Throat clutching from the outset! The Never List stands as a sterling example of psychological thriller writing at its best. Cancel appointments and give up on sleep. It's that kind of book.

Ideally, I like to integrate the human issues into the suspense story itself.

I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen-whether I'm working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book-it's usually because I'm trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place.

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

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.