Blog

Segment of One — debut thriller by Michael Grigsby.

Author Interview + Book & Author Info

Don’t Miss Any ITW Debut Author Program Interviews! Click the link here.

Segment of One

Marketing analyst Nick Vanderoff, newly retired from his successful career in business, lost his wife last year to cancer. Now he just wants to rest, relax, and repair family relationships.

To accomplish this, he’s been spending time with his math-genius granddaughter, Holly, and his estranged daughter. But a serial killer is on the loose in Dallas, and traditional forensics have produced nothing.

Nick has consulted for the police department before, but not on anything like this. Can he trust the algorithms that worked so well in the corporate world to flush out a madman? The answer becomes personal when Nick’s projections thwart the killer’s plans, and he realizes the police are closing in on him.

The sniper attacks escalate, and the killer turns toward Nick and his family. Will Nick be able to use his marketing skills to target a lethal segment of one to reveal himself?

To purchase Segment of One, click on any of the following links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble & IndieBound

Interview with Michael Grigsby — Author of Segment of One

Segment of One, your debut novel, uses marketing analytics to solve crimes. How did you arrive at that concept for a thriller?

Marketing analytics is all about predicting consumer responses: who will buy, when will they buy, where will they buy, etc. With the right data, much of that could be used in criminal forensics: who will commit a crime, when will it be, where will be, etc.?

Segment of One creates a scenario where the police cannot find a serial killer and, in desperation, recruit different techniques to forecast where and when the killer may strike next. Those techniques start to work and tighten the net around the killer.

Tell us about Nick Vanderoff:

Nick just retired from a corporate career in marketing analytics. His wife of 30 years died a year ago of cancer and he just wants to relax and try to mend the fences with his daughter and granddaughter. His career took him away from family ties and he wants to make up for that.

He is an analytic guy and not in touch with his own feelings, and he is surprised to learn that THAT is what he has to do to connect with others. Including the bad guy. So, Nick takes a bit of a journey, kicking and screaming, but he makes the trip.

Segment of One takes place in Dallas. How does that environment impact events?

Dallas is a big city and I had a serial killer that had been at large for years that the police could not find nor stop. I needed a big canvas for the story to play out. And I lived there at the time and would use specific places to add reality.

I think you may have the only granddaughter/grandfather crime fighting duo in crime fiction history. What prompted that aspect of the book?

I thought it an odd and unique take on the buddy story.  Neither a grandfather nor a granddaughter had any business tracking down serial killers. And then the bad guy turns ON THEM!  That scenario seemed unusual and fun to me.

You have worked in marketing analytics for over twenty years. What does a day in the life of a marketing analytics guy look like?

I was an analytic consultant and thus constantly in front of clients, typically from the C-Suite, trying to explain and sell to them analysis. How to improve their pricing, their products, their distribution and their communications.

Very boring, but I meant a lot of interesting and frightening people.

What are you working on now?

I have two just-completed novels, also analytic thrillers. One is called INDEPENDENT VARIABLES and the other is called FORECASTING ERROR.

Both have strong female protagonists, are meant to be fast and fun, with a light dose of analytics.

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

That’s an easy one: never quit, never give up. Keep on writing! We learn by doing, just like anything else. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Take classes and talk to other writers, talk to readers, go to conferences and keep on writing. Write every day and never quit, never give up, keep on writing.

Great advice!

Michael Grigsby

Michael Grigsby has worked in the corporate world of marketing analytics for over 20 years.

He has a PhD in marketing science (and no, that is NOT an oxymoron). He’s published two non-fiction books, Marketing Analytics and Advanced Customer Analytics. Marketing Analytics has also been translated into Chinese and Polish (yes, Polish.)

He used those texts in teaching  graduate school classes.