Empty Places takes place in the millionaire desert playground of Palm Springs, California in the mid-1980s. The protagonist, Peter Brandt, is a war-weary foreign correspondent who returns to “The Springs” to attend the funeral of his ex-wife, TV reporter Robin Anderson only to discover she’d been brutally murdered.

When Peter discovers the local police aren’t investigating Robin’s murder, he sets out with his old friend Matt Banyon, a retired cop, to find her killer. Together they uncover a rat’s nest of drug smugglers, pornographers, and crooked politicians, and a wealthy Cuban exile who may not be what he seems to be.

It sounds really tense. We can’t wait.
I think it will appeal to any reader who enjoys mysteries. It’s a mystery thriller, a little gritty with a touch of noir.

Tell us about Peter Brandt.
Peter is a man haunted by many ghosts. Before becoming a news service reporter covering the wars in Central America, Peter was a reporter for a newspaper in “The Springs,” which is where he met Robin and where they lived together while married.

He is both physically and emotionally scarred by the wars he’s covered. He is also burdened by guilt over the break-up of his marriage, something he tries hard to suppress.

We hear you’ve got an additional reason to feel attached to this character.
Most authors have at least one book that pulls from their own life story. For me, Empty Places is that book. I pulled a lot from my own experiences to write it. Like Peter, I worked as a police reporter for a daily newspaper in Palm Springs. There’s a section at the start of the book when Peter rolls into town and in certain locations sees the ghosts of those whose violent deaths he covered. Peter’s ghosts are my ghosts. And many of the characters in the book are composites of people I knew at that time in my life.

Oh wow. Tell us more about yourself.
Well, I’m a rare native Californian and I still live in SoCal. As I said, I was a journalist for many years. After my time in the desert, I moved to San Diego and worked as an award-winning investigative journalist, a freelance writer, and a newspaper editor. I left journalism in 2002 and, based on several years of military reserve service, became a military analyst for the Navy. I live in San Diego with my wife, Winke — who is a former magazine editor and edits all my work — our son, Brandon, two cats named Harry and Alex, and a number of neighborhood cats and wildlife, who seemed to have adopted us.

We remember interviewing you about your previous novel, The Killing Depths (interview here).
Empty Places is my third published book. My first was a collection of new and previously published short mystery and suspense stories with a military theme called Duty. My first novel, The Killing Depths, was about a serial killer on board an American submarine. Duty was named the 2013 Best Short Story Collection by the San Diego Book Awards, and The Killing Depths was a nominee for the SDBA Sisters in Crime Mystery Award.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
My website can be found at www.martinroyhill.com. You can read about my books or read my reviews of other authors’ work.

What about social media?
My Twitter handle is @MartinRoyHill, and my Facebook page can be found at www.facebook.com/Martin.Roy.Hill.

How easily do new storylines come to you? If we give you four random words – Man, Woman, Airport, Darkness – can you give us a brief storyline?
A woman returning home from a business trip walks out of the airport and into the darkened, nighttime parking lot looking for her car. Suddenly she realizes she’s being followed by a man, hidden in the shadows. She quickens her pace, and so does the man. Suddenly the woman realizes she can’t remember where she parked her car. Without any other recourse, she turns and confronts her stalker — and discovers it’s her husband. She’d forgotten he had dropped her off at the airport was there now to pick her up.

What’s next?
Right now, I’m working on the third draft of a sci-fi novella called Eden that takes place in Iraq during the war. It’s a stretch for me, I’ve only written a few sci-fi short stories, and those mostly involved alternative history plots. Eden started as a short story, but continued to grow. I’m also in the plotting stages for a sequel to The Killing Depths, bringing back NCIS investigator Linus Schag.