Lawyer turned New York Times and USA Today Bestselling novelist
Diane Capri calls herself “a kind of Martian – someone who doesn’t think like
the crowd.” Her ability to see hidden relationships others often miss served
her well in her career as an attorney, where she ranked in the top 1% of
lawyers nationwide. Her unique perspective is also reflected in her writing,
tales she hopes will make readers take a closer look at what they assume to be
true. And her refusal to accept things at face value has set her on a literary
quest to uncover the secret life of one of crime fiction’s most mysterious and
elusive characters.
After graduating cum laude from Detroit’s Wayne Law School,
Capri spent nearly 13 years working for a Detroit law firm before going into
private practice. Although she was always a voracious reader, her writing was
limited to non-fiction until a business catastrophe changed the course of her
life. In the early nineties, she relocated to Central Florida at the request of
her largest client. When that client later went bankrupt, destroying her legal
practice, Capri turned to writing mystery/suspense novels “so that I could restore
order to an unjust world, and maybe provide a little literary catharsis for my
dead law practice.” While rebuilding her practice, she penned two Florida
mystery series featuring female protagonists: Judge Wilhemina Carson and
Attorney Jennifer Lane.
After joining the newly-formed International Thriller
Writers in 2004, Capri met and began a longstanding friendship with fellow
writer Lee Child, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of the Jack Reacher
thrillers. Reacher, Child’s shadowy anti-hero who lives by his own rules and
metes out justice without regard for legalities, became a source of fascination
for Capri. “Jack Reacher is a character as old as time - a stranger who rides
into town, straightens things out and leaves,” she explains. “I thought it
would be interesting to explore how a man like this would impact the people he
interacted with, so I asked Lee where Reacher spent his time between books. As
we talked about it, an idea came to me – that the people who meet Jack are
forever changed, that crime begets crime, and someone would want to get even.”
That idea was the catalyst for Don’t Know
Jack, the first in what would become Capri’s “Hunt for Jack Reacher”
series.
Don’t Know Jack
introduces FBI Special Agent Kim Otto, the antithesis of Jack Reacher. According
to Capri, “I made Kim the opposite of Reacher in every way. She’s driven and
ambitious, plays by the book, and has strong family connections. Even though
she may be afraid, she does what she has to do. I think that makes her even
braver than Reacher, and she’s going to need it!” Kim and her partner, Agent Carlos Gaspar, are
assigned to investigate Jack Reacher. This sets into motion a chess-like game
of cat and mouse, with each move bringing them closer to the cagey
Reacher. Lee Child praised the novel as
“Full of thrills and tension, but smart and human, too.” The book has become a
huge reader favorite worldwide. The second Reacher novel, Get Back Jack, was another bestseller. It follows Lee Child’s
characters from his novels Bad Luck
and Trouble.
In addition to her Reacher
books, Capri released Fatal Distraction
the first in a new series featuring Jess Kimball, a victim’s rights advocate
Capri says is “like Jack Reacher, only nicer.” Fatal
Distraction opened at #3 on Amazon. Capri
is also publishing a serial novel similar to Veronica Mars titled False Truth
featuring rookie multimedia journalist Jordan Fox.
Besides providing an
entertaining reading experience, Capri wants her books to make readers
challenge their own assumptions, particularly in matters concerning justice.
“People often accept things at face value, but there’s always another side to
the story,” she says. She hopes that readers will join her characters as they
strive to grasp what seems to lie just beyond their reach.
For more about Diane Capri, visit her website at www.dianecapri.com.
