First Chance by Kasey Lansdale is her debut novel. People might recognize the last name because her dad was a writer with the long-running Hap & Leonard series. Just as with her father’s series, this series has the main character Chance Kirby part of the found-family over the course of the books that includes her German Shepherd, foster sister, and the Police Chief.
“I think found family is just people who choose to be there, choose to show up over again for the only reason that they want to. And I think there’s something nice about when you can find somebody who has no obligation and yet they continue to be there. And that’s really what you want in a family member. And that’s what those found family people have become.”
Chance has decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and has opened her own private investigation firm. Her first big case has her investigating an ongoing serial killer. As she gets close to finding the killer she, her foster child, Tia, her best friend Police Chief, Izzy, Chance’s dog, Sissy, and others have their life threatened.
“They say Chance’s a lot like her dad. She’s direct, independent, reunited with her dad later in life, a little paranoid, and lives in her father’s shadow. She feels disappointed by her mother. I think it’s a broader thing than just the neglect. I think it’s just a deep, inability to understand how someone doesn’t do for their family, even under very difficult circumstances.”
“In many ways, Izzy, the Police Chief, is a combination of my cousin who’s a retired homicide detective, and my best friend. And, all of the pieces of them that are nurturing and maternal and wise and learned, and I think all of those things that I strive and hope to be. And someone who, even when she sees the worst of the worst and she gets older, she doesn’t completely lose her compassion. And I think that’s what Izzy does so well is she deals with the scum of the earth. And she hasn’t lost her ability to remember that they’re human, even at their worst. And that doesn’t mean she gives it a pass, it just means that she acknowledges that these are people who, in some cases, were set up for failure from the start. And that’s not an excuse, but it’s a reminder that some of us get certain opportunities in life that others don’t, and we should use those opportunities accordingly. I think Izzy also isn’t your typical police chief because she kind of looks the other way a lot. I think a lot of that has to do with being in a small town. I mean if this had taken place in a larger city, a lot of the things wouldn’t have been able to occur. The town is sort of like an Andy Griffith style, but with a lot more murder. And there are things that, wouldn’t have gotten away in that TV show, for example, or that storyline, but there was something cute about it and sweet about it because everybody knew everybody and knew where they were coming from, even when, what they did wasn’t always the best choice.”
“Tia knows more of the way of the world than any other character in that book. She was probably exposed to the worst of everybody. And I don’t go too deep into her background because I don’t think that does anybody good. And I think it’s more about that she’s a child who has seen things that she shouldn’t have seen. And, that has made her the way she is. It has made her much more unable to filter herself, less worried about what people think, much more of a survivalist and in some ways a manipulator. But I think it also is the fact that she’s a child. And so those childlike instincts and those childlike moments shine through. It’s important because she’s really had some hard things happen to her, but at the heart of it, she is a child. Those images of young women, sometimes people forget they are children. And I wanted to sort of highlight that while still hitting the fact that she’s been through certain things that a lot of grown people will hopefully never have to experience. But she’s sassy and a risk taker. She knows that life can be taken in an instant, she has seen the hardest of things. But I think she knows what’s important, and I think she’s not going to let anybody bully her out of doing what she thinks is right.”
“Then there is Chance’s dog Sissy who ‘is her own dog.’ Sissy’s not there to be a pet, since he’s there to be waited on, and looked after accordingly. It’s on sissy’s terms and that’s it. I wanted the dog to be a character unto itself, not just a sounding board, not just a device.”
This novel is character driven. There are strong, well-defined and memorable characters.