $28 (9781101985397); e-book, $14.99 (9781101985403).
Louisiana cops Annie Broussard and Nick Fourcade, whom readers last met in 1997's A Thin Dark Line, return in another cleverly plotted, atmospheric mystery. A young boy has been savagely murdered. His mother somehow escapes the same fate; covered in blood, she turns up at a neighboring house begging for help. While Nick takes charge of the grisly crime scene, Annie is at the hospital with the mother, and it isn't long before doubts start to accumulate: Why is there nothing to indicate that the murderer broke into the house? Why would someone butcher the boy but leave the mother unharmed? Why does the mother's story feel wrong? The day after the murder, the boy's 12-year-old babysitter goes missing. An unrelated crime? Or something far more sinister? Hoag puts on quite the juggling act here, dazzling us with multiple theories about the boy's murder, numerous potential suspects, and plot twists that keep us just slightly off-balance. A welcome return for a compelling investigative duo.--David Pitt
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Pitt, David. "The Boy." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 8, 15 Dec. 2018, p. 85. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A568257497/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7bd918d9. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
Bad Liar.
By Tami Hoag.
Sept. 2024. 416p. Dutton, $30 (9781101985434); e-book
(9781101985441).
Husband-and-wife cop team Annie Broussard and Nick Fourcade (last seen in The Boy, 2018) are each dealing with a difficult case. Nick is trying to identify a dead man dumped on a remote country road with his face blown off. Annie's got double duty: supporting Tulsie Parcelle, who's regularly abused by her husband, and hunting for Robbie Fontenot, a recovering addict who's gone missing. Decades ago, Robbie was star quarterback for his highschool football team, but when teammate Dozer Cormier ploughed into him, Robbie's leg was horribly damaged, his football career ended, and he became addicted to painkillers. Robbie's quarterback position went to Marc Mercier, who led his team to the championship, got a full scholarship to Tulane, and escaped his poverty-stricken background. Decades later, Marc--known as the local glamour boy--is back home to help run the family scrap business. Nick and Annie soon discover disturbing links between their cases and uncover a long-buried secret that has stunning current-day consequences. Hoag perfectly captures the Cajun dialect and way of life, the dark, steamy atmosphere of the Louisiana bayous, the claustrophobia of small-town life, lost dreams, dashed hopes, and tragic lives in this five-star read with a powerful, sucker-punch ending.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Melton, Emily. "Bad Liar." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 22, Aug. 2024, p. 31. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A808396683/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4a938a97. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
Hoag, Tami BAD LIAR Dutton (Fiction None) $30.00 9, 24 ISBN: 9781101985434
Third in a series--afterA Thin Dark Line (1997) andThe Boy (2018)--featuring a pair of married detectives in Louisiana.
A body lies on the bank of a bayou, his face and hands obliterated by a shotgun blast. He has no ID. Why, police wonder, didn't the killer use any of the countless places one might dump the body forever in the alligator-infested swamps of the south Louisiana French Triangle? Then at the local sheriff's office, B'Lynn Fontenot makes a frantic scene because no one will look for her missing adult son. But Det. Antoinette "Annie" Broussard listens with compassion and promises to investigate the young man's fate, for better or worse. Is he the homicide victim? DNA testing will take time. Meanwhile, Annie muses that "B'Lynn could hold onto a sliver of hope, and the thing about slivers was that they were usually painful and often left a scar." Then a second man is reported missing, and the Partout Parish sheriff's office gets busy. A former high school football star had become hooked on painkillers years earlier after a 350-pound kid landed on him during practice. Was it an accident? That's part of the gripping plot that opens a window into Cajun culture. Lt. Nick Fourcade leads a division of several detectives that includes Annie, who's his wife. She's just returned to work after having been badly hurt on the job, and he'd like her to take it easy. But "when trouble comes calling, you are seldom out of earshot," he says. Nick and Annie are a well-matched pair both professionally and maritally, and they are decent, loyal, and tough. Spousal abuse, drug addiction, jealousy, and revenge cloud the lives of victims and suspects alike while characters like Nick pepper their dialogue with a Cajun patois: a fool is a couillon, a runt is a pischouette. Nick is far more endearing to Annie, whom he privately calls 'Toinette. Hoag is a terrific crime writer, but readers have had to wait long stretches to catch up with Nick and Annie: It's been six years since book no. 2 and it was 21 years before that. Maybe Hoag will lessen the gap next time. Anyway, the ending just might make a reader's eyes well up. C'est vrai.
A gripping crime yarn from one of the best.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Hoag, Tami: BAD LIAR." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A802865176/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9c845521. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.
Bad Liar
Tami Hoag. Dutton, $30 (416p) ISBN 978-1-101-98543-4
Det. Annie Broussard and Lt. Nick Fourcade return in Hoag's gripping third case for the Partout Parish, La., investigative duo (after The Boy). At the outset, Nick responds to a call about the discovery of a body in a rural, marshy area, with a face so pulverized it's nearly impossible to identify the victim. Annie, meanwhile, returns to the sheriff's office after recovering from PTSD and a concussion she sustained during a previous investigation, and immediately encounters a distraught woman named B'Lynn Fontenot. B'Lynn's son, Robby, has gone missing in the nearby town of Bayou Breaux, but police there refuse to take his disappearance seriously given his history of drug use. B'Lynn is certain that Robby's kicked the habit, and Annie agrees to investigate. She links up with Nick to determine whether the body in the marsh might be Robby, or if it's Marc Mercier, a well-liked local businessman who's recently gone missing. Hoag sketches Robby, Marc, and B'Lynn with remarkable depth and sensitivity, and keeps the plot moving at a brisk clip through many twists and turns. This will please Hoag's fans and those new to her work. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Sept.)
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"Bad Liar." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 26, 8 July 2024, p. 155. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A801800207/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=eef64acd. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.