Author Richard Wickliffe spoke with Female First upon the release of his new crime-thriller "Storm Crashers." Though it's a fictional adventure, the story was inspired by true crimes committed during hurricanes off the coast of Florida.

Storm Crashers

Storm Crashers

Here are five facts behind Richard's new thriller and writing flair:

Richard enjoys using female protagonists -and villains

Quite simply because they're smarter and go against cliché. According to Richard, the clichés are tired; superhero men always saving the day; hulking dark crime bosses. In his first novel, Tropical Windfall, the villain turns out to be a petit brash woman in charge of a drug cartel. In Storm Crashers, a brilliant female detective is an equal partner in a duo -with another female lead we can't quite reveal spoilers on.

Storm Crashers' female detective is based on a real person

Again to dodge cliché, the cop in Storm Crashers is feminine and appealing. Richard believes movies typically paint female officers as butch or masculine. He tells us he based "Detective Nadine Stratton" on a real sheriff's deputy in Florida, a tall blonde, almost exactly as described in Storm Crashers. Intelligent and popular among her peers.

The crimes in Storm Crashers are inspired by real events.

After Hurricane Charlie swept across the coast of Florida (a setting in the novel) wealthy residents couldn't return to their homes due to damaged bridges and no electricity. Police couldn't respond. According to Richard, during this period, numerous burglaries were reported, including a pharmacy of its priceless narcotics.

In Storm Crashers, Richard confesses he applied fiction to make the thieves high-tech, with night vision, special gear, etcetera, to endure the imminent storms.

What's the most farfetched weapon that's real?

"Easily the Incapacitator or 'puke saber,'" replies Richard. The villains use the weapon that looks like a large flashlight. Incapacitators really exist. According to Richard, they emit light pulses that confuse the brain causing instant disorientation, nausea, and have even caused cerebral hemorrhages. It's been rumored to have killed a test subject with epilepsy, so the device never went into wide use. They've been given the nickname "puke saber."

What's the most horrifying setting or scene that's based on truth?

In Storm Crashers, an abandoned hotel is used as a morgue. For effect, Richard depicts it as a haunted-house-like building, with no power and rows of corpses. Shockingly, this is based on something real. Richard states he once stayed at an older hotel on the west coast of Florida. A year later, after Hurricane Charlie, he was shocked to learn the vacant hotel had been used by officials for storm fatalities. When word leaked to the public, officials had to acknowledge the bodies were in the hotel, but wouldn't verify how many. Even more unnerving is the hotel has since reopened (but Richard won't say what it's now called.)

Thank you to Richard, and you can find "Storm Crashers" now on Amazon, both in print and as e-books. You can learn more about Richard and his writing at RichWickliffe.com.