Bookwild - Cobie LaJeanne's Blood in the Cradle: Religious Trauma, Missing Children, and a Detective with Synesthesia

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

This week, I talk with Cobie LaJeanne about her pitch-black thriller Blood in the Cradle. We dive into her inspiration for the story, how the book developed over time, and what it was like creating a detective with synesthesia!Blood in the Cradle SynopsisWhen decorated detective Chloe Van Belle receives a call about a severed limb in a fountain, she dreads returning to Encounters, a renowned angel-worshipping church tied to her dark childhood wounds. She’s further shocked to learn six-year-old Lillian vanished [from the congregation] without being reported.Chloe’s half-sister Rosie, a devout believer engaged to the reverend’s son, remains unwavering that everything unfolds according to divine will, refusing to see the evil in front of her.An eerie search leads to Lillian’s body tucked in a cradle with a vintage watch, linking the crime to a similar murder twenty years ago. The gruesome scene triggers Chloe’s morbid fascination with death, making her visual-gustatory synesthesia, which gives murder a literal sweet taste, harder to hide. With Chloe’s nightmares and half-memories resurfacing, she engages in a macabre game of cat and mouse with the killer.As casualties grow and evidence points to the highest levels of the church leadership, Chloe must protect Rosie and her team—but is it from a monster or herself? Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

This week I got to talk with Kobe LaGine about her debut thriller Blood in the Cradle, which is a pitch black thriller that if you're looking for some of the grit of like Karen Slaughter and Gillian Flynn, you will love this one. Here's what it's about. When decorated detective Chloe Van Bell receives a call about a severed limb in a fountain. She dreads returning to encounters, a renowned angel-worshipping church tied to her dark childhood wounds. She's, She's further shocked to learn six-year-old Lillian vanished from the congregation without being reported. Chloe's half-sister Rosie, a devout believer, engaged to the Reverend's son, remains unwavering that everything unfolds, according to divine will, refusing to see the evil in front of her. An eerie search leads to Lillian's body tucked in a cradle with a vintage watch, linking the crime to a similar murder 20 years ago.

The gruesome scene triggers Chloe's morbid fascination with death, making her visual, gustatory synesthesia, which gives murder a literal sweet taste harder to hide. With Chloe's nightmares and half memories resurfacing, she engages in a macabre game of cat and mouse with the killer. As casualties grow and evidence points to the highest levels of the church leadership, Chloe must protect Rosie and her team, but is it from a monster or herself? Like I said, this one is really dark. It's a page turner. It's very, like, gothic in an innocence too. But I also really enjoyed the very like fresh element of having a cop, a detective, who has synesthesia that actually kind of helps her solve cases. So it's a new take

that I feel like we really haven't seen in thrillers and I really enjoyed it. That being said, let's hear from Kobe. So I am super excited to talk with you about blood in the cradle, but I did want to get to know a little bit about you before we dive into the book. So what was your, I Want to Write a Book Moment or how long have you known you wanted to be an author? So my love for writing started very young. I was obsessed with names when I was like six, seven, eight. And so like I would always be like buying like little baby books and like looking through names and then at some point it clicked hey I can do something with these like I can use these to create characters and so that's really where that started and then like I loved um the Little House

on the Prairie series I love the little women's series those were like my books growing up and so from like I was very young when I knew I wanted to be an author and so I just kept writing like all through high school and then I stopped when I graduated because I was working full time and just didn't have, you know, a lot of time to really sit and work. Yeah. And then fast forward a few years. I got married and I quit my job. So I was at home, like, not doing anything for a while.

So I started picking it back up. And then I paused again when I had my first daughter. And then with my second daughter, I had very bad postpartum depression. So I was trying to find something that would help, I guess, alleviate it in a way. And that's really when I was like, I really need something for myself to do. And writing was just there. So I told my husband, I was like, hey, I'm going to write a book. And he was like, okay.

And I was like He was like He's like as a hobby Or like as you want to like publish it? And I was like I want to publish it. He was like okay And so I started I did nano rhimo that year

That was like six years ago So I did that And that was like my first like really terrible draft The story is like completely different than what it is now And I was so proud of myself But then like I started editing And so So this book's been a long time coming because that was like six years ago.

So that's what led you to it. I lost my chair. Oh, no, no, no. You're good. So that's what I. My brain just like stopped. But that's okay. So that's when I really decided to really pursue writing a book and getting published.

