"Every Fear"

After five novels in his acclaimed Reed-Sydowski series, Rick Mofina started another series in 2005. The Dying Hour was the first novel featuring Jason Wade, a rookie crime reporter based in Seattle.

Every Fear is the second installment in the Jason Wade series.

Rick applied the "page 69 test" to his novel and reported the following:

On page 69 of my book, Every Fear, tow truck driver Lee Colson is grappling with a nightmare. A few hours earlier, his infant son, Dylan, was stolen from Lee's wife, Maria by strangers in a brazen lightning-quick abduction outside a corner store in their quiet Seattle neighborhood. The incident left Maria clinging to life in the hospital. The FBI and Seattle homicide detectives are in Lee's home reviewing security video with him.

The action, like much of the novel, is intense.

"The scenes flitted before him on the big screen.

Maria's sneakers as she rushed from the store to climb onto the van. The van lurched. The upper part of the screen blurred and Maria's head smashed to the street.

His insides twisted. The saliva in his mouth evaporated. His wife was dying in the street and he was unable to do anything about it.

Dylan's stroller toppled, its wheels spun in a final chorus to the destruction of his world.

The last images of his wife and son."

I believe page 69 is representative of my novel. Every Fear is the second book in my series featuring Seattle crime reporter, Jason Wade. Jason debuted in The Dying Hour, which the International Thriller Writers selected as a finalist for a 2006 thriller award.

In Every Fear, Jason Wade launches a journalistic investigation of a case that parallels a police investigation. At the same time he must confront his own personal demons. He comes from a broken home, his alcoholic dad is a former cop with a troubling past that he refuses to discuss. Jason is a truth-seeker, his quest is to find the answers that will restore order to the chaos.

As a former crime reporter, I draw on my own experiences for my thrillers. Jason Wade, like Tom Reed, the San Francisco crime reporter in my earlier series, is my lead character. But I tell my stories from the perspectives of several characters, always bearing in mind that story and character must fuel each other.

As a crime reporter, I’ve found that you step into a person's life at the most dramatic time; and with a clock ticking down on your deadline. Your job is to distill the critical facts for your story, yet as a writer you never fail to absorb the heart-wrenching details that help you make sense of and define what is at stake and what is playing out. The way the detective touches the casket of a murder victim and makes a personal vow to find the killer, the way a young widow wraps herself in her slain husband’s work shirt to feel his arms around her. The way a mother cradles the last photograph taken of her missing daughter, as if it were the most fragile thing in the world. Those details help you illustrate a richer, humane portrait that becomes part of the fabric of the story.

This is what I attempt to do in Every Fear and all of my forthcoming third book in the series, A Perfect Grave.

Read an excerpt from Every Fear.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Series.