She believed not in divine salvation but in the proposition that we poor mortals are fully capable of saving ourselves, if conditions and inclinations are right, and the evidence of this potential is found in the smallest of gestures, like the uncertain resting of a large hand on a bony shoulder.

I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.

In the shaded portions where the two spheres of different lives meet, certain fundamentals- moods, loves, fears, angers- can't be hidden. That's the contract.

The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.

Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with.

And life changes. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And at some point, it just isn't worth the fight to fix it.

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.