Yeah. That's really cool. What is your writing process like? Like how do you approach it? Do you have like a daily habit or what do you do? Well, when I first started, I was writing like 70 hours a week, like editing and writing and re-edit, like revising and rewriting. But then I burned out. Yeah.

Because that's a lot. That's a lot. And so now it's usually like I will work when my husband gets off work. So he finishes work around like 5, 5.30. And then I will work from like 530 to 9, which is like the kids' bedtime. So I've cut back a lot on the hours, but I find that I really don't need 12-hour days to get my work done most of the time. Right. If I'm on a deadline, it's a little different.

But as long as I have like those four or five, like really focused hours, I can get it done. Yeah. So that's what I do with that. And then as far as like my process, like it's kind of all over the place, but I think I'm finally starting to nail it down. I do mind maps. Those have really helped me. Like ever since I learned about mind maps and like how to do them, like that really, really

helps get my brain going and just kind of like seeing where all my ideas like connect, which is really cool because my brain is like a crazy, crazy train track there. Right. So being able to put them together and just like see it and visualize it, it helps a lot. Yeah, I bet. With your characters, when you were saying that you loved coming up with names, I was like, well, that makes sense because all of the names are so wonderful and amazing in this book. so we know you love picking names and you're good at that but how do you get to know your

characters so does the name come first like or do you kind of know who they are and then you name them how does that happen um i i kind of know who they are first and then i'll name them based on um their personality um like Chloe's name is actually um I named her after dove Cameron because her real name is Chloe and like during that time so like when my first daughter was born I think descendant descendants the movie Descendants was out and so we watched that a lot like there was a lot of like nap times where she wouldn't she wouldn't sleep unless I was holding her and so we would watch it like every day and so I was like I want to I kind of want to pay tribute to um tov camera and because it was like a big part of my life during that time yeah and so

So that's where Chloe's name came from. And I don't really have a story for the other names, I don't think. They just kind of came to me. Rosie's name, her name has always been Rosie. Chloe's name has always been Chloe. But Nelson's name was, it's Blaze Nelson now, but it was originally Jeremy. It was Jeremy for like three or four drafts. And then I changed it because I was like, I'm not feeling this.

Yeah. So, um, and Levi's name was originally Alex. Um, but then I, I have a friend named Alex and I was like, I don't think he really appreciates being this character. So I changed it, um, to Levi, but yeah. So that's kind of how that that all came to be. That's cool. With um, with blood in the cradle, what was your initial like inspiration point for it? Um, This is a hard question because I could probably answer it a few different ways. So originally it was a completely different book and it was more supernatural where the main character could see angels but not humans.

And so it was kind of like that. But I've always been scared of angels, like growing up. up I was always terrified of them and it has a lot to do with like the church I grew up in and their beliefs and so I was like what if I take this a step further and create this like cult that really really like is obsessed with angels worships angels and just kind of go from there so I guess it was based a lot on like personal personal things but I also wanted to make sure I push it far enough so it wasn't like super offensive. I was like, I don't I don't want people to read this and be like, oh my God, I can't

believe she wrote this. Yeah. But so that's really where it came from to begin with. And then it just kind of turned into what it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With, um, it kind of like blends together.

Like it has, we have like crime fiction feeling, thriller feeling, psychological thriller feeling. But then also it's like very emotionally driven. We really understand the characters and why they're doing what they do. So how did you approach like balancing all of those elements? I have to write in layers. So like I'll write my draft and that'll be like the base of everything. And then I'll go back and I'll be like this version I'm going to add in the past. trauma and then like the last the last version will be where I add in like the sensory stuff to really make sure that's there yeah so that that's how I have to write and that I've I've learned that if I write in layers it works really well for me

instead of trying to write it all out like at once right it's easier to it's easier for me to like fill it in than it is to just spit it out yeah so that's kind of how I do that. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. With, so speaking of the sensory details, our main character is the detective who has synesthesia. And I thought that was really cool because I feel like it's not like, especially in thrillers. Maybe it's showing up in some contemporary fiction, but it's not like you're not seeing it a lot in stories.

So what led you to including that? And what did you enjoy about a detective with that kind of superpower? So I have like really low synesthesia. And I didn't realize I had it until I was an adult. And it's just, I have, I don't know like the property for it, but it's like, oh, memory, memory taste or memory. It's like, it's very strange. It's memory.

