Indie Spotlight: Kevin R. Andrade

 

Welcome to our Indie Spotlight series, in which TNBBC gives small press authors the floor to shed some light on their writing process, publishing experiences, or whatever else they'd like to share with you, the readers!

Today's spotlight shines on Kevin R. Andrade, who released In For a Dime on August 5th. 

Origin Story

The origin story behind In for a Dime and the first book of the series, Ten to the 405, was a bad beat in the first game of the 2011 college football season between USC and Utah. A blocked field goal and a returned touchdown overturned by an erroneous penalty call caused millions of millions of dollars to switch hands. From that game, began the origins of Jake Hansen. Out of that moment of frustration emerged the idea of a man whose whole life had become a bad beat- someone who had once possessed talent, ambition and promise but had squandered it. Jake devolved into a disgraced former journalist, a man damaged by his sins, vices and proclivities and found himself searching for redemption.

 

The world of Jake was created in Ten to the 405, the first book of the series. Many of the short stories that occur in the South Bronx were inspired by real stories and my own experiences as a journalist, although some poetic license was used to reshape and serve the novel. That mixture of truth and invention is central to the way I write. I begin with something real - a person, a neighborhood, an anecdote I might tell in a bar and then I ask how a similar experience might affect the characters inhabiting the world of In for a Dime and Ten to the 405.

 

By the time I began writing In for a Dime, Jake, as well as Pete, Lamar, Sophie, Danny and a few of the ancillary characters had developed their own histories, flaws, loyalties and voices. I have a relationship with these characters and it’s not simply to move the plot forward. I wish to convey what each of them wants, what they fear, what they regret and what lines they will, or will not, cross. I believe the most revealing moments occur not during the violence or mystery, but in the quieter conversations between people who have survived together and have found salvation in each other.

 

Loyalty is paramount in these books. Jake and the people around him are imperfect, reckless and compromised. But when someone they love is threatened, they are there. Their loyalty is what saves them and it is also what puts them in dangerous situations and forces them to make choices that challenge their morality.

 

Above all, In for a Dime, is a love letter to Los Angeles. It’s not a postcard version but a missive to the sprawling, divided, beautiful, unforgiving city beneath it. Its bars, streets, freeways, neighborhoods and people, shape every decision. Los Angeles is more than the setting for the Jake Hansen series. It is one of its most important characters.

Former journalist turned reluctant PI, Jake Hansen, alongside Pete Mills and Lamar Wagner, is hired to track a missing accountant and $2 million in stolen funds. But when their investigation leads to a dangerous web of corruption and a sex trafficking ring tied to the city’s elite, the case becomes personal.

When Sophie, their bartender and closest ally, is targeted by a predator from her past, the stakes escalate. With bodies dropping and the law closing in, Jake and his crew must uncover the truth before everything they care about is destroyed.

In for a Dime delivers a dark, cinematic look at loyalty, corruption and the cost of digging too deep.

Kevin R. Andrade is the author of the Jake Hansen Mystery series, including Ten to the 405 and In For a Dime.

A Mexican American raised in Ohio, Kevin earned degrees in English and Political Science from Bowling Green State University before building a career as a speechwriter, music journalist, travel writer, and novelist. He has lived in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Boston, and New York City, experiences that continue to influence the authentic settings, dialogue, and characters throughout his fiction.

Before writing novels, Kevin crafted speeches for politicians, interviewed music legends, and explored destinations around the world as a travel writer. Those experiences taught him that every person has a story worth telling, a philosophy that continues to shape the characters and investigations at the heart of the Jake Hansen Mystery series.