Even Gone With the Wind had a shocking, cold-blooded murder.

First and foremost, I want people to have a good read, because I want everything I write to entertain people. There are always different layers to the story, though, so if you want to think about social justice, or sexism or racism or homophobia, or really drill down into why the world is a better place when the police force looks like the people they are policing, then that's there, too.

A lot of novels use crime as a stepping stone to talk about greater issues. So I just think of myself as a writer.

If you're a smart guy, you should really try to find out what women are thinking. I mean, we are 51 percent of the population.

Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.

Alafair Burke understands the criminal mind. Long Gone is both an education and an entertainment of the first order. This is a very clever and very smart novel by a very clever and smart writer. The dialogue crackles, the plot is intriguing, and the pacing is perfect.

I grew up reading crime fiction and, especially in the '80s, women were just there to be saved or screwed.