Belated Guest Post with Alison Naomi Holt

I’d like to thank Jagged Edge Reviews for allowing me to write a guest post on their blog. I’ve had plenty of time to write these last few weeks because I’ve been kept inside by an earthquake, a hurricane, tornado warnings and a tropical storm carrying five full days of heavy rain. While I appreciate the gods giving me an excuse to stay inside and write, a respite from the inclement weather and the natural disasters would be nice.

This is my second blog tour in as many weeks. Last week, I talked about the first book in my Alex Wolfe series, Credo’s Hope. This week, I’m touring with a book that took seed in my imagination some twenty-five years ago—The Door at the Top of the Stairs. At that time, I was a brand new police officer who also happened to be working towards a master’s degree in psychology. As part of my studies I did an internship with the police psychologist on our department who was very good at discussing various aspects of his job, one of the most difficult being the effects on survivor officers when one of their own is killed. Somehow, our conversation turned toward officers who are first kidnapped or taken hostage, and then killed.

I began to wonder what it would be like for an officer to be kidnapped, tortured, and somehow returned to “normal” police work. The idea for The Door at the Top of the Stairs began with that conversation. In my book, undercover narcotics officer, Jesse Shaunessy, is kidnapped and tortured, then thrown away by her department as damaged goods. The mind is a powerful ally, and 26-year-old Jesse has no memory of the abduction or the subsequent torture. Inevitably, as Jesse drifts from one itinerant job to another, the protective walls carefully constructed by her subconscious are beginning to crumble.

Fate lands her on a farm owned by Dr. Ryland Caldwell, a retired psychologist and her partner, Morgan Davis, the master of the Myrena Fox Hunt club. Ryland suspects there is more to Jesse’s foul temper than meets the eye. When Morgan and Ryland accidentally discover vicious scars on Jesse’s back, Ryland knows that without their help, Jesse’s descent into insanity will rapidly overwhelm them all.

Thanks again for giving me your time, and always remember what Christopher Morley said. "Lord!" he said, "when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue -- you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night -- there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean."

To read more about Alison Holt, go to www.alisonholtbook.com.

Meet Lt. Alison Holt, a cop for more than twenty years. She has arrested everything from homicide suspects to emus, the latter earning her a spot on America's Funniest Home Videos. She taught police procedures to officers, and now teaches writers how to write realistic police scenes and characters.