Darkness Knows Me is a crime story circling around a series of  murders with ritualistic and religious overtones. The murders are committed in night clubs throughout Deep Ellum, a small community inside Dallas, Texas. The murders have a few things in common,  like Cheese Heroin, a drug that seems to be making a comeback with the college set and the crucifixion-like hanging of the murder victims.

About the time the murderer starts kicking into high gear, Dr. Will Green, (Olivia’s longtime friend) arrives in Dallas from Queens, NY to teach a class on criminal profiling at Texas University and to visit Olivia and her family for a few days.

Will eventually joins the chase and together with emails from the killer (who seems to want to be caught before he has to kill again) and just plain good old detective work on the part of Olivia’s homicide team, they discover who stands behind the twisted ritualistic murders plaguing Deep Ellum.

Who is Olivia?
Olivia Gates is a Detective Sergeant with the South Dallas, Texas Police Department. I think she would say she loves her work, but  she struggles with balancing family and faith with a job  that would consume her from the inside out if she let it. She also struggles with her feeling for her best friend, Dr. Will Green. Not immune to trials, there are things in Olivia’s past that even Will doesn’t know, but she doesn’t let those events color the way she relates to others.

What genre is it?
Darkness Knows Me is a crime novel. The first in my Olivia Gates and Will Green  crime series.

So Will is set to be a recurring character? Maybe you’d better tell us about him.
Dr. Will Green is a criminal psychology professor who specializes in aberrant behaviors. He left the dangerous and complicated world of police work for the simplicity of academia after a particular case he worked lost him a team member. Traumatic events in his past  make him feel undeserving of the basic things people need to survive emotionally- love, kindness, care- which is the barb under the saddle in his relationship with Olivia.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
My aim, when writing this crime novel was to write a novel that appealed  not only to the demographic associated with the crime genre, but to reach a wider range of woman readers with a character who represents many woman today. I hope the fact that the female character (Olivia Gates) being a single mother  dealing with the demands of family life and her job as a police detective, makes her a character more women can empathize with.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book.
If you like crime novels with forensic speak, interesting and deeply flawed protagonists,  antagonists who chill and just a tad of romance, you’ll love Darkness Knows Me.

You say this is the first book of a series.
Being that the last scene of the book reveals something about Will Green that creates a cliffhanger for both main characters, I would hope readers feel the need to read the next book to see how their cliffhanger is resolves.

Have you started that next book?
I’m currently in the throes of writing the second novel in the crime series, tentatively named ‘Boys Will Be Boys’. A third novel in the series is also in the early stages of development.

Great title, by the way.
The title ‘Darkness Knows Me’ comes from a section in the book where Will is explaining to Olivia why he feels he isn’t any more than a psychopath on the right side of the law.

The excerpt reads like this: “The darkness knows me and I know it. There’s a certain comfort to be found in being known and knowing oneself that intimately, don’t you think?”

Tell us a bit about yourself.
Books and reading are vices I’ve carried with me since childhood. With that said- I am an old school book lover, which shows my age. Crime and mystery novels are my favorite reads, but just in case you were beginning to think I was a genre snob, memoirs are another of my favorites.

I am a musician, college student and mother of four who have fled the nest to spread their wings. I live in Murphy, Texas with my husband and our Jugg, Abby.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
You can follow my journey through the jungle of indie publishing at my website:  http://chrindajones.com/

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
I can found on Twitter @chrindaj and on Facebook  at https://www.facebook.com/authorchrindajones?ref=hl.