Romantic Suspense at its Best

INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE

Evidence Series, book 4

From enemies to allies…

When archaeologist Isabel Dawson stumbles upon an unconscious man deep in the Alaskan wilderness, her survival skills are put to the test. She tends his wounds and drags him to shelter, only to discover she’s saved the life of Raptor CEO Alec Ravissant—the man who may have covered up her brother’s murder to save his senatorial campaign.

With no memory of the assault that landed him five miles deep in the forest, Alec doesn’t know what to believe when he wakes in the clutches of the beautiful redhead who blames him for her brother’s death, but he quickly realizes he needs her help to uncover the truth about his lost hours.

Isabel never imagined she’d find herself allied with Alec, and he’s the last man she ever expected to find attractive. But the former Army Ranger-turned-politician proves seductively charming, and he’s determined to win much more than her vote. When their quest for answers puts Isabel in the crosshairs, Alec must risk everything—his company, his campaign, and his life—to protect her.

Read a Little, Buy the Book

RACHEL GRANT worked for over a decade as a professional archaeologist and fully intends to mine her experiences for storylines and settings, which are as diverse as excavating a cemetery underneath an historic art museum in San Francisco; surveying an economically depressed coal mining town in Kentucky; and mapping a seventeenth century Spanish and Dutch fort on the island of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles.

In all her travels and adventures as an archaeologist, Rachel has found many sites and artifacts, but she’s only found one true treasure, her husband, David. They met while working together excavating a four thousand year old site about to be destroyed by the expansion of a sewage treatment plant in Seattle. Despite their romantic first meeting, she has no intention of ever setting a story at a sewage treatment plant.

Rachel lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children.

GET TO KNOW RACHEL

ANGI: What’s the first book you remember reading? 

RACHEL: I remember my mother reading THE GREAT BRAIN to my siblings and me when I was about 4. The first chapter book I read myself was probably JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. The first time I got lost in a story (and dreamed about it all night so I had to get up early and finish it) I was in 3^rd grade, and it was a short chapter book with a mystery surrounding a tree house. There is a good chance this is the book, but I’m not certain.

ANGI: Hiking Boots or Dancing Heels?

RACHEL: Hands down, hiking boots. Isabel, the heroine in INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE will agree with me on this. I’m not certain she owns shoes that aren’t hiking boots…and I definitely don’t own dancing heels. J

ANGI: What’s your favorite cartoon character?

RACHEL: I know you said cartoon, not Anime or animated movie, but I really, really love the movies made by Studio Ghibli and Pixar, so they were the first that came to mind. I’m going to say No-Face from Spirited Away followed by Edna Mode in The Incredibles.

My son is currently obsessed with Gravity Falls and so I’m going to add Waddles the pig to this list, because Neil DeGrasse Tyson played his voice when Waddles became a super genius in one episode.

ANGI: What do you like about the hero of your book?

RACHEL: There is a basic honesty about Alec that I really love. There aren’t any moments of him thinking one thing and saying another to Isabel. Once he decides he wants her, he’s very frank, straightforward, and unwavering, and she responds to him with the same honesty. I loved writing the emotion they each brought to the story. Their chemistry was so much fun even as they dealt with a difficult emotional conflict that held Isabel back from Alec.

ANGI: Would you rather be in a Fairy Tale or Action Adventure?

RACHEL: Action Adventure

ANGI: What is your best wish come true?

RACHEL: When I was writing BODY OF EVIDENCE, I hit a wall as I researched a virus that played an important role in the story. I had questions for which the answers were understandably difficult to find. I went to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website and looked up the contact information, but it was hard to imagine my very specific questions about a virus that could be used for biological warfare would be well-received. J (Like most thriller authors, I’m fairly certain Homeland Security has made note of my Internet browsing history.)

I stared at the computer as I tried to decide if a cold email would garner a response in the form of helpful answers, or a visit from the FBI, and said aloud to no one (well, maybe the cat?), “I wish I knew someone at the CDC.”

A week after I voiced that wish, I finaled in the Golden Heart® contest again and joined the private email loop to meet the other finalists. In one of her emails to the group, the amazing and wonderful Jennifer McQuiston mentioned she’s an infectious disease specialist for the CDC. Jennifer forwarded my questions to people in the right department (vouching for the fact that I needed the information for a book), and she helped with my scenes that required technical terminology relating to the virus. (Jennifer is awesome and provided accurate information, any mistakes are mine.)

