July 28, 2020

It’s Release Day! EXIT STRATEGY Is Out!

July 28, 2020/ Jen Danna

It’s release day and EXIT STRATEGY is finally here! It feels like today has been a long time in coming, and I’m thrilled to say you can now get your hands on your own copy.

What are people saying about EXIT STRATEGY? Here’s some of the advanced praise:

“Tense and tightly plotted, Exit Strategy pulls you in and doesn't let go. A compelling page-turner.”—Marc Cameron, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Clancy: Code of Honor

“An energetic series launch with convincing descriptions of New York City neighborhoods and police tactics, along with flashbacks full of Italian family lore. Fans of contemporary police procedurals will hope to see a lot more of the capable Gemma."—Publishers Weekly

"Danna kicks off her first solo effort with a compelling, dramatic story while using the protagonist’s family background as motivation. Readers who love the TV show Blue Bloods, with its family of cops, will relish this launch."—Library Journal

“Coming in hot. This phrase in its military meaning of “all guns blazing” describes the first book in a new series by Jen J. Danna to a tee. Readers will be riveted to the spot as the clock counts down on a day rife with danger and suspense. Danna has done a superb job of introducing the Capellos and the NYPD Negotiators series to readers. I’m excited about this series and what Gemma and her negotiating team will face next.”—The Reading Room

“Fast-paced and packed with plenty of action. Reading Exit Strategy was like watching a movie, it had that cinematic, high-octane plot speed and plenty going on to keep the reader turning the pages.”—Bibliophile Book Club

“A terrific well-plotted storyline. My hat is off to this author and her attention to detail and the weaving of a great read.”—Rose Point Publishing

One more time for the people in the back, what is EXIT STRATEGY about?

In this taut new suspense series featuring NYPD detective Gemma Capello and her close-knit law enforcement family, a madman brings a halt to the heart of the city that never sleeps . . .

After her mother’s death during a bank robbery when she was a child, Gemma Capello grew up to become one of the NYPD’s elite hostage negotiators. In a family of cops, there’s rarely a day when a Capello isn’t facing down some form of threat. Still, despite their unpredictable schedules, they always find time for their annual family summer picnic. But this year, a sudden phone call changes everything.

A heavily armed gunman has taken hostages at City Hall. Gemma races downtown to join the rest of the Hostage Negotiation Team as they scramble to identify the captives—fearing the mayor may be among them. But as they scramble for answers and struggle to gain control of the circumstances, it becomes clear that the mayor is at the center of it all, just not in the way they initially believed.

With several lives on the line and a criminal who always seems to be one step ahead, Gemma is the only one able to connect with the suspect. Soon, she finds herself engaging in a battle of wits while enduring a battle of egos in the command center. With time running out and a mastermind who has proven he’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants, Gemma risks it all—her career and her life—in a last-ditch effort to save the hostages. Now, she needs to figure out how to save herself . . .

You can find EXIT STRATEGY available now at these fine retailers: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Audible, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Indigo, Target, and Walmart.

These are difficult times and many people are stretched emotionally and financially. What’s a reader to do if they can’t afford to go out and buy a hardcover copy of EXIT STRATEGY? There are lots of ways you can still support me and EXIT STRATEGY’s launch:

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to sell new books, so please recommend EXIT STRATEGY to your reader friends.
Talk about the book on social media. Especially during the quarantimes, this a fantastic way to get the word out about a new book or a new series.
Request the book at your local library. I love libraries and they’re a great way for readers to find a new author. But a library member needs to request the book if it’s not already in the catalogue to start that off. That way you get to read it, but then you’re sharing the gift of that book with other library members.
Write reviews on commercial websites like Goodreads or Amazon. Other readers who are interested in the book will look at reviews when they are deciding whether to try a new book. A great review goes a very long way.
Think about book lovers on any upcoming birthday or holiday lists and give EXIT STRATEGY as a gift.

