I hope you have enjoyed this book. Perhaps you also read the earlier five novels in the South Shores series that lead up to the events in Dark Storm. But it is time for me to leave Claire and Nick Markwood and their family and friends. They have come a long way since we met them—and Claire and Nick met each other—in the first book, Chasing Shadows, when Claire was shot outside the Collier County Courthouse.
I will miss them as well as the Naples/South Florida setting, almost as much as I miss it in reality since, after thirty lovely years, we no longer spend our winters there. It has been fun to use settings from some of the places we visited and loved in Naples and the Caribbean for this series. In this book, for example, walking out on the rocks at Doctors Pass and the Naples Botanical Garden (www.naplesgarden.org).
I have had the idea of writing a suspense novel using the falcate orangetip butterflies as the hook since 1998, but a story never quite fit together until now. However, I thank Gary Noel Ross, butterfly consultant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for his research suggestions on this unique butterfly. Other research came from the lovely book The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic and Art by Maraleen Manos-Jones, and the Official Guide to Butterfly World, which we visited in Coconut Creek, Florida (www.butterflyworld.com).
I thought the falcate orangetip talent for suspended animation was amazing; later, I learned that dolphins have a variation of this gift, too. But how to blend such different animals in a story? And what to do with the intriguing subject of cryonics, the ultimate suspension of life?
I also wondered which butterflies are endangered. In my research, I learned a butterfly breed as “common” as monarchs are indeed threatened today. For example, researchers claim monarchs have decreased ninety percent over these last years, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, mostly because their milkweed habitats, necessary for their life cycle, are disappearing. Concerned citizens can visit www.edf.org/MonarchAcre to learn more about this.
Also, I find it interesting but sad that, according to an article in the Naples Daily News of July 26, 2018, the local butterfly population has not recovered from the battering they received during Hurricane Irma. I based Hurricane Jenny loosely on Irma, which hit Southwest Florida in August of 2017. While we owned a condo in Naples, Florida, two hurricanes visited the area, and once, we lost the roof of our lanai.
Two quick explanations of unusual things in this book—things that I hardly believed until I researched them. First of all, Lexi’s “smart” doll. The info Claire discovers online is true. I was surprised to see that such a doll can be monitored via a mobile app and Wi-Fi connectivity. An attacker can send unauthorized requests and extract information through such a doll. This can lead to malicious campaigns against caregivers or the child. The doll outlawed in Germany was called My Friend Cayla.
Secondly, it is not “an old wives’ tale” that the sudden drop in barometric pressure during a hurricane can cause headaches, toothaches—and yes, women who are not far from delivery can go into early labor. This most often happens to women who are at least thirty-four weeks pregnant. During Hurricane Andrew in South Florida in 1992, for example, a large number of women went into labor and flocked to hospitals, and this phenomenon has been noted elsewhere.
Thanks for support on writing this novel to my wonderful team consisting of agent Annelise Robey, editor Emily Ohanjanians, MIRA Books publicists and copy editors, to name a few. I appreciate advice from Officer Jim Parsons of the Columbus Ohio Division of Police. And to my husband, Don, for being my travel companion and proofreader.
See you online at www.KarenHarperauthor.com or www.facebook.com/KarenHarperAuthor