1–What is the title of your latest release? ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BOURNE SHADOW 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When Jason Bourne meets a stranger who recognizes him from his forgotten past, he’s forced into a labyrinth of lies and betrayal. At the end of the maze is the truth about how he became the man he is. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I like to use destinations I love and make terrible things happen there! 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Hmmm, hang out with Jason Bourne? No, I don’t think so. Too many people are trying to kill him. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Skilled.  Passionate.  Conflicted. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Life really does imitate art. The political backdrop of the novel is a French election in which a fringe right-wing group is scheming to take power. Does that sound familiar? 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I’m always editing! I edit as I go, and I edit when I’m done. Editing is part of the writing process because it immerses…

It’s an odd way to make a living when you think about it. We write about things that would terrify and dismay people if they were real. Murder. Serial killers. Violence. And we do all this to entertain people. I think about this issue whenever a news show covers an intimate tragedy like the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba or Madeleine McCann in Portugal. Cable news shows play on our love of mystery and drama to boost ratings. The difference is that, unlike a novel, the crime is real. Our news programs treat these dramas as whodunits, to an extent that we often cheapen or even forget the actual tragedy. The question is: Are those of us who write mysteries any different? We invent our stories, but we strive to make the fear, crime, and drama real for the reader. The best writers make us gasp and cry, afraid to turn the page, but unable to put the book down. My only explanation is that mysteries make us confront difficult moral choices and decide for ourselves. Mysteries also give us something that the real world often cannot. Order. Resolution. Truth. The frustration in watching the news is in not…