Lee Clark

Lee Clark is a North Carolina native, originally from Raleigh, with family in Virginia as well. After working in the software technology industry for over 20 years, Clark decided it was time to pursue a true passion: fictional writing.

A self-confessed coffeeholic and chocoholic, Lee Clark still resides in North Carolina with spouse, two mostly grown children who are in and out, and a small petting zoo of dogs and cats.

Though the Matthew Paine character is fictional, he was inspired by two very important men in the author’s life, brother Sean and son Will. Both will see characteristics of themselves in the Matthew character and identify with some of his struggles.

Your protagonist is a scientist who uses insects to help determine when someone died. What made you build a mystery around forensic entomology?

I wanted a female protagonist in this series who is a bit quirky and snarky, but kind at heart when you get past those traits.  She needed to be shy with people but otherwise brazen.  Giving her a profession many women would shy away from, and one in which she interacts with insects rather than people, easily provided those characteristics . Needless to say, I've had a lot to learn and I can't begin to keep up with brilliant Tegan McFarland! 

Most of us see bugs and want to get away from them. Your protagonist sees evidence. What can insects actually reveal about a person’s death?

Bugs can reveal more than you'd think -- definitely more than I initially thought. Flies determine the time of death because they hover when they're ready to lay eggs and immediately swarm to the chemicals emitted by a corpse within moments of death. Capturing the eggs or larvae and maturing them to flies, determining the exact variety of fly, and then calculating their lifecycle time backward, gives a surprisingly accurate time of death for the victim. Flies are the first insects to find dead bodies. Other insects inhabit bodies later. Insects can also tell where the body has been, if it's been moved, because species are somewhat specific to areas, city versus forest or water versus land, for example. Others are specific to geographical regions.

How accurate is the science in A River Remembers, and how much research did you do to get the forensic details right?  

I hope it's very accurate! That's my intention, but it's been a journey. I bought two books to help. One, I found listed as a reference in some of the Forensic Entomology classes, I think at North Carolina State University, my alma mater. In the first Red River Murders book, A River Remembers, the forensic work is pretty basic. In the next book, I've sought and found experts to consult about what happens to the insects on a body in very specific circumstances — stay tuned for that one!

What was the most surprising or fascinating thing you learned about insects and decomposition while researching the book? 

I had no idea flies found dead bodies so quickly! I didn't know bodies emit specific chemicals at death that flies can sense, almost immediately, as they hover seeking a place to lay their eggs.  I didn't know there were so many varieties of blow flies, or that there are water insects that find dead bodies, as well. Honestly, I didn't know much.

Without giving away the mystery, how does your protagonist use insects to help establish the time of death? 

Tegan is called to the scene where a body has been pulled from the river. She finds larvae in the first stage of development, or first instar. From this, she can tell that the woman has been deceased between 23 hours and four days at that point. She's able to guess at how long ago the woman died based on the blowfly cycle. Given that there are larvae, not just eggs, how large the larvae are, and what they look like, she provides the first timeline of the death long before the ME can arrive in the in the small rural North Carolina town.

Did you consult forensic scientists, entomologists, medical examiners, or law enforcement professionals while writing the novel? 

In writing this novel, I primarily consulted the book:  Forensic Entomology: The Utility of Arthropods in Legal Investigations. I say "consulted" because it's a beast and I admit to using it for reference, finding the sections I needed, and not reading the whole thing. For the next book in the series, though, I have contacted professors in the Forensic Entomology department at North Carolina State University and offered lunch in exchange for plying them with questions about a specific scenario I'm setting up.

We hear constantly about DNA and fingerprints. Why isn’t forensic entomology better known as a crime-solving tool? 

That's a great question! One of the professors I'll be meeting with to discuss my questions for the next book in the series has worked with the FBI on multiple cases. I'll ask him and let you know.

How did you make the science understandable and fascinating for readers without slowing down the suspense?  

I think it's a matter of Tegan giving her perspective as she's explaining her profession to the people around her about what she's doing.  When she meets the new (hot) sheriff, she does babble a bit about her profession, realizes she's doing it, and clamps her mouth shut. I think story telling from her perspective, though third-person narrative instead of first-person, makes the topic relatable because Tegan herself is a character readers care about — at least, I HOPE they do!

If A River Remembers were adapted for television, how could forensic entomology become an ongoing part of the series and future investigations?  

I'd love for Red River Murders to be adapted for a series! Tegan certainly has the depth of character to pull that off. She brings her passion about her profession to pull her audience in to care about what she cares about — bugs and how they help law enforcement and investigators. Forensic Entomology will be used to determine time of death and conditions under several weird conditions for upcoming books that are in the works.

What’s the one fact you learned about bugs and death while writing A River Remembers that will make readers say, “I had absolutely no idea”? 

I've already had ARC reviewers say they had no idea about the lifecycle stages of blowflies from egg to larvae, through the larval instars, to pupa, to fly development and what that means for learning about murder victims' time of death and conditions. Likewise, I don't think it's commonly known that flies hover and find carcasses immediately because, to quote Tegan, "Smell and taste receptors cover a fly’s body." As a beta reader said, "I really loved the larvae detail. That was pretty cool (and slightly gross) at the same time. It really helped give a feel to that character's personality."

---

Instagram
​Facebook

Purchase the book HERE.