In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers.

She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say

In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures.

Sometimes you can't be what you ought to be, you can't have what you ought to have.

Generally my typical books have lots of twists and turns a big surprise ending and then usually another surprise at the end and ideally, as in Garden of Beasts, we get to the very end and we find at the last few pages that there's yet another surprise.

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.