The Inspiration for FINAL RESPECTS
The whole idea of writing a police procedural began when my police officer son-in-law began telling me about what he did on his shifts. My daughter didn't want to know, so I'm the one who listened to his exciting adventures. I also went on my first ride-along with him.
He also told me about some of the men he worked with. On in particular stood out, an officer who loved to be in the limelight and kept a scrapbook with every newspaper clipping that had his name or picture in it. Anyone who has read any of this series knows that the character Ryan Strickland came about because of what my son-in-law told me.
A mortuary and mortician play a big part in this story. I don't know any morticians, but years ago the neighborhood we lived in had a big mortuary with a home for the family right behind it. My daughter was friends with the daughters of the owners and often went there to play and sometimes spend the night. She told me that she and the girls often played hide'n seek among the coffins in the mortuary. Yep, another idea for the plot.
An officer who had been called to a family disturbance was shot and killed during the time we lived in this neighborhood. Another thread that was woven into my story though nothing like what really happened.
The neighborhood we lived in had several police families and I became friends with all the wives. Much of what went on during that time has appeared in this and several other of the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.
And what about the location, you ask? It is fictional but at the same time much like the small beach community we lived in during the 1960s and 1970s. Rocky Bluff is a beach community, but the geography and location is much different.
The publisher and I decided not to modernize any of these books, but to keep them as they are.
If you're interested in reading the re-edited version, look for it here:
Marilyn who writes this series as F. M. Meredith
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