RICK MENDES
WRITER & AUTHOR
Crime Fiction Author of the Alma Rossi Series.
Coming Soon
The Alma Rossi Series
The series features my protagonist, Homicide Detective Alma Rossi, and the fictitious city of Hillsford, California. Detective Rossi works for the Hillsford Police Department (HPD) and is the most senior detective. Rossi joined the HPD as a patrol officer shortly after her high school graduation. She spent eight years as an HPD patrol officer and is now in her sixth year as a homicide detective.
The first two books in the series feature serial killers. In the first book, the killer performs brutal public murders. In the second book, the murderer performs skillful kills in private residences. I like to use multiple murders because it puts pressure on the HPD and the city’s residents. That doesn’t mean every book will feature a serial killer. I don’t want Hillsford to suffer dozens of serial killers, so some books may only have the maximum number of murders for non-serial killers.
Hillsford is in San Diego County, California. Specifically, it is in North County, squeezed between Poway and Escondido. Its borders are Lake Hodges on the north, Poway on the east, the I-15 freeway on the west side, and the S5 highway as the southern border.
Hillsford World Building
The first thing I did was pick a state and county for the city. The first one I chose was a county around Oklahoma City. I dropped that idea when my wife suggested I choose a county we had lived in. That moved my thinking to the Los Angeles and San Diego counties. In the 25 years we have lived in California, San Diego County has been my favorite place to live. We spent seven years living in North County, which is why I placed Hillsford there.
Once I had the county, I had to pick a location within it for the city. Looking at a map of San Diego County, I chose a sliver of area between Poway and Escondido. As a fictitious city, I knew I was overlaying something else but liked the boundaries I found for it.
My next decision was how many neighborhoods I needed? I wanted neighborhoods with businesses that could sustain the city. That gave me the idea for a technology neighborhood and a warehouse one. The school neighborhood came next. I got the idea for that based on the area we live in within Los Angeles County. Our neighborhood has many single-family homes and lots of schools. The final neighborhood was what I term as the downtown one. It is basically a commercial zone. Restaurants and bars around the middle of the neighborhood. Retail, grocery, and department stores are north and south of the center. Finally, I called the neighborhoods districts.
We have four of them. The Warehouse District is on the east side of the city. The Downtown District is in the center of the city. My Technology and School districts are on the west side and split the length of the city 50-50. The School District is north, and the Technology District is south.
The Technology District has lots of technology company buildings and lots of high-end condominiums for residents. The School District has most of the single-family homes.
The last thing I did was figure out what width each district had. I made the warehouse and school-technology districts 40% of the width. That left 20% for the downtown area.
Rick Mendes spent thirty-five years in the technology sector before retiring early to pursue writing full time. His debut novel, Growing Future Operators, is rooted in his extensive professional experience and explores the intersection of technology, education, and innovation. Set in a fictional city, the novel follows public and Catholic schools competing to become the first to teach DevOps, informed by Rick’s background in software engineering, systems engineering, and cybersecurity.
His second novel, The Chameleon Killer, launches a crime fiction series featuring Detective Alma Rossi of the Hillsford Police Department. Drawing on a lifelong appreciation for crime novels, suspense films, and television thrillers, the series examines justice, morality, and obsession. The Chameleon Killer will be published by Atmosphere Press on January 13, 2026.
Rick J. Mendes,
Author.