In Mindy Mejia’s latest novel, “Strike Me Down,” the main character, Nora Trier, is a forensic accountant who is single-minded in her pursuit of fraudsters. Nora’s story begins when her firm is hired by a popular kickboxing gym to find $20 million of tournament prize money that has gone missing. Nora and her firm are tasked with finding the money before the tournament ends in less than a week.

Kirkus Reviews said, “Mejia’s narrative crackles with obsession, greed, lust, and plenty of ambition, and it’s loaded with more twists and turns than a spy novel.”

Along with the plot twists, Mindy also weaves realistic details about money laundering, auditing and fraud examination into the story. We’ve teamed up with Mindy to give away a digital copy of her new book, “Strike Me Down.”

After you read our interview with her, make sure you enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post.

Your main character, Nora Trier, is a forensic accountant. What inspired you to choose this profession for her?

I worked in the accounting industry for 16 years before leaving to write crime fiction full time, and I always knew I wanted to find shared territory between those two worlds. When I sat down to write this book, I never considered another profession for Nora. A forensic accountant is the detective of the financial world, and by casting Nora in this career I could utilize the structure of a police procedural, which is an established and beloved subgenre in crime fiction. Readers were already accustomed to their police detectives gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses and narrowing down their pool of suspects. I simply took those expectations and shifted them into a corporate arena.

The story opens with Nora's firm being hired to investigate a $20 million fraud, and at one point, even though it's not said explicitly, it seems like Nora is reading a copy of Fraud Magazine while working out on a treadmill. What kind of research did you undertake to make the investigation believable?

Of course Nora was reading Fraud Magazine! It’s the premier publication for CFE professionals and she takes her work very seriously. I’m a CPA but not a CFE, so I did need to do more research to make Nora’s character, firm and her investigation plausible. I subscribed to Fraud Magazine for a year and took ACFE classes, including “10 Infamous Fraud Cases of the 21st Century” and “Investigating Money Laundering.” I also opened my own online bank account to see how easy it would be to transfer money out of the country. Spoiler: it was appallingly easy.

Were there any stories you came across during your fraud research that surprised you?

I was surprised to learn about Kenneth Lay’s humble beginnings and how he came from a struggling family. He baled hay and delivered newspapers as a kid to help his family stay solvent. I had a perception of white-collar criminals that, in retrospect, derived directly from the original definition of the term by sociologist Edwin Sutherland: a "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation." To learn that one of the most infamous white-collar criminals of the century grew up in a blue-collar family was fascinating.

What aspect of fraud or money laundering did you find particularly interesting?

I’m always interested in the rationalization of the crime. There’s an old saying that every villain is the hero of their own story. In fiction, we call it point of view, which is a larger craft element than what it means conversationally. It’s the lens with which a character filters their world, and ultimately determines the entire narrative from the choice of scene down to specific diction. Fraudsters and money launderers have a point of view that is fundamentally skewed to make themselves, if not the hero, then at least a good person in a bad situation. That ethical disconnect is storytelling, pure and simple, and as a storyteller myself, I’m always intrigued by the stories invented by others.

Another notable aspect of Nora's character is that she is a former whistleblower. Why was it important to include this in her past?

I was never a whistleblower, but I have been in situations where I’ve had to report issues to an ombudsman or ethics officer. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable that would be, how personally distressing; to know that you can’t trust the people you work for, and be treated like someone who’s betrayed the “team.” Nora is a very smart, capable and determined forensic accountant. From the outside she might seem like a character impervious to those types of interpersonal conflicts, but it was important for me to show what’s at stake for whistleblowers. It’s not simply a question of doing the right thing and then everything goes back to normal. Nora’s entire life was ripped away, and she had to build a new one knowing the people she’d let herself care about had turned their backs on her.

Each section of your book is named after a different piece of the Fraud Triangle — opportunity, pressure and rationalization. How do these themes play into the overall story?

Novels often adopt a traditional three-act structure — the setup, rising action, and climax or resolution. Readers expect these structural elements and I wanted to meet those expectations while also teaching my audience a bit about forensic accounting in the process. The Fraud Triangle is a simplified detection tool, but it speaks to a larger criminal mindset that paired perfectly with the three-act structure. “Opportunity” is the setup of the book. Nora gets the opportunity to investigate Strike, a company whose owners she has conflicted feelings about. The second act is “Pressure,” and I don’t think there could be a better term for trying to find $20 million in a week. The last act, where Nora finally solves the case, is “Rationalization.” We find out why the money disappeared and whether the truth will cost Nora her life.

Enter for a chance to win a digital copy of “Strike Me Down” by Mindy Mejia. Before entering, read the official terms and conditions, and submit your name and email address via the form below by 11:59 p.m. Central Time, on Monday, May 18, 2020.* The giveaway is open internationally.

* By entering your email address, you consent to receive communications from the ACFE containing information and offers designed to assist you in your anti-fraud efforts. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

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