Many thanks to all for their support. Launching a book in the middle of a pandemic definitely has its challenges, especially when the sales from this book will 100% decide if the series will go beyond book #2. So I very, VERY much appreciate all the support from you, my fabulous readers!

And don’t forget the big book launch party tonight. You’ll find me and a group of bestselling Kensington authors here on Facebook tonight from 7 – 10pm EDT: https://www.facebook.com/events/755932971842445/

If you go to the event today, you can sign up so you’re right in the middle of all the action tonight. You can also see some of the prizes we’ll be giving away in posts in the Discussion tab. Seriously, so many prizes. Books, audiobooks, clothing, book tie-in packages, and much more. So please stop by tonight because you may be one of our lucky winners. Hope to see you there!!

Kensington July Mystery and Thriller Launch Poster Landscape (small).jpg

July 24, 2020

The Sites of EXIT STRATEGY – St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral

July 24, 2020/ Jen Danna

Just north of present-day Little Italy, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Nolita (North of Little Italy) stands a Gothic Revival church which opened in 1815—the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. This is the site of the final scene of EXIT STRATEGY, a location that is familiar to Gemma Capello, and her family, and where she makes a final stand against a man who threatens not only her own life, but the lives of everyone around them.

Designed in 1809 by Joseph-François Mangin, who also designed New York City Hall, it was the largest building in the city. Construction started in 1809 on a plot of land surrounded by farm land well north of the city and was completed in 1815. However, as the city grew, it enveloped this area of what is now Lower Manhattan. Within sixty years, the church was a cornerstone of Little Italy and the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York until the more modern St. Patrick’s Cathedral was built in Midtown Manhattan in 1879.

The church is surrounded by a 10-foot-high brick wall, originally built to contain the church cemetery. It was used in 1836 as defense against attacks by Protestants who were concerned the church could be used as a stronghold from which the Pope could convert the largely Protestant Manhattan to Catholicism. Prior to Italian immigration, St. Patrick’s was largely a congregation of Irish immigrants. Those Irish congregants cut holes in the wall for musket barrels and posted armed men to protect the church and its property, even going so far as to patrol the streets outside the Basilica. This action finally discouraged the Protestants from their original plan to sack the church.

Inside the church, the sanctuary is marked by an arched Gothic ceiling supported by two lines of iron columns running parallel to framing stained-glass windows. At the front of the church on a raised dais, an intricate hand-carved reredos, an ornate wooden screen standing behind the alter, is leafed with gold and holds ten saints within its decorative niches. Rows of wooden pews fill the nave and, at the rear of the sanctuary, twin confessionals are set against facing walls next to statues of the Virgin and St. Francis with his lamb, both surrounded by candles. High in the balcony at the back of the church, the original 1868 pipe organ, which contains over 2,500 pipes, is still in use and is the last remaining large pipe organ designed by 19th century, world-renowned New York City organ builder, Henry Erben.

However, one of the most interesting aspects of the church lies underneath the nave—the church’s historic catacombs. Constructed following the church’s opening in 1815, the catacombs contain over fifty family crypts, each small door opening to stairs leading to a lower level large enough to hold up to twelve occupants. There are a number of well-known early-to-mid 19th century persons interred here: numerous members of the Delmonico restauranteur family; General Thomas Eckert, a Union Army officer who ran the War Department Telegraph Staff for most of the Civil War; Reverend John Connolly, the first bishop of New York; Thomas O’Connor, a prominent Irish journalist; and Congressman John Kelly, an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. Recently refurbished, visitors to the cathedral can now tour the catacombs led by Tommy’s of New York.

Some fun facts about St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral: Martin Scorsese, who grew up in Little Italy and served as an altar boy at St. Patrick’s, used the cathedral cemetery for a scene in Mean Streets. The sanctuary and baptismal font were used by Francis Ford Coppola in the movie The Godfather. And, finally, each year money is raised to bring in a grounds crew for the cemetery—three sheep who spend their summer inside the outer walls maintaining the cemetery lawn, a little touch of what life around the church was like in its earliest days.

