The Hightower Chronicles – A bestselling police procedural series written by Blaine DeLano and featuring two police detectives, Hightower and Deann Dark. There were eleven books in the series as of Dark in Death, with a spin-off series of eight books featuring Dark, who turned in her badge at the end of the first of that series, Dark Falls. The murderer in Dark in Death modeled her crimes after the books, beginning with Rosie Kent (Dark Falls)[1], continuing with Chanel Rylan (Dark Days)[2], and winding up with Loxie Flash (Dark Deeds)[3] before she was caught and stopped by Eve Dallas.
Peabody said she had been a fan for a decade, and started seriously thinking about being a cop after reading Devil’s Due, so presumably that was one of the early books in the series. Trueheart was also a big fan, as was Santiago[4], who talked Reineke into reading one: “I don’t much like cop books. They end up pissing me off, but this one was pretty solid. I keep meaning to try another.” When Jenkinson replied, “Never read a cop book that didn’t blow. You want fiction? Go with science fiction. You know it’s bullshit going in,” Reineke told him, “This one didn’t blow.”[1]
Dennis Mira was also a big fan, and called Mira to give her a heads-up on the DeLano/Dark connection to Rylan’s murder. Mira didn’t know about the first murder because Reineke and Jenkinson worked with a different profiler, Strighter. Mira had read several of the Hightower books, but hadn’t started the Dark series; Dennis devoured both. She actually did read Dark Falls years ago, which she remembered when Eve gave her the details of the murder.[5]
When Eve dug into the dynamics between Hightower and Dark, she decided there was a good balance and contrast with Hightower’s more straight-arrow leveling out Dark’s instinctive moves and gut plays, and vice versa.[6]
One of the books in the series, With Prejudice had Dark making appearances. A.E. Strongbow (Ann Elizabeth Smith) wrote DeLano a fan letter with her thoughts on it after it was released in Spring, 2059.[7]
Peabody told Callendar the books had a heat element, but it was more “Will they ever do it” instead of “Hey, they’re doing it again.”[8]
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dark in Death, Chapter 5
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 1
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 16
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 4
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 6
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 9
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 10
- ↑ Dark in Death, Chapter 20