One unexpected death can be explained away.
A second may look like bad luck.
But when does coincidence become a pattern—and when does a pattern reveal design?
That question runs beneath Lethal Design.
The investigators don’t begin with one obvious crime scene or one piece of evidence that solves everything. They begin with deaths that appear to have ordinary explanations. The victims don’t seem connected. The clues are scattered. No single investigator can see the entire picture.
The challenge isn’t merely finding evidence. It’s recognizing that evidence from separate cases may belong to the same investigation.
Different Investigators, Different Pieces
OPD Major Crimes detective Kylie “KC” Cassidy approaches the case as a homicide investigator. She follows what happened to the victims, who had access to them, and which details do not fit.
Orlando Prime adds specialists who look at the same questions from different directions. Interviews and victimology can uncover a human connection. Digital forensics can reveal a trail no witness saw. Laboratory evidence can turn a vague suspicion into something measurable.
Federal investigators bring still another perspective when the pattern begins stretching beyond the boundaries of one department.
Each team has information. None of them has enough.
That is what makes a multi-agency investigation so interesting to write. A clue may appear insignificant in one file but become essential when placed beside evidence from another. A dead end may not be a failure. It may mean the investigators have been asking the right question in the wrong case.
Suspense Through Accumulation
I wanted the tension in Lethal Design to grow through accumulation: one detail that feels slightly wrong, another that seems oddly familiar, and then the moment when separate events can no longer be dismissed as coincidence.
In a clean crime thriller, suspense doesn’t have to depend on graphic violence. It can come from the realization that someone has been patient, deliberate, and almost invisible and that the investigators may already be following a plan they don’t understand.
Once KC, Orlando Prime, and their federal partners begin comparing what they know, the case changes. They’re no longer asking whether the deaths are connected.
They’re asking who connected them.
And why.
Lethal Design, Book 2 in the KC & Orlando Prime crime thriller series, releases August 4, 2026. It features a methodical multi-agency investigation, forensic evidence, unexpected turns, and the team dynamics of NCIS and Criminal Minds.
New to the series? Start with Fatal Invitation.
How many coincidences would it take before you believed someone had planned them?