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I intentionally approached each story in 'Killing and Dying' in a different way, and that includes the writing process.

When I started writing the third book, 'The Kill,' the intention was just to write a thriller, a crime novel for myself, really, in which there would be no body, no solution - where you would look at an event from different people's perspectives.

As for suspense, I like to write books that draw you into the hero's plight from the opening pages, where people put their lives on the line for something - a belief, a family member, the truth.

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.

I have to know the killer, the victim and the motive when I begin. Then I start to create the characters and see how the novel takes shape based on what these people are like.

All stories interest me, and some haunt me until I end up writing them. Certain themes keep coming up: justice, loyalty, violence, death, political and social issues, freedom.

I'm not interested in playing the victim. I like stories about survivors.

The only book worth writing is the book that threatens to kill you.

We can't constantly tell stories of heroes. We have to hear the other stories, too, about people in dire straits who make bad choices.

I write nonfiction in this thriller-esque style. I have all the facts; I research it. I have thousands of pages of court documents... I try to get inside my stories.