TL/DR: Once I wished for Jennifer McQuiston and my wish came true a week later.

view of Tatoosh Island from
the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States

ANGI: What’s your favorite rerun on television?

RACHEL: I don’t watch a lot of reruns, except of currently running series like The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, or Castle.

ANGI: What's your most favorite thing to do in your state?

view of the coastline at Cape Flattery

RACHEL: Spend a few days on the coast with my family. I love watching the waves crash against the rocky cliffs of Cape Flattery - the northwesternmost point of the Lower Forty-Eight, visiting the Ozette archaeological site, or leaning against driftwood logs on the sandy/rocky beaches to the south and reading a great romantic suspense novel. I actually got to do the third one just last week – it was spring break, so we rented a cabin on a river near Forks and went to Rialto Beach for a day. We didn’t see any whales, but the weather was gorgeous—which is really unusual for that area.

ANGI’S GOTTA ASK: “I met my husband while working on this dig, and so I get misty-eyed watching the clips. Yes, I cry watching sewage treatment plant videos. Doesn't everyone?” This is sweet and cute, Rachel. Can you share one thing about the dig and your husband that made it so special?

RACHEL’s GOTTA ANSWER:  This is surprisingly hard, because it was ALL so special. I was 21-years-old, and it was my first paying job as an archaeologist. I’d just moved from Florida to Washington. Everything about my life was new and fresh and vibrant. I was completely on my own, with one friend—whom I’d met a year before at field school—to help me settle into the job and city that I’d decided would be my home.

Three months after I moved to Seattle, a man who’d worked on the project before I joined it, but who had left for a summer dig in Jamaica on the same day I arrived, returned. I’d been hearing his name all summer and knew the others on the crew really respected him. I remember the exact moment he walked into the lab. I can close my eyes and relive the first moment I saw his face, heard his voice. I don’t remember what we said beyond the introductions, but I do remember on the car ride home with my one friend (who’d helped me get the job and was my ride to and from work) that I’d decided to have a crush on David Grant.

 

We started dating a few weeks later.

TheWest Point Archaeological Project came along just as I was starting my adult life, and it absolutely changed/shaped everything I’ve done since then. That’s probably why I cry when watching the online videos of the dig – I see me, so young, not knowing what the future would bring, and I’m thankful for the project, thankful for my husband and children, thankful for this amazing life I get to share with them.

FIND RACHEL
Contact           Website          Facebook        Twitter @RachelSGrant        Backlist

Previous GLIAS interviews

UP NEXT for RACHEL: COVERT EVIDENCE (Evidence Series #5) – An excerpt is included at the end of INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE. No release date yet—sign up for my new release mailing list to be among the first to know when it is available: www.rachel-grant.net.

PREVIOUS RELEASES by RACHEL

WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE

a Short Novel
Evidence Series, book 3

Some secrets are worth dying for…

Read a little, Buy the book

BODY OF EVIDENCE

Evidence Series, book 2

And she thought facing a firing squad was bad…

Read a little, Buy the book

CONCRETE EVIDENCE

Evidence Series, book 1

A year ago she lost everything. Now she wants revenge…

Read a little, Buy the book

RACHEL is giving away  autographed copies of the 1^st 3 Evidence books (this does not include INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE) to a North America Reader

CHOOSE: North America Readers or International giveaway

Note: COMMENTERS are encouraged to leave a contact email address to speed the prize notification process. Offer void where prohibited. Prizes will be mailed to North America addresses only unless specifically mentioned in the post. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants. Winners of drawings are responsible for checking this site in a timely manner. If prizes are not claimed in a timely manner, the author may not have a prize available. Get Lost In A Story cannot be responsible for an author's failure to mail the listed prize. GLIAS does not automatically pass email addresses to guest authors unless the commenter publicly posts their email address.

ANGI'S back on May 1st

UP NEXT ON GLIAS:  Laura McHale Holland

~Angi Morgan

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? RACHEL wants to KNOW ?
Isabel in INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE prefers hiking/camping/kayaking—anything outdoors—for entertainment. For her, an ideal date would be a picnic on a mountaintop. What is your fantasy date? Dinner at a fancy restaurant? Dinner at the International Space Station? (Don’t let little things like reality intrude!) Dinner on a private jet flying to Tokyo? Share your fantasy for a chance to win print copies of CONCRETE EVIDENCE, BODY OF EVIDENCE, and WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE.