I live in a blue-collar neighborhood, and if anyone knows what I do for a living, they don't seem to care.

I'm proud to be a crime novelist. What I've chosen is the best way to convey the questions I'm trying to raise.

I'm a better writer now because I've worked very hard at getting better. My long-range goal will always be to write better books.

The crime part is the engine that moves the narrative and allows me to write the other things I want to write about.

We couldn't have known - who could've predicted what happened in American politics in the 2016? The rise of racism again, or the peeling back of the onion and seeing racism again, was a bit of a surprise in the last couple years.

What's more interesting are the dynamics between people that involve hypocrisy or ignoring each other. That's what I want to write about. I like to make people uncomfortable because it's something we should be uncomfortable about.

If the storytellers told it true, all stories would end in death.