July 21, 2020

The Sites of EXIT STRATEGY – Little Italy

July 21, 2020/ Jen Danna

New York City has a colourful history. What began as New Amsterdam, a Dutch settlement in the 17th century, then became an English town, and finally a 19th and 20th century draw for people from all over the world including Ireland, Germany, Russia and Poland. And, of course, Italy.

Life in Italy in the mid-19th century was hard. Poverty, political strife, an overwhelmingly agricultural lifestyle, high taxes combined with low wages, and a lack of land pushed whole families, even sometimes entire villages, to emigrate. The United States was a desirable destination as it was not only known for its available land, but for its lower taxes and higher wages for skilled labour, as well as its growing industrial age businesses.

Italian immigration started as a trickle in the 1860s. Those who settled in Manhattan took up residence in perhaps the most dangerous area of the city—Five Points. They filled tenements on the south end of Mulberry Street, an area called Mulberry Bend, clinging to their original family and village groupings, maintaining the insular lifestyle to which they were accustomed in Italy. But Mulberry Bend was the city’s epicenter of poverty, crime, and gang life with a growing population squeezed into multi-family single room lodgings. In fact, at one point, this area of Five Points was designated the most densely populated area of the entire city, and was infamous for its disease, crime, and murder rates, far outnumbering any other part of Manhattan. As a result, in 1897, the city tore down the tenements and created Mulberry Park, known today as Columbus Park. Displaced Italian residents moved uptown, finding their homes further north on Mulberry, as well as on Mott, Elizabeth, Prince, and Grand Streets, to name a few. It is this area which is still known as Little Italy today.

The Italian community flourished, even more so as additional immigrants moved in. It is estimated that between 1880 and 1920, over four million Italians immigrated to America, and thousands flocked to the community in Manhattan that came to be called Little Italy. At its peak in 1910, 10,000 Italians lived inside this two-square-mile area.

The residents of Little Italy re-established their familiar lifestyle, and, in doing so, introduced it to New York City. Restaurants, bakeries, delicatessens, and food carts and shops opened. Churches were community centers of engagement. Organ grinders could be heard throughout the streets. And in 1926, the first Feast of San Gennaro was celebrated. Now an annual 11-day street festival each September, festivities include mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood on Mulberry Street, as well as parades, live music, shopping, and, of course, food. However, with the good, came the bad as the Mafia moved in and established itself in Little Italy in the early 20th century, including the Morello, Gambino, and Genevese crime families. Almost seventy years later, New York City native Mario Puzo set his novel, The Godfather, with its Corleone crime family in Little Italy as a representation of that Mafia presence.

Now down to a handful of blocks from it’s original fifty square block spread, Little Italy contains few Italians, but remains a tourist destination in New York City. However, it maintains some of its colourful roots. If you visit the area, you can still get a taste of the late 19th and early 20th century charm in some of the original shops, still run by the founding families:

Alleva Dairy—Makers of fine cheeses, specially known for their ricotta and mozzarella; the oldest continually run shop in Little Italy since its opening in 1892.

Parisi Bakery—From 1903 through three generations of Parisis, an authentic Italian brick-oven bakery and delicatessen.

Di Palo’s Fine Foods—A specialty Italian grocery store opened in 1903 and currently operated by fifth generation Di Palos.

Piemonte Ravioli—Creating traditional fresh and dried Italian pasta since 1920.

This is the world in which Gemma Capello was raised. Her nuclear family may have lived in Brooklyn, but her Italian grandparents lived on Elizabeth Street, once the Sicilian bastion of Little Italy. It is here she learns her family’s history. It is here she retreats following the death of her mother, to her grandmother’s care, where she learns to cook all the traditional Sicilian family favourites. It is here where her best friend Frankie and Frankie’s father run their bakery/café. And it is here she comes when she needs to save lives, including her own.

On Friday, we’ll look at the site of the book’s climax, Little Italy’s early-19th century St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, a site rich with history and which contains a series of hidden catacombs underneath.

All photos from The Library of Congress.

