Q&A With Linda Hurtado Bond 

I am delighted to be doing this Q&A with Linda Hurtado Bond. Linda is an Emmy Award Winning Journalist by day and in the dark of the night, she is the author of James Bond-like adventures and heart stopping thrillers. Linda’s novels include Cuba Undercover, Alive at 5, Flatline, All The Broken Girls & All The Missing Girls. 

Q: Linda, would you please give a brief description of each of your novels? 

A: ALL THE BROKEN GIRLS 

Cuban American crime reporter Mari Alvarez is on a personal hunt for a killer who is leaving broken dolls at every scene. With a new victim every day, she’s going to need more than the Azabache charm bracelet her Abuela Bonita insists will protect her from evil. Rational homicide detective Tony Garcia needs more than the superstitious journalist’s hunch there’s a serial killer lying in wait in the West Tampa neighborhood. He needs proof. Working against the clock, while fighting a growing attraction, Mari and Tony must explore a hidden, Old World Cuban religion, so they can break the case of ALL THE BROKEN GIRLS.

ALL THE MISSING GIRLS 

Once you enter their world, there is no escape…in this gripping and undeniably chilling thriller by Emmy-award winning journalist Linda Hurtado Bond  

 As a crime reporter for a Tampa TV news station, Mari Alvarez knows when an investigation enters dangerous territory. But with her estranged sister missing and almost no information to go on, Mari can’t trust anyone but herself to find the truth. Now she has just 48 hours to sneak into Cuba undetected, track down her sister…and pray to her orisha that she’s not too late.

This is nothing like reporting in her neighborhood, though–a place she knows like the back of her hand. In Havana she has no contacts and only an ice-cold trail of cryptic clues. When Detective Tony Garcia offers to help, Mari puts aside her instincts and tries to let someone in. But soon they’re caught in a maze of lies, deception, and an undercurrent of the island’s own witchcraft, a sinister Brujería.

 Every lead draw Mari further into this world of shadows, especially when her sister isn’t the only young woman who’s gone missing. Each step pushes Mari and Tony toward a revelation they never saw coming. And as they close in on the horrifying truth, one thing becomes clear…no one will let them leave Cuba alive.

ALIVE AT 5 

TV news reporter Samantha Steele is one panic attack away from losing her job. Future on the line, she sets up an easy feature story – following her mentor on an exhilarating adventure vacation.  When her mentor dies while skydiving, Samantha suspects he was murdered, and her investigative instincts lead her to gorgeous thrill-seeker Zack Hunter.

Zack is an undercover police officer investigating his uncle’s death through the same adventure vacation. Zack doesn’t want Samantha investigating alongside him. The emotionally wounded loner is afraid of being responsible for a partner again, especially a journalist whose goal is to splash evidence all over the evening news. But the striking reporter’s persistence is quite a turn-on, and Zack’s overpowering desire makes it harder for him to push her away.

When the killer turns his attention to Zack, Samantha could be the only one who can save him, forcing the anxiety-riddled correspondent to finally face her greatest fear.

CUBA UNDERCOVER

His revenge will change her life forever…

Cuban American TV reporter Rebecca Menendez’s success comes from playing by the rules. When she’s kidnapped by a fierce and intensely handsome man who needs her help, however, all those rules seem pointless. Nothing could have prepared her for being taken hostage…or the irresistible reward if she complies: information about her long-thought-out dead father.

Antonio Vega has spent almost every day of his adult life dreaming of revenging his father’s death. With his sister’s life and freedom in jeopardy, Antonio isn’t taking any chances. But once Rebecca and Antonio are in Cuba, they’re immersed in a world of corruption, deceit, and betrayal. It’s a deadly game…and there are no rules.

FLATLINE

Investigative reporter Rachel Wright brings her lethargic TV news producer to the local emergency room suffering from unexplained symptoms.  Rachel has no option but to rush her friend to the same hospital where Rachel’s brother died, and the moment touches off a sensory overload of bad memories.  She hates hospitals and distrusts doctors, especially her physician ex who was in the room when her brother coded. 

Her brother’s death devastated Dr. Joshua Salvador. Now his ex, a well-known investigative reporter, is back in his ER with her sick friend, and Joshua promises to save her. But can’t.

More patients show up in Joshua’s ER with similar symptoms, and he fears it’s either a killer shot or a killer calling the shots. Either way, the deaths are all connected to him. The two ex-lovers must trust each other again and work together to figure out whether it’s a possible pandemic or a malevolent murderer causing unexplained deaths.  

In the end they learn trust heals and love is the greatest medicine.

Q: Where do the ideas for your novels & characters come from?

A: Often from my day job at work. I was anchoring the news and telling viewers about an adventure vacation when I turned to my co-worker and said, what if this high-risk vacation was used as a way to kill people without anyone knowing. Like a hit service.  You sign a waiver that it’s dangerous and most who sign up are inherently risk takers.  He turned to me and said I’d read that book.  That was the beginning of Alive at 5.  My publisher asked me to write a true thriller, so All the Broken Girls came from a direct request from Entangled Publisher Liz Pelletier.

Q: Do you have any upcoming releases & are you currently writing new stories right now?

A: Book three in the Mari Alvarez serial killer thriller series comes out in February.  It’s called The Phantom Pirate of Gasparilla. 

All TV news crime reporter Mari Alvarez wants is peace while she repairs her relationship with her estranged sister and builds a romantic relationship with her long-time partner, homicide detective Tony Garcia. But when the serial killer she and Tony investigated resurfaces, threatening to murder those closest to her, Mari must find the butcher before he slaughters her chance at happiness. 

Terrified when her nemesis keeps popping up at Tampa’s famous GASPARILLA events, hiding in plain sight, a masked pirate bent on revenge, Mari realizes she has no choice but to play the killer’s game: unmask him before he picks off her loved ones with no care about collateral damage. 

As Mari figures out someone is using artificial intelligence to place her at murder scenes, turning her from savior into suspect, she realizes she can no longer trust anyone. When the phantom pirate kidnaps everyone she loves, burying them like treasure in the hidden tunnels beneath Tampa’s famous Ybor City, Mari decides to confront the predator alone. She knows pirates are ruthless killers who torture victims. She understands if she fails to defeat this maleficent force she’ll be forced to walk the plank, leaving her loved ones exposed, sailing the sea of evil, facing a tide of horrific, unexpected death.

The Phantom Pirate of Gasparilla is a heart-pounding, cinematic adventure combining old world legends and new world technology. If you like Pirates of the Caribbean or any James Bond movie, you’ll love this story of good versus evil, asking the question can kindness and compassion cure even the most demented and tortured hearts?  Leaving you contemplating, what are you willing to sacrifice for those you love? 

Q: How do you juggle being a journalist & writing a novel? What is your advice for anyone wanting to do both?

A: The great writer Walter Mosely says write 1,000 words every day. The challenge as a working mother with a day job is to carve that time out. You either get up early or stay up late. But if you are consistent, if you write 1,000 words every day, you will write the book you dream of. 

Q: Would you say that being a journalist has helped your writing skills when it came to writing novels? Authors who are (or were) journalists most of the time say yes, though some say no. 

A: Yes. I know how to meet deadlines. I know how to strip a story down to the very meat of the story, the who, what, why, where and when with the goal, motivation, and conflict. It helps me write faster than most. And there is no writer’s block in journalism. You write the story. ON time or you get fired. ☺