Featured Interview With Danny R. Smith
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Newhall, California, which was a small town back in the sixties when I was born. After spending most of my adult life in Southern California, and after retiring from a 21-year career in law enforcement, I moved to Idaho where I work as a private investigator/consultant. We live on ten acres in a rural town with a bunch of animals including dogs, cats, horses, cows, donkeys, ducks, and chickens. They’re all spoiled too.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
As a boy I did not enjoy reading; however, I did enjoy writing, as odd as that may seem. But I didn’t do much of it at that time in my life.
I excelled in writing throughout my career and I enjoyed that part of it, whereas most cops don’t. I retired due to an injury, and while recovering from surgery, I spent a lot of time writing stories based on my experiences in law enforcement, especially from those years as a homicide detective.
After starting my second career as a private investigator, I didn’t focus on my writing again until my best friend and former partner was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. He asked that I publish the story I had written with the primary characters based on me and him, and the rest is history. That book is A Good Bunch of Men, the first in the Dickie Floyd Detective Novel Series. The best news is my partner beat cancer to the amazement of only those who don’t know him.
In addition to writing crime fiction, I write a weekly blog called The Murder Memo. The bulk of the stories I write and publish there are true crime stories based on my experiences. I plan to someday write true crime books on a couple of my more interesting homicide cases.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Crime fiction is my favorite genre, and true crime is a distant second. My writing has been inspired by my favorite authors, Elmore Leonard, Michael Connelly, and Joseph Wambaugh. Other favorites include Stephen King, Lawrence Block, and Louis L’Amour.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, Echo Killers, is a fast-paced, hard-boiled detective novel based in South Los Angeles. It is the third in the Dickie Floyd Detective Novel series, though it can be read as a standalone, as can the others.
The story begins with a runaway boy witnessing a murder. Floyd takes the case but doubts the boy’s account. He consults his old partner, Dickie, who has been teamed up with a new partner, the sexy but historied Josefina Sanchez. When army investigators descend on L.A. in search for two AWOL soldiers, their paths cross with those of L.A. Sheriff’s homicide investigators and the killers whom they pursued. And Cedric, a green-eyed, black, runaway foster child, is caught in the middle of it all.
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