1–What is the title of your latest release? THE LOCKED ROOM 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Britain is in lockdown and Ruth is in danger from those closest to her. Can Nelson save her in time? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I knew the book would take place in Tombland, an ancient area around the cathedral in Norwich. Lockdown only added to the spookiness of the setting. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Definitely! Although I like parties more than she does. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Intelligent, private, determined. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learnt a lot about the plague. My book is set during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, but Norwich went through two outbreaks of the plague, in the 14th and 16th centuries. There were some similarities. ‘Watchers’ were appointed. They went round with long sticks to check that people were socially distanced. More grimly, lockdown meant being sealed in your house to die. I also found out about the Grey Lady of Tombland, a very tragic ghost… 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait…

1–What is the title of your latest release? DECEIVER OF MINDS (SPECTR 3.5) 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A federal exorcist falls in love with the demon he must destroy. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? All the SPECTR books take place in the south. For this series, I chose New Orleans solely so I could have the vampire lead a vampire tour. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I’d hang out with Caleb and Gray any day. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? There are three in this series, so I’ll pick Gray: direct, hungry, and sweet. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Abandoned buildings in New Orleans, where most of the action takes place. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? It depends. I put off editing as much as possible until I’m done, so I only have to do one revision sweep, but if something radically changes as I’m writing, I’ll go back and rework the manuscript so I’m on solid footing for the third act. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Does craft beer…

In your latest book, UNTIL DEAD, your unknown villain is a bomber. As a writer, what draws you to these types of thrillers and suspense stories? Thank you for inviting me. I enjoy books with a ticking clock. I also like to create an antagonist that is equal to my protagonist(s). In Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense, my bomber is actually more than a bomber. He’s a Jack-of-all-trades’ assassin. He’s an explosives, weapons, and IT expert who no longer goes by his given name but calls himself The Tradesman.   How would you describe Special Agent Brian DiPietro to readers who may be new to your books? Brian is a stand-up guy (says the woman who created him). He’s a good supervisor, although he hates the idea of supervising because of a tragedy that happened in his past. He tried to leave the Bureau afterward, but his superiors convinced him to take a demotion instead. So, Brian is no longer Supervisory Special Agent Brian DiPietro but Special Agent Brian DiPietro. As I said, Brian balks at supervising others. Unfortunately for him, and the fun part for me, is to ensure he doesn’t get his way. By his experience and…

In your new thriller SIX GRAVES, things get very personal for your detective. Tell me about Detective Kim Stone. How is she as a person, and as a detective? Because of her traumatic childhood Kim is a loner and doesn’t let many people into her circle. She is quite rude and brusque and totally lacks social skills. She doesn’t show her feelings and although she cares deeply about her team, she rarely shows it. She offers all her affection to her rescue dog, barney. As a police officer she is passionate, driven and always fights for the underdog. She believes in justice and will go over and above to make sure the perpetrator is caught and punished. Has SIX GRAVES been any more difficult to write than any of the other books in the series because of the intensity and personal angle for your main character? In some ways six graves was very difficult to write because of the scenes I knew were coming at the end of the book. in other ways I absolutely love the challenge of putting her in new situations. I actually didn’t want to stop writing this book and feel as though I could have…

1–What is the title of your latest release? AND BY FIRE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Tempered by fire and separated by centuries, two extraordinary female detectives track a pair of murderous geniuses who will burn the world for their art in this mystery that is perfect for fans of Sarah Penner and Dan Brown. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? London was a foregone conclusion because my historical timeline in And by Fire involves that city’s Great Fire of 1666. And I knew I was going to pair that storyline with a modern one opening with the discovery of a charred figure at the base of Sir Christopher Wren’s monument to the Great Fire. The location of Wren’s monument assured that my modern-day main character, Nigella Parker, would be a Detective Inspector with the London City Police, rather than the Met (aka Scotland Yard). The jurisdiction of the City police is approximately 1.12 square miles (a miniscule portion of the whopping 607 square miles comprising greater London), which makes my modern serial arson/murder investigation multi-jurisdictional—enter Nigella’s former lover and partner-in-crime-fighting DI Colm O’Leary from Scotland Yard. 4–Would you hang out…