July 14, 2020

A Sneak Peek of EXIT STRATEGY

July 14, 2020/ Jen Danna

We’re two weeks away from the launch of EXIT STRATEGY and I’ve got a sneak peek for you in the form of Chapter One. Chapter One is really a self-contained, short-story introduction of Gemma Capello and what she does as a negotiator—holding lives in her hands. Click the link below to jump right in!

EXIT STRATEGY - CHAPTER ONE

Praise for EXIT STRATEGY:

Publishers Weekly: An "energetic series launch" with "convincing descriptions of New York City neighborhoods and police tactics, along with flashbacks full of Italian family lore. Fans of contemporary police procedurals will hope to see a lot more of the capable Gemma."

Marc Cameron, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Clancy: Code of Honor: “Tense and tightly plotted, Exit Strategy pulls you in and doesn't let go. A compelling page-turner.”

Bibliophile Book Club: “Fast-paced and packed with plenty of action. Reading Exit Strategy was like watching a movie, it had that cinematic, high-octane plot speed and plenty going on to keep the reader turning the pages.”

Rose Point Publishing: “A terrific well-plotted storyline. My hat is off to this author and her attention to detail and the weaving of a great read.”

EXIT STRATEGY is available for pre-order at these fine retailers: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Indigo, Target, and Walmart.

And look what just arrived last night! Author copies of EXIT STRATEGY. New book deliveries are the best!

Kensington July Mystery and Thriller Launch Poster Landscape (medium).jpg

A reminder of the big Kensington July Mystery and Thriller Launch party coming up on July 28th from 7 - 10PM. You’ll find the link to sign up as going or interested, and to get updates and reminders of the event right here: https://www.facebook.com/events/755932971842445/. It’s going to be really great evening with lots of interesting conversation and a ton of great prizes for attendees. I hope to see you all there!

June 30, 2020

The Sites of EXIT STRATEGY – New York City Hall

June 30, 2020/ Jen Danna

New York City is a fascinating place, full of business, entertainment, and history. But to Gemma Capello, it’s home. And as we come closer to the release of EXIT STRATEGY, I wanted to share some of Gemma’s city as it’s highlighted in the book.

Wikimedia Commons, by MusikAnimal - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

New York City Hall is the main location for much of EXIT STRATEGY. As the story starts, a crisis breaks out at City Hall as an armed man gains entrance to the building and takes hostages inside the mayor’s office. It’s this situation which calls the Capellos—Chief Tony Capello, head of Special Operations; Lieutenant Joe Capello of the Manhattan Gang Squad; Sergeant Mark Capello of the 5th Precinct; and Detective Gemma Capello of the Hostage Negotiation Team—away from a family get-together and into the city center. The Capellos scatter to their various roles, and Gemma ends up sitting in a repurposed bank vault near City Hall, on the phone with the hostage taker. But beyond the site of this fictional crisis, New York City Hall is a gorgeous building with a fascinating history.

The third of New York’s city halls, the current building is the country’s oldest city hall still used for its original purpose. In an 1802 competition, Joseph Francois Mangin and John McCombs Jr. won the $350 grand prize for their French Renaissance design (we’ll see more of Mr. Mangin’s work in a few weeks when we talk about Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral). However, due to budget constraints and the resulting requirement for some design changes, construction didn’t start until 1810, with the building officially opening in 1812. It was the first city hall in the country that was part of a city park, a response to Boston’s and Philadelphia’s downtown city halls which were built with no significant greenspace.

New York City Hall, Aquatint by W. G. Wall, 1826.

In modern times, the building isn’t big enough to manage all municipal business (thus the adjacent David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, opened in 1914 following the consolidation of the five boroughs), but early on, the building not only served as the mayor’s office and the associated municipal offices, but it also contained a beer and wine cellar, several small jails, and a chapel. Currently, the building houses the mayor and his staff, as well as the majority and minority leaders and their staffs, and the council chambers for municipal business.

