Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school.

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.

Being a Southerner, Im interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.

Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

I don't understand people who say they're bored. Look out your window.

I've always been drawn to historical fiction.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next Gone With the Wind.