Aimee Hix Books In Order

Publication Order of Willa Pennington, P.I. Books

Aimee Hix is a prolific American writer, who is popular for writing suspense, mystery, and crime fiction stories. She is particularly famous for creating the character of private investigator Willa Pennington and writing a couple of successful books based on this character. Prior to the start of her writing career, Hix used to work as a defense contractor. She has spent 20 years of her life working in this job. As a result, she has a vast experience in dealing with murder cases and murderers. It was expected of her to devote her time writing murder mysteries following her retirement, and Hix did exactly the same. Author Hix is a native resident of Northern Virginia. She is well aware of the trials & tribulations of the region, which she used to create her lead protagonist, Willa Pennington. Hix has depicted Willa as beginning her career as an apprentice private investigator and then going on to take independent charge.

When Hix sat down to write her first novel, she completed a set of three books featuring Willa Pennington. Later, she signed a 3-book deal with Midnight Ink. The publisher has decided to publish the books in January every year, starting from 2018. Hix has set the Willa Pennington stories against Washington DC’s shady backdrop. As of today, she resides in Virginia along with her family and her three loving dogs. She spends her time writing novels full-time and whatever spare time she is able to manage from her busy schedule, she likes to spend it in the company of her family and pet dogs. At a recently concluded event, Hix has discussed the topics of crime fiction’s appeal, the influences of reading on her writing, the characteristics shared by her and her lead character, the differences between the private investigators and cops, and her future projects.

Hix says that she has read a lot of stories of crime fiction while growing up. She has always been a great fan of Nancy Drew and has taken huge inspirations from her works. It was because of her influence that Hix was able to explore the writer in her. Hix wishes she had been a woman like Willa Penington and definitely wants her daughter to become like her after growing up. She is a tough lady, who doesn’t take any bullshit. At times, Willa is also kind-hearted and caring. Whenever she goes through any emotional pain or loss, she chooses to deal with it instead of letting it overpower her. Willa doesn’t feel ashamed of accepting her mistakes and taking responsibility for her actions. She always pursues justice in whichever way she can and doesn’t let anything stop her from doing so. Hix’s portrayal of Willa Pennington’s character seems believable, unlike other protagonists who only fit in the fictional stories and not in the real world.

There some traits that Hix shares with Willa Pennington such as both like coffee very much, both are sarcastic and stubborn. Just like Willa, Hix too doesn’t like creep figures. Also, she is too lax when it comes to what her children should watch on TV. Hix believes that living in the Washington, DC metro suburbs allowed her the chance to get familiarised with the different personality types inhabiting the region. The kind of people that live in the area is quite diverse. Hix has come across all types of people, including refugees, diplomats, homeless, people under witness protection, brokers, regular middle-class people, royalty, etc. Such people have helped her to come up with the characters of her books and do the settings. Hix likes to advise the aspiring writers to read as many books as possible and even listen to audiobooks for inspiration, deconstruct stories in books, write on a daily basis, be active on social platforms, attend writers’ conferences, follow authors, meet new people, and do anything and everything that could benefit their writing.

The Willa Pennington PI series written by author Aimee Hix is comprised of a total of 2 books so far, published between 2018 and 2019. The debut book of this series is entitled ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’. It was released by Midnight Ink in 2018. At the novel’s beginning, it is mentioned that Willa Pennington decides to give being a cop and becomes a private investigator thinking that it would be better for her. She thought that she would not have to make death notifications or wear bulletproof vests. Willa had hoped that she would be able to overcome the pain of the death of her best friend and be safe in this line of duty. But, with her very first case, she is proven wrong in everything that she had thought. Her decision of agreeing to carry out a simple favor for a friend brings lands her in great trouble. Willa ends up looking for a missing person and battling her wits against an old acquaintance, who seems to have dangerous secrets. She knows she can come out of this mess and also solve the mystery of the missing person if she keeps her focus. Willa tries to find out if the person trying to end her life is the same person whom she trusted blindly. The search for the answer to this question leads Willa in the direction of the main culprit, allowing her to unravel the mystery and hunt down the culprit.

The second installment of the mystery series is called ‘Dark Streets, Cold Suburbs’. It was also published by the Midnight Ink publication in January 2019. This book starts by describing that people migrate to the suburbs with the hope of a better life, nice houses, safe communities, better amenities, good schools, etc. But, what they cease to understand that there is no place they can go where they can feel completely safe from danger. And no one understands it better than Willa Pennigton, who almost got killed while solving her first case as an apprentice PI. She starts working on a new case by playing safe. Willa agrees to help an old mentor to review a very old case as she feels it would not ask much from her. But, when she is asked to reach out to a young boy in relation to the decades-old mystery, Willa is surprised to find herself indulged in a totally new case out of it. She had never predicted that something like this would happen, but once it has come her way she has no other option than pursuing it with full dedication & determination and solving it with the best of her abilities.