Book Title: BURYING THE LEDE
Character Name: Trisha Connell
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
The less said about that, the better. Essentially, I raised myself. I did spend time in a Catholic orphanage for a while. That was good, especially since I was close to the priest who ran the place. Except he died in a hit-and-run and, I ended up in foster care, which sucked, except for my best friend, later husband, Nicky, who I met in a foster home. He’s gone now but I wouldn’t be alive without him.
Still, I learned everything and anything there is to know about Manhattan, the popular stuff and the hidden corners, when I was on the street.
What was your greatest talent?
Persistence. I want the story. I’m not intimidated by those who are hiding things. Okay, I’m just plain not intimidated. I’ve been through enough in my life that very little scares me. Also, I love writing. I love the feeling when my fingers are flying over the keyboard, and the story just pours out of me.
Significant other?
Since Nicky died, there hasn’t been any one significant until I met Grayson. I don’t know where that’s going. We’re nothing alike. He’s dignified and likes order, and I’m freewheeling and have no respect for rules. He used to be an FBI agent but now he runs a private security firm. We met when I was investigating a murder at a museum that he was hired to protect. He didn’t like me at first. I thought he was a stuffed suit. But we worked together to find the murderers, he saved my life once by defusing a bomb, and there’s something about him, maybe it’s all that buried passion underneath the smooth surface. Maybe it’s because he’s calls me on my bullshit. He has a way of understanding what I’m trying to say, he listens, and, damn, he’s so fucking hot. (Yes, the sex is great.)
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Relationships end. People leave or fate takes them away. I’m doubtful that any relationship can survive. Grayson says I have to have hope and faith. But he doesn’t know all my secrets, so I suspect when he finds out, all that ends.
Where do you live?
Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, in 1984. I have a little studio apartment. It’s full of my books, and a great stereo system so I can listen to all my favorite punk songs. The kitchen sucks but I don’t cook much. The neighbors in the building are great and we look out for each other. The Kitchen is still a mess but it’s home. Though that’s changing because the city wants to gentrify everything, polish over something raw and real.
Do you have any enemies?
I work the crime beat as a reporter, so I’ve pissed off more than a few cops and criminals by digging up the truth. I don’t take any of that personally, though. Lately, however, I started getting these weird anonymous letters calling God’s vengeance on me. They hit a nerve, considering my past. Someone’s got a personal grudge against me but I haven’t a clue who it could be.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I love my apartment. Nicky helped me decorate it. It’s got the bookshelves he built that make up a wall that hides my bed. It’s the first home I’ve ever had. As for the Kitchen and New York in general, someone dubbed it the Savage City in the 1970s and that’s stuck for now. Manhattan is so alive, so full of different kinds of people, with so much going on all the time. I feed off that energy. I’d never live anywhere else.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Nah. I shouldn’t be responsible for a piece of toast, never mind a living being.
What do you do for a living?
Crime reporter, New York Herald. Now, freelance.
Greatest disappointment?
Nicky’s death. Life really let us down there.
Greatest source of joy?
Nailing the scoop and seeing my story on the front page, above the fold, as a lead story. No feeling like that, especially when that story leads to something good, like recognition for someone or changes in systematic corruption. (New York has a lot of that.)
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
When I’m not working, I’ll hit the punk clubs in Alphabet City or Max Hudson’s in Midtown, though that’s gotten a bit crowded and it’s now seen as trendy. A little drinking, a lot of partying. Sometimes I take my bike (refurbished Indian Chief) on rides outside the city.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I can have a quick temper. I probably shouldn’t have called my publisher at the Herald and asshole. It got me fired. In my defense, he was actually being an asshole.
What keeps you awake at night?
If I’m awake at night, I’m doing something. I’m writing, investigating something, or out partying. Who wants to stay home and contemplate life? That gets you nowhere. Better to keep busy.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
The anonymous letters. I’m sure that means I’ll eventually have to explain my full past to Grayson. He’s not going to like that I did time in juvenile hall for a serious crime. He’s a law-abider at heart. He’ll never see me the same way again after I confess. So I haven’t told him.
But if I don’t tell him, that means I don’t trust him, right? So how can you have a relationship with that mess? he looks at me like I’m some sort of hero. God, I hate to disappoint him.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I want to find out who’s behind these letters. I already sliced my finger on the razor blade that was hidden inside one of them and I bet they’re not going to stop there. But there are so few clues and there’s some sort of mystery surrounding the letters that’s more complicated. Otherwise, why would Major Crimes detectives have interviewed me about something so minor? I hate mysteries. I need to dig until I solve this one.
Otherwise, wanting what you don’t or can’t have gets you nowhere. I’ve learned not to think about the future.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Do I want a future? I used to dream about one when Nicky was alive. We’d eventually get a bigger place, I’d be successful in my job as a reporter, and he’d go to school to be an architect or engineer. He loved to build stuff. Confession: I want a future with Grayson. Being with him feels perfect. I don’t trust it because I don’t trust myself.
BURYING THE LEDE by Corrina Lawson
Trisha & Grayson Mysteries #2
A deadly secret. A relentless killer. Can she survive the truth?
Trisha Connell has it all: a successful freelance career as an award-winning crime reporter, a promising relationship with Edmund Grayson, a former FBI agent turned security expert, and a life she’s fought hard to build. But behind her perfect facade, Trisha is hiding a dark secret—one that could destroy everything she’s worked for.
Years ago, Trisha made a devastating mistake, and now that haunting past is threatening to shatter her present. When a relentless and twisted serial killer targets her, determined to make her pay, Trisha’s carefully constructed world starts to unravel.
As the stakes rise, Trisha faces a terrifying choice: expose the truth and risk losing her career, her love life, and everything she holds dear—or keep the secret buried and risk becoming the killer’s next victim. The closer the killer gets, the more Trisha’s worst fears come to life. Time is running out, and the line between past and present is blurring.
In a race against time, Trisha must confront her darkest secrets and outsmart a merciless killer before she becomes his final victim.
Can she survive long enough to unmask the killer and protect the life she’s built, or will the truth destroy her?
Thriller [City Owl Press, On Sale: July 15, 2025, e-Book , ISBN: 9781648985249 / ]
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About Corrina Lawson
Corrina Lawson is a former newspaper reporter with a journalism degree from Boston University. She used her experiences at a daily newspaper in the 1980s to inform her writing of Above the Fold and its’ sequel Burying the Lede, featuring Trisha Connell, a crime reporter in Manhattan of that time. She’s also written paranormal romance, steampunk, alternate history, and two award-winning erotic romance novellas. She solves jigsaw puzzles with the assistance of her cat, Buster, and can often be found on Sundays glued to NFL football.
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