The central building is flanked by two wings and is topped by a cupola bearing a statue of lady justice. Thirteen steps, one for each of the thirteen colonies at the time of construction, rise to the five-door entrance sheltered by a portico supported by Corinthian columns. Inside, a statue of George Washington guards the front entryway that opens to the American-Georgian styled foyer.

One of the most notable features of the building is the pairing of a floating double staircase and a coffered rotunda, designated an interior landmark in 1976. The keystone, cantilevered marble staircase, an engineering feat in the early nineteenth century, rises to the second floor. Above it, the coffered dome is supported by ten Corinthian columns. Centered in the dome is an oculus to naturally light the space.

Wikimedia Commons, by Mary Browlee - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The rotunda has been the site of many important events, including the lying-in-state of both President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885.

At the top of the floating staircase, is the Governor’s Room, both a reception room and the location of many of City Hall’s museum pieces, including their portraiture collection and George Washington’s writing desk from Federal Hall, the seat of the federal government from 1789 – 1790.

Also on the second floor are the Council Chambers—still used today for modern municipal business—which boasts a mahogany dais, a mural ceiling, and a balcony for spectators.

Wikimedia Commons, by Grenoble17 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Outside, City Hall Park is a public space for residents and tourists alike. Here, George Washington read the Declaration of Independence for the first time on July 9th, 1776; it was also the site of the first protest against the British. A memorial to Captain Nathan Hale stands opposite City Hall, and the beautiful 1871 fountain, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, the architect of much of Central Park, is located at the southern end of the park.

Wikimedia Commons, by Martin Furtschegger - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Next week, we’re going to look at a little-known secret below City Hall—the City Hall Subway Station, built in 1904 but abandoned since 1945. It’s a gorgeous piece of architecture from days gone by that has a fascinating tie-in to EXIT STRATEGY. You won’t want to miss it!

EXIT STRATEGY releases on July 28, 2020 and is available for pre-order at these fine retailers: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Indigo, Target, and Walmart.

After her mother’s death during a bank robbery when she was a child, Gemma Capello grew up to become one of the NYPD’s elite hostage negotiators. In a family of cops, there’s rarely a day when a Capello isn’t facing down some form of threat. Still, despite their unpredictable schedules, they always find time for their annual family summer picnic. But this year, a sudden phone call changes everything.

A heavily armed gunman has taken hostages at City Hall. Gemma races downtown to join the rest of the Hostage Negotiation Team as they scramble to identify the captives—fearing the mayor may be among them. But as they scramble for answers and struggle to gain control of the circumstances, it becomes clear that the mayor is at the center of it all, just not in the way they initially believed.

With several lives on the line and a criminal who always seems to be one step ahead, Gemma is the only one able to connect with the suspect. Soon, she finds herself engaging in a battle of wits while enduring a battle of egos in the command center. With time running out and a mastermind who has proven he’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants, Gemma risks it all—her career and her life—in a last-ditch effort to save the hostages. Now, she needs to figure out how to save herself . . .

June 25, 2020

You're Invited to a Multi-Author Book Launch Party!

June 25, 2020/ Jen Danna

There’s a virtual party planned and you’re invited! Please join me and 10 other Kensington mystery and thriller authors for what’s shaping up to be a really fabulous event. We’ll be getting together on Tuesday, July 28th from 7 – 10pm EDT to celebrate our new book releases, and we’d love for you to join us from the safety and social distance of your own home anywhere in the world. We’ll be chatting with our readers, dishing the inside scoop about our books and writing, raffling off chances to be the first to get early reader copies of upcoming releases, and giving away swag and other prizes.

