Nancy Mehl is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author. She has won the Daphne Du Maurier Award, an ACFW Carol Award, and a Mystery Book of the Year Award from ACFW. Her book, Mind Games, was a finalist in the prestigious Christy Awards.

Nancy’s novels have something for your spirit as well as your soul. “I welcome the opportunity to share my faith through my writing,” she says. “I hope everyone who reads my books will walk away with the most important message I can give them: God is good, and He loves you more than you can imagine. He has a good plan for your life, and there is nothing you can’t overcome with His help.”

Nancy lives in Missouri with her husband, Norman, and her puggle, Watson. She is the author of over fifty books.

 

Your books are fast paced—with a LOT of suspense. How do you manage to take a breath and get back to normal life after a writing session?

I don’t really have a problem with it. I’m able to leave the suspense on the page. I don’t think I’d want my real life to mirror what I write. I’d be in a lot of trouble!

You have written more than fifty novels. What’s the main source of inspiration for your stories?

There isn’t just one thing. It’s important to me to present realistic people with real problems. I want my readers to connect to them. Many times, those characters give me the inspiration I need for a story. Who are they? What are they afraid of? What kind of struggle will test their faith and their inner strength? The details of the plot usually come from these questions.

Let’s talk about your new book, Cold Pursuit (Bethany House, July 2023). Please tell us about it.

Ex-FBI profiler River Ryland still suffers from PTSD after a case went horribly wrong. Needing a fresh start, she moves to St. Louis to be near her ailing mother and opens a private investigation firm with her friend and former FBI partner, Tony St. Clair. They’re soon approached by a grieving mother who wants them to find out what happened to her teenaged son, who disappeared four years ago. River knows there’s almost no hope the boy is still alive, but his mother needs closure, and River and Tony need a case, no matter how cold it might be.

But as they follow the boy’s trail, which gets more complicated at every turn, they find themselves in the path of a murderer determined to punish anyone who gets in his way. As River and Tony race to stop him before he kills again, an even more dangerous threat emerges, stirring up the past that haunts River and plotting an end to her future.

Besides entertainment, what do you hope readers will take away from it?

River’s childhood was torn apart when her minister father, who taught her that God was a harsh, vengeful entity, took off with his church secretary. She has turned her back on God, and even though she cried out for His help when her life was at stake, she still ignores Him. As she begins to learn about a God who loves her – who has forgiven her – her wounded soul begins to heal. I want readers to know that no matter how far we may have drifted from God, He’s as close as our next breath. He’s just waiting to bring His lost lambs home.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice about writing, what would it be?

Don’t give up!

Thanks, Nancy! It’s nice to have back at Divine Detour.

Thank you, Kathy!

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For more information about Nancy, visit her website and follow her on Facebook or Twitter. To order Cold Pursuit and other books by Nancy, go to –