 1–What is the title of your latest release? FATAL CODE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? In the global race for space domination, a cryptologist must overcome his greatest mistake to help the granddaughter of a nuclear physicist decipher the clues to a top-secret nuclear project before it falls into the hands of America’s enemies. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Washington D.C. is where my SNAP Agency is located because it’s the epicenter of all things political intrigue and suspense. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? I would because she’s a lot of fun but honestly, she’s an aerospace engineer so I’d probably be clueless about anything she’s discussing and would just have to smile and nod. A lot. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Hawaiian. Funny. Genuine. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? So many things. Lots of space defense information; historical information surrounding the top-secret research at Los Alamos National Laboratory—including the inclusion of Black scientists like nuclear scientist George Johnson, after the war; and that measuring the weight of a wave is more math than I ever want to do…

Your new book, THE DETECTIVE’S DAUGHTER, involves your main character investigating a cold case for personal reasons. I love stories like that. What inspired you to write about that subject? Are you fascinated by cold cases, or true crime stories? I am definitely fascinated by cold cases and true crime! Of course, I’m not alone in that, which explains the popularity of the genre. Cold cases are fascinating because they’re the ultimate mystery, that dangling thread that never gets pulled, the question mark that never becomes a period. The JonBenet Ramsey case comes to mind. We can’t stop wondering what happened to that beautiful little girl, we want answers, closure. We look at the pieces of that crime puzzle, analyzing each, wondering where the investigation went wrong.   In the case of THE DETECTIVE’S DAUGHTER, I was drawn to the idea of a daughter being pulled into the case, now ice cold, that destroyed her father. Between the case – a murder and kidnapping inside a powerful and secretive New Orleans family – and my protagonist’s history with it, I had lots of good stuff work with. In THE DETECTIVE’S DAUGHTER, is the focus more on the mystery itself or,…

I see that your new book, THE SINISTER, is the ninth book in the series. Can it be read as a standalone story for readers who may be new to the series? THE SINISTER can most definitely be read as a standalone. I wrote this purposely to work as a standalone. I quickly and economically give the reader the information they need to understand the back story.   How would you describe your main character, Bruno Johnson, to readers? Bruno Johnson is an ex-cop, ex-con who rescues children from toxic homes in South Central Los Angeles. He couldn’t do it as a cop because of all the rules and policies so now he goes outside the law to rescue the children.   From the book description, it says that family plays a big part in THE SINISTER. Does having the main character deal with family issues increase the anxiety or sense of danger? Bruno Johnson is a real person with real problems. He rescues children and women from hostile environments and the story—each novel–always overlaps into his family. He keeps the children he rescues which means his family continues to grow. With a bigger family comes more problems. I’m very…

As a reader, I was never really interested in reading YA stories until a few years ago. I find them very compelling since the main characters are usually dealing with transition and emotional upheaval. What inspires you to write YA fiction? To me, they’re compelling because there’s so much our characters to deal with in such a short time and they’re not always ready for them. I love putting myself in the shoes of my heroines and seeing how they act/react. Life is suddenly very complicated. You’ve got your first love, first heartbreak, school, family, friends, the pressure cooker that is social media. When you’re a teenager, everything feels like a life-or-death situation. At least, that’s how I saw things back then! On top of all that, there’s the bewildering physical changes. And that’s just contemporary YA. Imagine what happens when you’ve got vampires, witches, ghosts, and/or aliens lurking around. Imagine if *you* are a teen witch and struggling to find your place in the world. It’s funny—I started writing YA fiction when I was about 13-15 and literally haven’t stopped. Like a lot of kids, I went through a turbulent time back then. The library was like a safe…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE VIOLENCE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Three generations of women escape the cycle of abuse during a pandemic that causes random bouts of animalist violence. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I was living in Tampa at the time, and mosquitoes were a constant annoyance. It made perfect sense to create a disease spread by mosquitoes and set it in my sunny suburb. Once I started writing, I felt a wave of paranoia every time a mosquito landed on me… which was often! 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? There are three POVs: Chelsea, her daughter Ella, and her mother, Patricia. Chelsea and I don’t have much in common, and Patricia and I would hate each other, but I would’ve been friends with Ella when I was in high school. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? For Chelsea—victim (at the beginning), mother, fighter (at the end) 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I grew up with the kind of domestic violence Chelsea and Ella experience in the beginning of the book. Writing it was…