Research for FINAL RESPECTS
Final Respects is the first book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery series. It was written long before I left Oxnard to move to Springville where I now live. When I wrote it I had no idea it would become a series. My then son-in-law, Mike was an Oxnard Police Officer and he came over nearly every morning when he got off his shift. He came for coffee and told me about what happened while he was working. (My daughter, his wife, didn't like to hear about his work.) I was fascinated. What I wrote about didn't have much to do with his stories--yet--though I did use some of them in later books. What prompted this tale was the death of an officer who responded to a domestic dispute. My take on this kind of murder is totally different from what really happened. When we first moved into our neighborhood we had several police officers for neighbors. I was good friends with all the wives and heard a lot about their fears and discontent about being married to cops. I also saw how mu...