Willa Pennington first appeared in What Doesn’t Kill You and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Willa.

What is your name?
Willa Elaine Pennington.

How old are you?
27 . . . no, 28.

What is your profession?
I’m an apprentice PI working for the family company.

Do you have a significant other?
I mean, yeah, I guess you’d call him that in that he’s other than me and kind of significant. Like we’re a thing, I suppose.

What is his name and profession?
I actually can’t reveal that. He’s a guy with a job and that’s all I can say.

Any children?
Lord, no. I can barely take care of myself.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
I have a younger brother named Ben. He’s smarter than I am. A lot smarter than I am.

Do your parents live near you?
Pretty near. The floor above me, in fact.

Who is your best friend?
Michael was my best friend but he died last year. So, I guess my best friend at this point is my brother, Ben. Or maybe, Fargo.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
I just got a puppy, Fargo. She’s amazing. She washed out from federal law enforcement training because she was too friendly. Despite that whole liking people thing, she’s really awesome.

What town do you live in?
We don’t exactly do towns here. Same for cities. We’ve got census designated business districts and we just calls them ‘suburbs’. For example, I live in the suburb of Springfield in Fairfax County, Virginia. The suburb is of Washington, DC.

House or building complex? Own or Rent?
House but I don’t own it or rent it. It’s . . . I guess you’d call it employment-based housing. I work for my dad and he provides me room and board in lieu of a real salary.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
My bed. When I can sleep. When I can’t . . . the groove in the couch in the basement where I sit and watch Coen Brothers movies.

Favorite meal? Favorite dessert?
All of them. Food is the best. My mom is an amazing cook. My other mom is too when she bothers. I have two moms but they’re not married to each other. My mom and dad were a brief thing and then very much not a thing and then my dad met Nancy and married her. I’ve lived with them for most of my life. Nancy makes this fantastic lasagna with fresh mozzarella and basil that is so amazing I drool just thinking about it. My favorite dessert is our next door neighbor, Susan’s, snickerdoodle. Nothing else compares.

Favorite hobby?
I don’t really have hobbies but I guess watching movies.

Favorite vacation spot?
We went camping once to this place in Maryland and it was in the woods but it had a beach too. They had a Civil War museum and a lighthouse. We went with the Andersons, Michael’s family, and we had a really cool time. Nothing fancy just all being together.

Favorite sports team?
I’m not really into sports. Michael’s favorite team was the Atlanta Braves so I’ll say them.

Movies or Broadway?
Movies.

Are you a morning or a night person?
Night person, definitely.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
On my way to being an official pro. Apprentice keeps me somewhere between amateur and professional, in my opinion.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
I mean, I don’t usually work with anyone. My dad, the supervising PI, reviews my work but that’s an after-the-fact thing. And I did have a case of sorts in the fall where I was working with a Fairfax County detective. And . . . another person. Sort of. It’s a long story.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I don’t have typical days. My dad’s a big believer in shaking the pail so the cream rises to the top. I walk into the office and he hands me a list of training assignments. Some days it’s skip traces . . . those are searches to track down somebody when you can’t find them where they should be like their home or job; sometimes it’s searching through insurance company databases for scam artists; and some days, really bad days, it’s finding a dead body.

You can read about Willa in Dark Streets, Cold Suburbs, the second book in the “Willa Pennington” PI mystery series, released January 8, 2019.

Sometimes home is the most dangerous place of all.

In a heart-pounding mystery featuring apprentice PI Willa Pennington, a long-standing cold case turns hot in a hurry.

People move to the suburbs for a better life―nice houses, good schools, safe communities. But there’s no place you can go that’s completely safe from danger. Willa Pennington knows this all too well after her first PI case almost got her killed. Helping her old mentor review a decades-old cold case seems much safer. Then she reaches out to a teenager in trouble, and suddenly a new case rips into Willa’s life in a way she could never have predicted. It seems menace is always lying in wait behind someone’s door. Especially on the dark streets of the cold suburbs.

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About the author
An inability to pass the sight requirements and a deep aversion to federal prison prevented Aimee from lying on her FBI application so she set her deficient eyes on what most Northern Virginians do for work – the non-law enforcement side of the federal government.

After twenty years as a federal contractor, she retired and turned to murder. Fictionally, of course. She began writing the Willa Pennington PI mystery series in 2014 and decided to set it in her “hometown” of Fairfax County because of the rich diversity and opportunities for a private investigator to become entangled in with interesting people.

Aimee lives in Virginia enjoying LASIK-corrected eyesight with her family, three dogs, and all her killer thoughts.

All comments are welcomed.