Forensic specialist turned crime novelist releases her 16th book

A forensic specialist turned crime novelist is releasing her 16th book.

Lisa Black works full-time for the Cape Coral Police Department as a Forensic Specialist.

WINK News talked to her about the journey to overcoming all the rejection over the years.

Most of Black’s days are spent analyzing things under a microscope but it’s not her only job.

On her off days, she writes.

“I always loved mystery stories. And I watched every cop show on the air with my dad when I was a kid. And so, I always wanted to write mysteries,” Black said.

While the interest in writing came naturally the actual act of putting a pen to paper didn’t, at first.

After graduating, Black became a secretary for 10 years writing six novels during that time.

“My first degree was in political science. So I had no marketable skills, except typing. So I became a secretary. So then I was sitting in front of a word processor all day, and I thought, well, what the heck, I’ll write a novel, how hard can it be,” Black said.

As much as she tried none of those ever made it to print, they were getting rejected by every publisher.

“I basically became a secretary to pay the bills. Then I went back to school to get a degree in forensics and go to work in forensics. And so it just made sense to me to tell the mystery story from the forensics point of view,” Black said.

She eventually joined a forensics department in her hometown of Cleveland before moving to Florida in 1999.

That’s the year everything changed. She published her first book and joined Cape Coral Police Department.

Years later she balances both jobs and leans on her coworkers for support.

Jaclyn Fordham, Supervisor of Forensics at Cape Coral Police Department said, “Sometimes if it’s a type of crime that maybe one of us has a special interest in we help her out when, when there’s different areas that we can.”

Black’s newest book titled ‘Red Flags‘ is the first in her new series.