ECHO ROAD was inspired by a real case and a longtime friendship.
We’ve been close friends for over a dozen years, thanks to beginning our careers at the same time with the same publisher. We’ve traveled together and spent time with each other’s families. Our kids are approximately the same age. We’ve supported each other through personal challenges that come with life.
And, between the two of us, we have penned 73 stories and sold 25 million copies of our works.
So, how did two busy writers juggling their own deadlines decide to also start writing collaborations? It all began with our editor at our publishing company, Montlake, who suggested we do a joint project of some sort for cross-marketing purposes. We brainstormed for a few days at a hotel in Seattle, where we’d traveled to meet with our publishing team.
At the time, Kendra was living in the Pacific northwest, and Melinda was on the East coast. Given the distance, the most practical concept we could come up with was a novella series, where we would write alternating titles, each with its own mystery plot, but the series would have an overarching storyline as well.
The project was so popular with readers, that what began as four novellas grew into a 10-story series. After we’d exhausted the Rogue River world, we started again with Widow’s Island, another 10-novella series. Nine years later, we felt as if we’d wrung every story possible scenario out of the novella concept.
Then we wondered, now what? We both wanted to continue to collaborate. Writing is a solitary—and sometimes lonely—pursuit. Writing as a team brought new challenges and new dynamics to our work. We learned from each other. We both appreciated having another person equally invested in the project. If one of us was stuck on a scene or plot point, we had someone to reach out to who knew the entire cast of characters. But we both felt like we needed something fresh. We dreamed about a solo book where our best-loved characters, Kendra’s Mercy Kilpatrick and Melinda’s Bree Taggert, could meet and solve a crime together. Would they like each other? Would they step on each other’s toes? We had so many questions, but neither of us could commit the time to develop a story at that moment. Nor could we think of a way to accomplish our goal. How could we bring our characters together when Mercy and Bree—like Kendra and Melinda—lived on opposite coasts?
While attending a conference and listening to a lecture on homicides, we heard a case that involved two law enforcement agencies from opposite sides of the country. Immediately, we knew this concept could bring our characters together. We both turned to our writer friend, NYT Bestselling author Lee Goldberg, and called dibs on the idea. Lee had claimed an earlier case that inspired his bestselling Eve Ronin series.
Due to our individual contractual commitments and personal lives, several years passed before we could tackle the book. But we’d been thinking about it and planning it for so long, that once we started, we wrote the entire book in 7 weeks. We were right. The story we developed flowed so easily; we could hardly believe it. Our characters meshed very well, and we enjoyed the process of single-novel collaboration—so much that we are already thinking about the next joint endeavor. Will it be another Mercy and Bree story? Or something entirely different?
We don’t know yet. But stay tuned, because there will be more. ECHO ROAD was just the beginning.
ECHO ROAD by Melinda Leigh, Kendra Elliot
When two cross-country cases collide, Bree Taggert and Mercy Kilpatrick join forces to catch a serial killer in an addictive novel of suspense by bestselling authors Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot.
During a vicious heat wave, a county maintenance worker stumbles upon two suspicious suitcases abandoned by the side of the road. Sheriff Bree Taggert responds to find two bodies stuffed inside the luggage. The press demands action. The community is on edge. Suddenly, Bree is at the center of a media firestorm.
In Oregon, a senator’s daughter goes missing. FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick agrees to keep the politically sensitive case on the down-low. When she finds a link between the disappearance and a double homicide three thousand miles away, Mercy takes the next plane out—and lands right in the middle of Bree’s double homicide investigation.
To save the missing girl, Bree and Mercy must work together to stop a killer who’s playing deadly games with the press and stirring up public rage. Hungry for notoriety, he dares Bree and Mercy to catch him before he kills again.
Thriller [Montlake, On Sale: July 2, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662521997 / ]
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About Melinda Leigh
#1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author Melinda Leigh is a fully recovered banker. A life-long lover of books, she started writing as a way to preserve her sanity while raising her kids. Over the next few years, she learned a few things about writing a book. The process was much more fun than analyzing financial statements, and she decided to turn her hobby into a career.
Her debut novel, SHE CAN RUN, was nominated for Best First Novel by the International Thriller Writers. Since then, she has garnered numerous publisher awards, including two Silver Falchions and three Golden Leaf Awards. She is a two-time RITA Award Finalist and has earned three Daphne du Maurier Award nominations. Melinda’s books have sold over 8 million copies.
She holds a 2nd degree belt in Kenpo Karate. She’s dabbled in Arnis stick fighting, studied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and taught women’s self-defense. She lives near the beach with her family and a small herd of spoiled rescue pets. With such a pleasant life, she has no explanation for the sometimes dark and disturbing nature of her imagination.
Midnight Series | Morgan Dane | Scarlet Falls | She Can | Rogue Justice | Bree Taggert | Widow’s Island
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About Kendra Elliot
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series and the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters but looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops.
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