The actual Blue Rose murders, which lie at the core of the three novels, yield various incorrect solutions which assume the status of truth.

God, in the orthodox view, causes famine, plague, and flood. Was God evil? Evil is a convenient fiction.

Wolf! Right here and now!

Everyone wants to get better as they go along, but sometimes it's all you can do to stay consistent.

I almost always write everything the way it comes out, except I tend much more to take things out rather than put things in. It's out of a desire to really show what's going on at all times, how things smell and look, as well as from the knowledge that I don't want to push things too quickly through to climax; if I do, it won't mean anything. Everything has to be earned, and it takes a lot of work to earn.

There were a lot of adventure books for boys, historical novels by Kenneth Roberts, and whatever mystery novels the alarmed librarian imagined might not corrupt an eager but innocent youth.

Occasionally.. .what you have to do is go back to the beginning and see everything in a new way.