Today is not like every other day. Today has been a nightmare.

It started off as usual: coffee, gym, breakfast, then work at the paper. Reporting is not a glamorous job: it’s mostly digging through files, talking to people, checking, cross-checking, and confirming everything. But while it may require a lot of patience and puzzle solving, I firmly believe it helps me change the world.

I knew today might be a little different when I received an invite to a swanky party by one of D.C.’s most celebrated hostesses. She happens to be an old friend of my mother’s, and I’d begged my mother to wrangle me an invitation. So I bought a new, formal gown—very shiny and constricting!—and spent a scandalous fortune getting my hair and nails done. This was all unusual and uncomfortable for me, since I have a reputation for being, shall we say…studiously disinterested in my apparel? But if you want information, you can’t afford to be a jarring distraction. You need to blend into your surroundings.

I thought I’d be going to observe an arms dealer I’d been after for some time. It’s baffling to me, just how…legal…so much of his business is. I simply hate guns, and he has caches of much worse things, too. But he’s been acting out of character for a while now, and so something is up. In his world, when something happens, it has global implications.

Things started to go wrong the moment I’d arrived at the party. I discovered I hadn’t been invited because of my mother, but because the arms dealer had asked to speak to me, a reporter. Weird as a snake with sneakers, for such a secretive person. Then he collapsed, dead, in front of everyone. While it’s possible it was a heart attack, I don’t think it was: too many people wanted his weapons, his contacts, his fortune. I tried tracking down a clue, but then my suspect turned on me, and I found myself in a car with someone whose comfort and ability with her fists and knives frankly terrifies me.

I don’t know whether the next piece in my newspaper will be about the murder of the arms dealer, a secret government agency of covert operatives that no one’s ever heard of, or a story so big, it could represent a shift in international politics.

I can’t think any more. The maniac who’s kidnapped me is being chased by several contingents of people who scare her—and that in itself is terrifying—and the local police. She’s taken us off-road and we’re driving through the suburban backyards of Washington D.C. Unless I’m very smart and very lucky, there’s an excellent chance that the next piece in the paper will be my obituary.

Hang on, Amy…

Exit Interview (an a.k.a. Jayne Novel)
Genre: Thriller
Release: December 2022
Purchase Link

Reporter Amy Lindstrom has just witnessed the sudden, suspicious death of the powerful arms dealer she’s been investigating. Jayne Rogers, the deadly covert operative assigned to work with the arms dealer, has been accused by her boss of killing him, as well as turning traitor and picking off her former colleagues one by one. The only one who believes Jayne is being framed is Nicole Bradley, whose technical skills are as stealthy and lethal as Jayne’s abilities with her fists and weapons. All three must work together to prevent an enormous arms cache from falling into the wrong hands.

About the author
Dana Cameron writes across many genres, but especially crime and speculative fiction (including the Fangborn novels). Her work, inspired by her career in archaeology, has won multiple Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Several of Dana’s Emma Fielding archaeology mysteries appear on the Hallmark Movie & Mystery Channel. When she isn’t traveling, she’s weaving, spinning, or yelling at the TV about historical inaccuracies. Exit Interview (an a.k.a. Jayne Novel) was released December 6.

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