Q&A With Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado

I recently finished reading an entertaining book titled The Grave Artist by Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado, both of whom I’m so excited about interviewing for this Q&A. For those who don’t know, Jeffery is the New York Times & International bestselling Author of over 50 novels several of which are a series. Some of his series are The Lincoln Rhyme Series & The Colter Shaw Series which is also a television series my grandmother and I watch on CBS called Tracker! Isabella Maldonado is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of her own series, which includes the Agent Nina Guerrera series, Agent Daniela Vega series, & Detective Veranda Cruz series. 

Q: Welcome to Book Notions Jeffery & Isabella! I’m so honored to be interviewing both of you! How did the two of you meet & where did the idea for your current series featuring Carmen Sanchez & Jake Heron come from? 

A: Thank you for your kind words. We met at a writers’ conference in Chicago a few years ago, in the green room. We happened to be joking around with a fellow attendee and presenter, Gillian Flynn, before our own respective presentations. And we thought, what would it be like to write a book together? Of course, we played it for fun and decided nobody had ever made a book about a baby mafioso. Maybe we’d write that! Of course, the idea died the death it deserved, but when Isabella and I met later at another conference in New York City, we decided to explore the idea a bit more seriously (though without the baby!)

We decided to give it a shot, since we both write a very similar type of book: thrillers, a genre of crime novel that continually asks the question: what will happen? As opposed to a murder mystery, of the sort Agatha Christie wrote, which asks the question what has happened? We spent many hours on the phone and decided that we liked the idea of a woman law enforcer paired with a bit of a renegade professor, who is an expert at computer security but who also pushes the limits when it comes to solving crimes. Thus, Jake and Carmen were born.

Q: Isabella, you wore a gun and badge in real life before you became a writer, and you used your past experiences to help create the books you’ve written. In your bio, your assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, & precinct commander. What was it like serving the police force? When writing your books is it fair to say that the dangerous people you’ve dealt with are used to write the bad guys in your books? 

A: Absolutely! Having worn a gun and badge in a large department near the nation’s capital for over two decades had a profound impact. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to synthesize those experiences by translating them into a fictional world in which things turn out the way they should rather than the way they often do in reality.

Before retiring as a police captain, my last position was Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. I was honored to have the opportunity to oversee talented and meticulous detectives going to great lengths to solve the most challenging cases.

Another highlight of my career was attending the FBI National Academy in Quantico, an intensive three-month course for law enforcement executives from around the world. This experience gave me insight into federal agencies and the work they do, as well as how crimes around the world are investigated.

Q: What was the writing process like for writing Fatal Intrusion & The Grave Artist? Do you alter chapters, or do you both focus on an individual character when writing? How does it work?

A: We both plan our books out ahead of time. Jeff is known for his extensive outlines, often reaching 100 pages, before he writes a single word of prose. Isabella outlines as well, though usually not quite so extensively. Together we came up with an outline for both books. When that was finished, we asked each other which chapters we’d like to write. Isabella took on more Carmen chapters, and Jeff wrote more Jake chapters, but that was not a hard-and-fast rule, and we jumped back and forth quite a bit. Next, we did a huge amount of rewriting, handing the manuscript back and forth and ruthlessly editing. We decided at the very beginning this would be what we call a no-ego zone. Our sole goal was to craft a book that would be the best offering of fiction for our readers.

Q: The Grave Artist is the second book in the Sanchez & Heron series. Is it best to read Fatal Intrusion first and then The Grave Artist or can you read them both as standalone books? 

A: Though hardly necessary, as the connection between our heroes and the organization they work for is laid out in the second book, it is probably better to read the first one first. It sets the stage and explains a bit more about Jake and Carmen’s back story, setting the stage for some personal interactions with Carmen and her sister, and Jake and his parents. Those latter issues are themes that run throughout the books.

Q: Is there going to be a third book in the Sanchez & Heron series, and if so, can you talk about what to expect in Carmen and Jake’s next adventures?

A: Yes, there will be a third book. And no, we can’t talk about what to expect. We must give you a wink 😉, because we’re suspense writers, so we must leave you in suspense!

Q: I love asking this next question for people who write together! What is your advice for writing with someone else, whether it’s a family member, a spouse or a friend? 

A: Our projects have been 100 percent 50-50, if that makes sense mathematically. We divide the work evenly and we each have the same amount of say as to where the story should go. You must respect your fellow writer immensely if you want to co-author. As stated previously, there can be no egos; this is all about crafting the best book for the readers. But ultimately what it comes down to is having a great deal of fun! Readers can sense when writers love the story. We both enjoyed working with each other. As Jeff tells his students, “If writing ain’t fun, don’t do it.”

Q: Jeffery, you’ve had several books made into movies with such fantastic casts: The Bone Collector starred Denzel Washington & Angelina Jolie; The Maidens Grave starred James Garner & Marlee Matlin! Tracker on CBS is based on the Colter Shaw books (My grandmother and I enjoy watching Tracker!) What did it feel like when you first saw your books come to life on the screen?

A: Oh, it never fails to thrill, to see when one of my projects gets turned into a TV show or movie. As I grew up, I watched shows as much as I read books, so it’s very special. While the stories are often somewhat, or very, different from my original work, that doesn’t matter to me at all. A TV show or movie is a product of the broadcast or film team. That’s their vision. It’s different from mine, as the author of a novel, which it should be.

Q: Are you both also working on separate projects and can you share what’s coming up?

Jeff: I have a new Lincoln Rhyme book coming out next year, The Collateral Heart, and a new Amazon Original Short story—Bulletproof. I’m planning my next Colter Shaw book too, for (oh my!) 2027.

 Isabella: Next year will be very exciting. I’m releasing the much-anticipated Book 4 in the Detective Cruz series. This is the series that started my career, and I’ve wanted to delve back into that world for quite a while. In addition, I’m relaunching Books 1-3 in the same series, which will be fun for those just discovering Detective Cruz as well as those who have loved her and her family for many years.

Q: Who would be your dream cast to play Carmen, Jake and Selina in Fatal Intrusion & The Grave Artist once Hollywood gets the rights to them? A suggestion for Carmen and Selina would be Ana De Armas for Carmen & Jenna Ortega for her sister Selena. 

A: Those are fantastic suggestions! Alas, we are prohibited from divulging anything about film/television rights—or dream casting—for the Sanchez & Heron series at this point. 😉