Vanessa Lillie, the author of this month’s Read By Patty J at Barrington Books Pick Little Voices, is here today with some locations around the capital city that helped inspire this her first book. (As always, read along with us and get 20% off your copy at both Barrington Books or Barrington Books Retold in Garden City when you mention '“Read By Patty J.” Also, join Vanessa and Patty J for a talk and book signing at BBR on Oct. 26th from 2 to 4pm.)

The idea for my debut thriller, Little Voices, came while I was taking long walks with my newborn son along Blackstone Boulevard. I imagined an exhausted new mother, which I was at the time, trying to solve the murder of her friend after another friend is accused of the crime. I moved to Providence eight years ago and have fallen in love with this state. I wanted to put Rhode Island front and center, and worked hard to incorporate many real places.

So it was a big relief when I read G. Wayne Miller's generous review of Little Voices in the Providence Journal, saying: "Lovers of good fiction in general also will appreciate “Little Voices” — Rhode Islanders especially."

Here are a few of the places around the state that influenced my book:

The opening scene has my main character, Devon, in emergency labor. She's in the back of an ambulance speeding down Blackstone. I reference how it's too early for contractions based on the color of the leaves (yellow as we see in the early months of fall). She also sees how many of them are split down the middle because of power lines.

From Little Voices: Blinking back tears, I concentrate on the thin blur of telephone wires cutting through the trees along the road. Each tree is trimmed into a deep V to keep the power lines safe. No longer full and round, they’ve grown into broken hearts. I count four split hearts before I’m seized by another contraction.

I also created a new coffee shop and dessert restaurant where Seven Stars Bakery lives on Hope Street. My son used to love the ham quiche there, but four year taste buds have changed to only wanting the delicious cookies.

There's a lot of politics in Little Voices, which makes sense given Rhode Island's complicated and often corrupt past. My son loves the state capital building, and we've been there for their Halloween celebration as well as to advocate for health care for kids in our state.

I'm often surprised when I meet locals who haven't been to Swan Point Cemetery just off Blackstone. As a new mom, I often took long walk there and imagined scenes for my book. It's also one of only a few places in the state where you can see eagles in the wild. They hunt from their nests across the river, and I'd often see birders there taking photographs.

For more from Vanessa, follow along via -

Instagram: @VanessaLillie

Site: VanessaLillie.com

Facebook: Vanessa Lillie Author

Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of VL