Yeah, it's memory to taste. And it's very, very strange. I don't even know if there's like a word for it. I was trying to research it. I'm like, it has to be synesthesia. Like, there's no other explanation for it. And so for Chloe, with her, I put in the death taste like cinnamon or sugar or whatever. Because I like spending time in the time.

hospitals when I was growing up but we were always like going to the hospital to visit family or going to nursing homes and like I've always had like that draw to I guess death and so um like this morbid fascination that I didn't really ever want to talk about and I was like it'd be really cool if there was a character like that and I hadn't read one like that before so I was like how can I make this how can I how can I pull this off And it was a lot of work to pull it off. But I think it landed how it was supposed to. So with Chloe, it was just getting inside her head and just really pushing myself to let myself write dark.

Yeah. Because there were definitely some chapters that were harder to write where I really, really had to push myself and then take a break. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of that, I know you, I think we talked about it. little bit that there is a child murdered um yeah i mean multiple but the especially straight up from the beginning and so you said you had some people who were like this is too dark uh oh yeah and like i just it is really dark there's no arguing with it but i i was just so like mesmerized by

all of the darkness um so what kind of helped you like stick to your guns and be like no this is that I wanted or that I wanted to write. You know, I just, I just did it. Yeah. After a while, like, I was in some critique groups and where people, like, hated it and, like, you know, and I find, like, a lot in thrillers, if there is a child death, it's always pretty. And it always kind of bothers me.

It always kind of bothers me. So I'm like, why are they making this, like, you know, little girl, her hair spanned out and her hands are praying and I'm like this isn't you know like realistic and it's I mean it's fine for some books but that's not what I wanted for mine like I really really wanted the darkness in there

to kind of contrast with everything and I just had to push myself a lot I think I just kind of was able to compartmentalize it because I mean I have two little girls

So I would just have to get in a different mindset to write some of those chapters and some of those scenes. But it didn't really bother me too much. Once I got past the initial, like there was almost shame attached to it, I think, from my religious background. And like when I first started telling people I was writing a thriller, they were really surprised. And I'm like, yeah, and it's really dark. So it might have been for you. Yeah. Yeah.

And like I've had people that I know be like, I don't think I can read it. And I'm like, that's okay. It's not like if you can't read it, you can't read it. Like I totally understand it's not going to be for everybody. So I just kind of, I just kind of push myself to just do it and stop being afraid of what people would say. And of course there were like a lot of rejections along the way because of it. Right. I'm really happy.

I'm really happy with my publisher and just where the story ended up going. I think I'm really proud of it. Yeah, you should be. It really reminded me of like Gileen Flynn sharp objects. Very similar. Some just like dark stuff happening to kids. And like dark places, like that kind of grittiness. And it really did remind me of Karen Slaughter's grittiness too.

So it's like there is the audience for it. But I understand why some people get nervous. It's whatever. In terms of like that's why those content warnings are there. Yeah. I made sure to put those in there. Yeah. I didn't want anyone to like jump into it not knowing.

Although I still think people have done that. But that's probably. Yeah, you can't help everybody. Like some of them are just not going to listen. Yeah. And they changed. And we like we changed. the title to blood in the cradle. So like it would be, you know, people would be clear, but I still

think people don't think that it's going to be as dark as it is. So yeah. It's very, it's very gothic too. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, so then there are there are a lot of interesting family relationships going on. Um, and so Chloe's kind of like estranged, is it half sister? Half sister. It's her half sister. Yeah, half sister. Rosie is married to the son who is the pastor at the church. I'm trying not to butcher all of this. But her storyline is very emotional and it's very sad too because she's kind of caught up in a,

to keep it spoiler free, but like we know there's some shady stuff happening at this church. So she's kind of caught up in this weird place as well. So what was it like reading her story? Because hers is just, hers is just Rosie. Rosie story? Yeah. Rosie. Yeah.

So originally the second point of view was Nelson's. And we were, my agent was like, after a couple of edits, she was like, you know, I don't really think it's working. She's like, not that I don't love it. It's just that it doesn't, it didn't feel, right? Like Nelson's all about Chloe. And like, she's like, it's more, it's a little too much romance. So I was like, okay. So then we were like spitballing ideas. And I was like, what if I did Rosie's point of view? And she was like, yes. She was like, do it. And I wrote Rosie's point of view in one draft.

