If you made it to the end of A Killer in Shadow, this won’t be a surprise.

Samantha Hayes is headed to the Everglades.

And before I could send her there, I had some homework to do.

One of my favorite parts of writing the Samantha Hayes series is that Sam’s work with the FBI allows me to take her beyond one town or one familiar setting. Each investigation can drop her somewhere completely different.

But that also means I can’t simply decide, This book takes place in the Everglades, and start writing.

I need to understand the place well enough to know what can realistically happen there.

And the Everglades has given me plenty to research.

The Setting Has to Affect the Story

For me, setting should do more than give readers something interesting to picture.

It should change what the characters can do.

The Everglades is a perfect example.

This isn’t a landscape where Sam and her team can necessarily park an SUV nearby and walk a few yards to a crime scene. Water, sawgrass, marshes, islands, wildlife, weather, and limited access all have the potential to affect how investigators move through an area.

So I started asking practical questions.

How would investigators reach a remote location?

What areas are accessible by road?

Where would they need a boat?

What kind of boat?

How long would it take to get from one location to another?

What happens when weather changes?

What does the terrain look like from the ground instead of from a map?

Those answers don’t just help me describe the Everglades.

They help me build the investigation.

Sometimes Research Changes the Story

This is one of the things I love most about research.

I’ll begin with an idea for a scene, then discover something about the real location that makes me rethink it.

Maybe getting there isn’t as simple as I imagined.

Maybe the terrain creates a problem I hadn’t considered.

Maybe something I thought would take ten minutes would realistically take much longer.

Those discoveries aren’t inconveniences.

They’re opportunities.

Instead of forcing the location to fit the story I’ve already imagined, I can ask a much more interesting question:

What would actually happen here?

That’s when the setting begins influencing the plot.

First, I Go There

Whenever I can, my research begins long before I open a book or start digging through websites.

I visit the place.

I want to experience the setting for myself. I want to see the landscape, feel the weather, hear the sounds, notice the smells, and get a sense of what it’s actually like to stand there.

For the Everglades, that means soaking in an environment completely different from the places Sam has investigated before. It’s one thing to read about the vast stretches of sawgrass, waterways, heat, humidity, and wildlife. It’s another to experience that landscape around you.

Those are the details I want to carry home with me.

Once I’ve experienced a location firsthand, then the deeper research begins.

That’s when I turn to books, maps, satellite images, photographs, videos, historical information, and online resources. I research transportation, weather, wildlife, local communities, law enforcement, geography, and whatever specific questions the story creates.

The two kinds of research work together.

The books and internet help me understand the facts.

Being there helps me understand the place.

And when Samantha finally steps into that setting on the page, I want readers to feel like they’re stepping into it with her.

The Everglades Isn’t Just Scenery

The more I’ve researched Sam’s next case, the more important this has become.

I don’t want to take a mystery that could happen anywhere and simply place palm trees and alligators around it.

I want this investigation to feel as though it belongs in the Everglades.

The landscape should create challenges.

Distance should matter.

Access should matter.

The environment should influence what investigators see, what they miss, and what questions they have to ask.

And yes, wildlife matters too.

When you’re writing a crime scene in a place where nature doesn’t politely leave evidence alone, you have some very interesting problems to consider.

I’ll leave it at that for now. 🐊

From Research to Samantha Hayes

Eventually all of this research has to disappear into the story.

Readers shouldn’t feel as though I’ve handed them my research notes.

They should simply feel that Sam is standing in a real place.

They should hear what she hears.

See what she sees.

Understand why reaching one location isn’t easy.

And recognize why an investigation here might unfold very differently from one somewhere else.

That’s the goal.

Because Samantha Hayes may be fictional.

But the world I send her into isn’t.

And this time, that world is the Everglades.

If you caught the hint at the end of A Killer in Shadow, consider this your first peek behind the scenes.

Sam’s next case has already begun.