These bestselling authors are taking part that night:

Lisa Black – Every Kind of Wicked; A Gardiner and Renner Novel, book 6

Jen J. Danna – Exit Strategy; NYPD Negotiators, book 1

Vicki Delany – Tea and Treachery; A Tea by the Sea Mysteries, book 1

Charlie Donlea – The Suicide House; A Rory Moore/Lane Phillips Novel, book 2

Dianne Freeman – A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder; A Countess of Harleigh Mystery, book 3

Sherry Harris – From Beer to Eternity; A Chloe Jackson, Sea Glass Saloon Mystery, book 1

A.L. Herbert – Murder with Honey Ham Biscuits; A Mahalia Watkins Mystery, book 4

Lee Hollis – Death of a Wicked Witch; Hayley Powell Mystery, book 13

Kevin O’Brien – The Bad Sister; Family Secrets, book 2

Carlene O’Connor – Murder in Connemara; An Irish Village Mystery, book 8

Annelise Ryan – The Night Shift; A Helping Hands Mystery, book 2

We have books to match the taste of every mystery or thriller reader, so please join us on July 28th from 7 – 10pm EDT here: https://www.facebook.com/events/755932971842445/. If you stop by the event link prior to that day and sign up as going or interested, you’ll receive reminders about the event so you won’t miss it.

We hope to see you there!

Kensington July Mystery and Thriller Launch Poster Portrait (small).jpg

June 23, 2020

Introducing Gemma Capello and the Capellos of New York City

June 23, 2020/ Jen Danna

Hello, blog readers! I hope you and yours are all safe and well during this time of crisis.

It’s been a long time since my last blog. Life has been busy! I’ve doubled my writing output to two books a year, which has forced me to blog less so I could write more. Then the pandemic hit. My day job as a lab manager threw me directly into COVID research, and, as a group, we’ve been run off our feet since mid-March. However, I’m back now in the run up to the release of EXIT STRATEGY.

EXIT STRATEGY will release in five weeks and I’m excited to introduce you to Gemma Capello and her first responder family, all of whom you will meet in EXIT STRATEGY, and several of whom play crucial roles in the book.

So who is Gemma Capello, hostage negotiator, and where did she come from?

The idea to write about a hostage negotiator was borne out of LONE WOLF and a character that was only on the page for a grand total of about two hundred words. But this character, and the challenges he faced stuck with me, so much so that when I was looking at starting a new series on my own, of the two promising ideas I discussed with my agent, this was the one I wanted to explore first.

My love of writing series has largely come of my love of reading series. I enjoy settling in for a long ride with familiar characters. But as an author, you can also settle into writing a group of characters like Meg Jennings, Todd Webb and Clay McCord of the FBI K-9s. When I start each new K-9 book, my main concern is plot with some character development on the side. But I know these characters so well at this point, I can dive right in with them without much thought.

Writing a new cast of characters required some advance planning. One of the books I read in preparation for the series was 45 Master Characters – Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters, which I used to help figure out some of the major characteristics of my protagonist. In the end, for Gemma, I decided on someone who is a nurturer. But as a single woman who is more married to her career than anything else at this point in her life, most of her nurturing is turned toward her family.

I fell back to a small extent on my own family background when fleshing out Gemma’s backstory. Like the Dannas, the Capellos hail from Siculiana, a small town of less than 5,000 people in the province of Agrigento in Sicily. Like me, Gemma lost a parent as a child, though her loss came as part of a violent incident that she herself was involved in. Unlike me, Gemma is surrounded by only brothers; in her case, four of them. With the loss of her mother when Gemma was ten, she stepped into the nurturing female role in her immediate family, and remains there in adulthood.

Like any large, raucous Italian family they are a nosy, loving group who are caught up in each other’s lives. The patriarch, Tony, is the Chief of Special Operations in the NYPD, heading up the department Gemma herself is a part of as a member of the NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT). The oldest Capello sibling, Joe, is a lieutenant in the Manhattan Gang Squad. The next oldest, Marco, is a patrol sergeant in the 5th Precinct in Manhattan. Matteo, the third son, is the only Capello to break with tradition and instead finds his place in the FDNY. Gemma follows as the fourth sibling, working her way up through the ranks to detective, finally succeeding in her goal to join the HNT, a highly prized position only eligible to a detective with a minimum of twelve years’ experience in the NYPD. The baby of the family, Alex, Gemma’s closest sibling following the death of their mother, is a detective in the Internal Affairs Bureau.

