From True Crime to Crime Fiction

Isabella Maldonado covers both ends of the spectrum.

For twenty-three days in October 2002, everyone in the Washington D.C. area was in a frenzy, running scared––literally. A sniper was roaming the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia assassinating innocent victims as they carried out their daily errands pumping gas or walking to their cars in the parking lots of a Michael’s store or Home Depot. Outdoor high school sports were canceled, and residents were warned to stay inside.

No one could figure out where the shots came from. The shooter was incorrectly rumored to be traveling in a white van. Vans were being stopped and searched everywhere. The shootings all took place close to a highway or Interstate so the killer could make his escape before anyone realized what had happened. Area police departments, state police, and the FBI were all involved and sharing information about thirteen sniper attacks, ten of which resulted in death. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Bloyd Malvo, a teenager who accompanied him, terrorized the region for three weeks before finally being caught sleeping at a Maryland highway rest stop.

During much of this time, a young spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department stood before microphones and cameras informing the public while the world’s attention was focused on Washington for something other than politics. Isabella Maldonado had grown up in Fairfax, one of the richest counties in America, where young people often choose to become lawyers, doctors or engineers. She chose to become a cop and was one of a small number of women on the force and one of even fewer Hispanics.

Besides being department spokeswoman, during her more than twenty-year law enforcement career, Maldonado rose to the rank of captain, commanded special investigations and forensics, was a precinct commander, and hostage negotiator.

And although she loved her job, she’d always wanted to write, but working in law enforcement didn’t give her the time. So, after taking early retirement in 2010, she moved to Phoenix where she began a five-year Odyssey to learn the writing craft.

“I read everything I could get my hands on. First, at the library and then buying books online.”

She used her law enforcement experience to a write police procedural with a Latina protagonist. Midnight Ink, a small publisher, gave her a three-book deal but before her third book could be published, it announced it was going out of business. Her agent, Liza Fleissig, quickly moved her to Thomas & Mercer, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, where her books soon became bestsellers.

Isabella Maldonado, once known internationally as a spokeswoman explaining true crime to the world, was now a worldwide bestselling author at the other end of the spectrum writing crime fiction.

I’m Rick Pullen, former investigative reporter, magazine editor, and author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice. I’m also a magazine columnist and feature writer.

Literary Agent Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management represents my work and is currently shopping my next crime novel and a non-fiction book about many of the authors who appear in Idol Talk.

Thanks for reading Idol Talk! Subscribe for free or support my work with a paid subscription. — Rick Pullen