And it was surprisingly very easy to write. And it's kind of like she's kind of, you know, the opposite of Chloe. she's a lot like how I feel I was growing up so it was really interesting writing a character because it's like Rosie's kind of like how I was as a as a kid and like growing up and then Chloe's kind of like I don't want to say where I am now because Chloe's a lot darker and like more depressing but

right but it's kind of just the contrast between the two and so it was really interesting and really healing in a lot of ways and I think that people seem to really relate to Rosie and like really seem to understand like yeah she's kind of crazy but at the same time like this is how she was raised you know and so it was really interesting writing that and then I can't give any spoilers so I want to but that's cool though that it kind of came out of just like figuring out what the best way structure the novel was and like she was kind of missing piece. That's cool. Um, so some of the themes you kind of dive into are about like faith and identity and also trauma and how that shapes actually our faith in our identity too. So how did you approach incorporating all of those into this really dark story? Um, carefully.

Like I said earlier, like I based it off the church that I grew up in, but it's not like I wanted to make sure that I pushed it further. Just to really get that extremist point of view in there and like, I don't know, it's just it was interesting to like the cathedral was really interesting to write. And just kind of basing it on certain things that like I could remember, like how I remember. And, you know, like a lot of things from your childhood, like you end up romanticizing or you remember a certain way that might not have been exactly how it was, you know? And so it was really, it was really cool to see like where it ended up. and my, it was really healing in a lot of ways. And like my main goal was for people to see themselves in Chloe or Rosie or both, like to have a character that they could relate to.

Because that's something that's really important to me is when I read is I want to be able to relate to the character. And like seeing yourself in a book is really something special, I think. Yeah. And so my hope was that in a way that by writing the darkness that people would find a way to heal and see that they're not alone, even if the outcome isn't always what we want it to be, sometimes just seeing yourself in a character can really make a big difference. So that was my goal with the faith and the church and all of that. Yeah. And I have had a couple people tell me that it was really cool to be able to relate in that way because not a lot of not a lot of thriller, especially thrillers do that. Some do.

I mean, you have to really search for them. But so that was my main goal was to make sure that what I wrote about faith and just everything like that was that there would be people that would be like, hey, I recognize this. like i understand how this feels um and yeah i guess that's in a nutshell yeah no i that's something that i actually think i end up enjoying about thrillers is like gar and i go back and forth on this sometimes because he is just fine with a very very depressing and like not totally tied up ending which like i'm okay with not tied up endings too can you hear that lawnmower a little bit. It's not bad though.

It's like right underneath my window right now. But I like thrillers. By and large, something I like in thrillers is that like you are against a lot of darkness, like the characters are. There's been a lot of pain or whatever, but the story still gets to give them some feeling of like redemption or. just like I it's kind of like I get like the good feeling from like defeating the odds or like rising against the stuff that they're up against so I love that and thrillers so I did love that part as well

um it sounds like obviously kind of like the church you grew up in was it like informed some of the direction you headed with it but did you do any other like research into like high demand religions or cults. Oh yeah. Yeah. I did a lot of reading about like Bethel, which also was part of, I don't know, I don't know if I told you, but there was a little girl a few years ago that had passed away and they, her parents refused autopsy because of their religion and then they tried to raise her from the dead. You didn't know about that? I do not know about this. Yeah.

And this went off for like, it went off for like a week. Her parents, her parents were worship leaders at Bephal. And it was very, at that time, I was still in religion. Right now, I'm kind of out of it. So, but it was, it was a really turning point in my own beliefs because it was very confusing. And I remember like seeing friends post about. it and they're like you know god can raise her from the dead and all this stuff and it ended up she did end up i think having the autopsy because she was so young that they had to um and then of course

she didn't raise from the dead and so that kind of really stuck to me like the question like rosy struggles with a lot is like why can't god do it um and so that was one of the the big bigger um inspirations for that part of the story, but also growing up, like growing up, I also went through something similar where the pastor's wife had had a heart attack and was in a coma, and there was a church service that night, that night or a couple nights later, where they were like proclaiming she was going to be raised from the dead or brought back from her vegetable state. Right.