The family is introduced right at the beginning of Exit Strategy during a traditional family gathering that is interrupted by a hostage taking at New York’s City Hall. Because of their positions and family connections, we see many of the Capellos throughout the story as they collectively work to end the standoff. Gemma may be the one talking to the suspect, and, in the end, risking her life to save the hostages, but when one Capello is in trouble, it’s an all hands on deck moment for the family. I hope when you meet them, you’ll love them as much as I do.

However, EXIT STRATEGY doesn’t just take place inside and around New York City Hall. Gemma has to travel through some of the most fascinating areas of the city in her quest to stop the hostage taker. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to look at some of the highlights of Gemma’s city and their fascinating history. Stay tuned for much more…

March 26, 2019

Announcing a Brand New Series!

March 26, 2019/ Jen Danna

I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I have a publishing deal for a completely new series. I’ll be teaming up with Kensington Books and my amazing editor Esi Sogah once again to bring you the NYPD Negotiators thriller series as a two-book deal in both hardcover and ebook starting next summer. I love working with Esi, who has made a significant impact on the FBI K-9s series, so I’m over the moon to start this new series with her. At the same time, I also have a three-book deal with Dreamscape Media for the audio version of the series.

This will be a bit of a change for me as this will be my first series as a solo author. I love working with Ann, and will continue to do so with the FBI K-9s series, but I’m stretching my wings a bit and working toward a full-time career writing once I finally retire from my day job as an infectious diseases lab manager. Until then, I’ll be publishing two books a year, one solo and one with Ann, so life has become pretty crazy. I finished the first draft of book one (EXIT STRATEGY) yesterday, and will have it edited and handed in by the time FBI K-9s book five beckons in June. But, in the mean time, it will go through several rounds of editing before my critique team gets it in just under three weeks, and then my husband and I are off to New York City for some better-late-than-never research for the book. It's not my usual order to write a book and then complete the research, but due to a very fast deadline on this one to fit around the K-9 due date, that's how this book is coming together. Not to worry though, there will still be lots of time to finesse the manuscript before it goes to Kensington, so it will all work out in the end.

So what is this new series about? Here is the initial back cover copy for EXIT STRATEGY, which will give you a taste of what is to come:

After watching her mother die as a hostage during a bank robbery when she was a child, Gemma Capello grew up to become one of the NYPD’s elite hostage negotiators. Unlike other negotiators, she knows firsthand the nightmare of being held at the mercy of a madman with a gun. So when the first deputy mayor of New York City and many of the city’s senior staffers are taken hostage inside City Hall, Gemma is selected as part of the handpicked team of negotiators tasked with resolving the situation before blood is spilled.

But the man inside City Hall has other ideas. Deadly calm and in complete control, he stymies and outwits the negotiators at every turn. He has a very personal agenda, and wants retribution at any cost, even if it means his own death. Now that lives are in his hands, the negotiators are afraid they don’t have anything to offer him that has greater value. Until he demands a single negotiator in exchange.

The golden rule of negotiation is that no negotiator has ever died talking to a suspect over the phone. But when he asks Gemma, the daughter and sister of NYPD cops, to put herself in harm’s way, she agrees, citing the needs of the many. NYPD brass are unequivocal that she will not go, but Gemma has known the terror of being there herself and is willing to walk away from her shield to save the hostages. Now, she just needs to figure out how to save herself.

Many thanks to my agent, Nicole Resciniti of the The Seymour Agency, for putting together a deal with extended negotiations that went over both the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. She worked hard on this one—from assistance on the original proposal chapters to juggling counter offers for the final deal—and I can’t thank her enough!

Just a reminder to blog readers that if you want to keep up with my news, sneak peeks, and new releases, sign up for my newsletter here: Jen J. Danna Newsletter. Lots more on the FBI K-9s and the NYPD Negotiators to come, including the brand new cover for FBI K-9s #4, NO MAN’S LAND!

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