My inspiration for the Amber McNeil Mystery series came from a pairing of intriguing topics: cold case investigations and the paranormal. After researching the current book market, I discovered that my new series would fill a niche for readers who were captivated by the same subjects.
So I created Amber McNeil, a twenty-five-year-old consultant with psychic abilities who came highly recommended to work with police investigators on cold cases. Gifted with the ability to sense facts about individuals and things that are imperceptible to others, Amber is careful to share her secret only with the people she trusts.
Weaving a fairy-tale element through the plotline in The Missing Slipper, the first book in the series, was an instinctive choice. Who wouldn’t be captivated by a fairy-tale cold case that police investigators had nicknamed the Cinderella file? If you haven’t read the book yet, be advised that there are no fairy godmothers or magic pumpkins in this one.
As for the setting in my story, I adopted certain aspects of it from the Montreal Police Services. It established its first dedicated cold case unit to investigate unsolved crimes three years ago. A handful of investigators were assigned to the unit to review 800 cases of unsolved homicides and disappearances that had occurred since 1980. The goal was to re-examine case details to ensure that nothing was missed and to use modern technology where possible to help solve cases.
In The Missing Slipper, Amber McNeil joins Sergeant Ryan Baxter, a homicide detective and criminal profiler, to jumpstart the new cold case unit of the Montreal Police Services. With budget and time constraints threatening the permanence of their jobs, they face a formidable challenge in solving the Cinderella case.
The story focuses on the investigation of a fictitious child abduction case that occurred decades earlier in Montreal. As in real life, advanced forensics tools weren’t available back then, making police investigations difficult—if not impossible—and many cases remained unsolved. With rising crime rates and frequent budget cuts over subsequent years, police resources were redistributed to active investigations and hundreds of old cases went cold.
Amber and Ryan’s challenge on the job extends to their personal relationship. Since they approach the case using their own specific methods, intuition and logic are at odds. Ryan insists on solid evidence to back his suspicions, while Amber believes that her insights can guide them to the real perpetrator. When Ryan questions her abilities, self-doubts gnaw at Amber, and she knows she must overcome them to prove her worth. As you can imagine, their different points of view breed conflict between them, and conflict leads to....
Well, you’ll have to read the story to find out what awaits this young investigative couple in their quest to locate an elusive abductor. You can be sure that The Missing Slipper is only the beginning of their thrilling adventures together.
Visit the Amber McNeil Books page on this website to learn more.