When I wrote The Last Healer, I expected it to be a single, standalone book. In fact, my original intention was to have Joe sacrifice his life to save Katie. After thinking about it, I decided most readers would prefer a happy ending, so Joe survived.
Once the book was published, I didn’t give any thought to writing a sequel. Instead, I immediately started writing Falling Star. By then, I started getting reader feedback on The Last Healer. A couple of people said they wanted to read more stories about Katie and Joe. So, once I finished Falling Star, I got to work on Last Rites.
Now, a little more than two years later, I have released the fifth book in the series called Last Hope. The last scene of the first book jumped ahead two years to their son’s first birthday. This book starts just before that event.
This is the first book where they don’t travel to Milwaukee or see their friend Gabe, a Milwaukee police captain. Instead, they go to where Katie grew up, a small town on the Mississippi River.
This book was challenging for a few reasons. I have never been to a small Wisconsin town on the Mississippi River, although I did grow up in a slightly larger town in northeastern Illinois. My wife and I also owned a home in West Virginia in a small town on the Ohio River for a few years.
I also needed to learn about the makeup of small-town police departments. I concluded there isn’t a standard. Ten towns of equal size might all have a different composition of officers. I decided that the fictional town of Minaka had a police chief, a detective, a sergeant, and a few officers.
Since Joe learned only two years earlier that he could heal others, he has been slowly discovering new ways to use his abilities. In this book, I reveal two new discoveries. I think he is at his limit now. I doubt he will learn anything new for the next book, but you never know. I want to keep his character believable.
As always, I could use help with reviews. I invite you to go to my website, charleshuss.com, and check out all my books. If you find one that interests you, please read it and review it on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever it is sold. If you have a blog and want to talk about it, that would be great. The Last Healer Mysteries can be read in any order, as they are separate stories. I also briefly explain essential details in all the books in case someone is a new reader. That being said, there are some advantages to watching the characters develop through all the stories.