Janice Cantore ~ Crisis Shot

As a Long Beach, California police officer for more than twenty years, Janice Cantore worked a variety of assignments, including patrol, administration, juvenile investigations, and training. She now writes suspense novels. Crisis Shot is the first title in her latest series.

Janice also authored the Cold Case Justice series — Drawing Fire, Burning Proof, and Catching Heat, the Pacific Coast Justice series — Accused, Abducted, and Avenged, and the Brinna Caruso novels, Critical Pursuit and Visible Threat. Prior to tackling novels, she also published two short articles on “faith at work” for Cop and Christ and Today’s Christian Woman.

She now resides in a small town in southern Oregon.

Just as all good novels include a plot twist, the Author and Creator of our lives often writes in a twist that ultimately blesses us more than our original plan. Have you ever experienced such a “Divine Detour”?

Yes, I have. It happened two years into my retirement: my father fell and broke his shoulder. The day before he was to be released from the hospital, my mother had a minor stroke. Those two incidents made it clear that they could not live by themselves anymore. Since bringing them to my house was not an option, I moved in with them. I spent the last four years of their lives taking care of them. And while doing that had never been my plan — it was a detour — it ended up being a blessing. A hard blessing, but a blessing nonetheless.

What started you on your writing journey?

I remember reading books as a kid, horse books — The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, etc. — and I just loved them. I loved being swept away by the story, and I always wanted to write my own. But life happened, and it wasn’t until I was an adult and working in law enforcement that I finally began writing. It was working the Rodney King riots that got me going and made me realize that I had a lot of stories to tell.

Let’s talk about your new book Crisis Shot (Tyndale House, September 2017). Please tell us about it.

Crisis Shot was born from two things. First, the spate of police shootings that have hit the news lately and the unrest because of them. No one seems to remember that police deserve due process just like everyone else, and I wanted to shed light on that.

Second, since I moved to Oregon and began to experience small-town living (I was born and raised in Southern California), I wanted to write a book about a small town and incorporate that sense of community.