A witness can describe what happened in a room. A digital record can suggest who was connected to it. A laboratory result may raise a question neither of those sources could answer.
That is one of the pleasures of a team-based crime thriller: different people can be looking at the same case and seeing different things. In Lethal Design, KC Cassidy’s investigation brings OPD Major Crimes and Orlando Prime together.
Different jobs mean different questions
KC works in Major Crimes with veteran detective Rick Spaulding. Orlando Prime, led by Frank Travers, adds its own range of skills. Claire Santos focuses on field investigation and victimology. Quinn Sterling follows digital evidence. Jack Stamps handles forensic science, including toxicology and pattern analysis.
Those roles matter because an investigation needs more than one kind of answer. Understanding a victim’s life is different from interpreting a lab finding. Neither task becomes unnecessary because someone has uncovered a promising lead elsewhere.
A team gives the reader room to investigate, too
I enjoy giving readers several lines of inquiry to follow. You may be most interested in an interview while someone else is watching the digital trail. As the investigation develops, details from those separate paths can begin to belong together.
In Lethal Design, apparently routine deaths draw the investigators toward a much larger pattern. The team has to work out what connects them. Readers get to weigh the pieces along the way, without any one character having every answer at the start.
If you enjoy ensemble crime stories, learn more about Lethal Design. There is also a spoiler-free investigator guide on the book page if you would like a quick introduction to the team.
Which part of a fictional investigation do you most enjoy following: interviews, forensics, or digital clues?