You can only make decisions with the information you have at the time

People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.

Meg Gardiner is one of my favorite authors. She always delivers a terrific read. Phantom Instinct should go to the top of your 'to-be-read' pile.

As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters.

Ultimately, I'm in control of what's going on in the books, so I can back off, if it's scaring me too much.

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

Talking of the local Sheriff, Jake Valentine, tall and skinny and his wife Myra, "She was a short woman, maybe five feet tall in her socks, the top of her head not quite reaching Jake's chest. What she lacked in height she made up for in girth. Jeffrey guessed she was at least a hundred pounds overweight. Standing side by side, the Valentines looked like the living embodiment of the number ten.