by Colleen Coble
People ask where ideas for novels come from, and for me, it’s generally a news article or documentary, but Ambush came from a real experience. My grandson’s fourth birthday arrived, and we wanted to do something fun and unique. We’d heard of an exotic animal refuge two hours from Phoenix called Out of Africa, so we loaded up the RV and drove north to the park.
We pulled into the parking lot and saw a line of what looked like safari trucks near the entrance. This was our first clue this was something different from a zoo. We paid for a safari and all the other things offered and entered the park. My grandsons (and the rest of us) were smitten watching the trainers frolicking in a swimming pool with white tiger cubs and wanted to feed them. I eyed the setup before saying yes to the idea, but we were all relieved to discover the “feeding” entailed the trainer putting meat in a special apparatus on one side of the fence while our grandsons pushed on the other side to deliver the food to the tiger. No fingers disappeared in the tiger’s mouth.
When I got up to the fence, I asked the predator keeper, Addam, if he’d be willing to answer questions if I came up with plots for a series of novels set at a refuge like this one. He was quick to agree, and we boarded the truck for our safari ride. Score—Addam was our driver! It was clearly meant to be.
His job as one of the predator keepers was fascinating, and I peppered him with all kinds of questions (then and in the months spent writing). I shuddered at his scar from a big cat, but the seed of an idea germinated. As he took us around the park, his love for the animals and his job was evident. I was especially fond of the story of Cypress, the grizzly bear who’d been kept caged in a 10x10 space with concrete floors for the first six months of her life. When she released into her two-acres of roaming space, she ran and ran for forty-eight hours just because she could. I loved the rhino Jericho, feeding the giraffes, and seeing the otters. Getting up close and personal with the capybaras helped round out my enchantment with the setting for a new series.
I was smitten by the time we climbed into our RV. On the ride back to the Phoenix metro, Paradise’s face swam into reality. What if I had a wildlife vet who’d experienced an injury from a black panther? Working in a place like this was the last hope she had of getting past her fear and back to doing what she loved. And what if she’s returning to the little town where she had to go into foster care after her parents were murdered? She can’t remember what happened the night they died, but she’s having nightmares about it and needs to remember. And to complicate things, what if the man who betrayed her when she was fifteen is part owner of the refuge?
I learned so much about rescued exotic animals and admired the passion people at the park show as they care for them. Fun fact—all the titles in the series refer to a group of certain animals. Ambush (tigers), Prowl (jaguars) and Conspiracy (lemurs) all carry double meanings in the novels too.
Ambush has lots of layers and nothing is as it seems when Paradise arrives in the Gulf Shores area where I set the Sanctuary. Readers will recognize familiar characters from the Pelican Harbor series and the Tupelo Grove series. Head on over to my website to download a map of the various locations talked about in the series.
About the Author
USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author Colleen Coble’s novels have won or finaled in awards ranging from the Best Books of Indiana, the ACFW Carol Award, the Romance Writers of America RITA, the Holt Medallion, the Daphne du Maurier, National Readers’ Choice, and the Booksellers Best. She has over five million books in print. When she’s not writing, Colleen is playing Pokemon Go! with the family or traveling to the locales where she sets her novels. She’s a perpetual learner and a natural health nut. Colleen is CEO of American Christian Fiction Writers. She lives with her husband Dave in Arizona. Connect with her at www.colleencoble.com and on Facebook and Instagram.
About the Book
Fifteen years after her parents were murdered, Paradise Alden returns to her hometown as a last resort to finding her life again. She's hoping the wildlife refuge where she's accepted a veterinarian job will be the perfect place to heal. But the day she arrives at The Sanctuary, a body is discovered on the grounds. And soon, a series of deadly events threatens not only her future, but the man who, despite all odds, still makes her pulse stutter.
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