And so that was really kind of traumatic growing up. Like, and they kicked the kids out for that, most of it. Like, most of it, we were in a class, but we could hear everything that was going on. So it was like, I don't know. And so a lot of things like that happened to me in real life. Maybe at a different level, but similar. But when that little girl in California, when that happened to her, it really, like, made me step back and be like, whoa, this is this is a lot like this is a lot and like I can't imagine like the the trauma that that's like caused

you know um so right yeah and then I did a lot of reading about like other other religions or like just in general like religions where they tried to raise people from the dead and how it worked like um because I just find that really interesting in it's such a like hard thing to understand like depending on where you are in your faith it's like why you know just why why won't god do it or why why did he do it this time but he won't do it now you know right so that question's always like lingered in my head um i'll have to send you the name of that case because it was it was you did yeah yeah this is so sad and she's two years old. Yeah. Or was two years old. That's so sad. It was really sad. And I just, I felt bad, like, for the parents, because the parents were up on stage singing. Like, they were, they were doing it, too. And I was like, I can't imagine, like, the toll this is going to take on them, like, in the future. Yeah. Yeah. And I hope they're doing okay. But, but, but that's, yeah, that's where that all came together for me. Yeah. And just really, like, going back.

with people who want to have a God complex are the ones like taking religion to really strange places. Yeah. And look, the pastor when she didn't raise from the dead was just like, well, this was God's plan all along. And I'm like, you know, and it's, I'm like, this is confusing. And it was like, and I remember like Texas. Yeah. Yeah. And people were like, those children were meant to meet Jesus that day and I'm like I don't I don't think that's how this works and it's like those kind of questions that like I always wanted to ask growing up that you know I wasn't I couldn't it's not that I wasn't allowed to it was just I didn't want to and if you did ask it's just oh well you got to trust God so that was kind of where I was coming from with all of that

and just kind of putting in my own questions yeah and Rosie Rosie's questioning comes a lot from a lot of my questions too. Yeah. And I think a lot of people can relate to that, especially people like our age. Yeah. I feel like a lot of us grew up that way. So. Yeah.

Yeah. We did. I did at least. I mean, not to this degree, but there was definitely a lot of like, don't ask questions. Just believe. That's what faith is. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's just, yeah, it's heavy. So you actually mentioned renaming him. But I also noticed like Levi and Judith are kind of biblical names. Was there any biblical inspiration for their names? I mean, I got them. That's why I picked them was because of the Bible. And Levi's name is actually Lividaegis, which I think is hilarious. Yeah.

He's such a jerk. So I'm like, I'm going to give him this terrible name. yeah i love that but he deserved it he deserved it yeah he did yeah i i i did i did yeah it's always interesting the little things you can incorporate with names yeah so i tried to keep all their names sort of biblical um because the reverend's name is also cornelius and i'm pretty sure there's a cornelius in the bible um so i was trying to pick names that um were biblical but my might not be as common.

Right. So that was fun. That was fun. That was a lot of fun. Stop it. Hey. And Chloe's name is actually in the Bible too. Is it really?

I was wondering about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I think somewhere in the New Testament. Yeah. That's awesome.

Oh. Well, I loved it. I loved Chloe as a main character. I love Chloe as a detective. Um, will there be more of, Chloe in the future? Yes.

Currently, waiting for, waiting for my edits back from my editor for the second book. Yeah. And I'm really excited because this book,

she's kind of dealing with, she's dealing with PTSD. I mean, she obviously has it in the first book, but now she's like, really, really knows she has it and she has to go to therapy

and stuff like that. And she also has a new boss. So, who doesn't like her. So that's, it's going to be a lot of fun yeah and yeah it's going to be really cool i'm excited for it and there's some new characters the characters yeah yeah that's got to be kind of fun like building a whole world then you get to like spend more time in it yeah yeah i'm very excited for it yeah

it's a different second point of view so it gets me a new character um she's actually in book one but she has a much bigger role in the second book so nice yeah we're got to hold out for figure out who it is where can people follow you to stay up to date um my website is cobi gleaching.com and then instagram it's just Kobe Lejean um those are my main the main two places i'm at i'm also on facebook um i check that every once in a while but yeah mostly i'm on instagram and my newsletter through my website so those are the biggest places right now awesome well i'll add those links to the show notes and thank you for talking with me about blood in the cradle yeah yeah thank you for having me so fun