Describe the first time you pictured Ellery Hathaway in your head. Ellery Hathaway came into being twenty years ago with the first draft of what would eventually be The Vanishing Season. I’m a linear writer, so Ellery’s first appearance would have been in the prologue, when she’s fourteen years old and riding her bike alone…
Would you like to live in the setting you created for the Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery series? Oh, yes. Rocky Point is a special place, a quaint town on the rugged coast of New Hampshire. It’s a sweet and decent community, the kind of place where local bands play familiar tunes on warm summer nights.…
Describe the first time you pictured Mike Bowditch in your head? Paul Doiron: This might sound unbelievable, but I don’t have a clear idea what Mike Bowditch looks like. I can tell you he has blue eyes, dark hair, is 6’2”, with a physique that’s closer to a cornerback than a linebacker, that he has…
Describe the first time you pictured Sarah Booth Delaney in your head? Carolyn Haines: I had just finished a two-book contract and I was thinking about what I would write next. It was an incredibly spring day. Right outside the window the Chinese fringe tree and the cross vines were in full bloom. Sitting at…
Describe the first time you pictured Jane in your head? Mariah Fredericks: I heard Jane before I saw her. She just started talking to me. She had a very compelling voice and it quickly became clear she had a great story to tell: the truth about a long ago “Crime of the Century.” I knew…
Describe the first time you pictured Robin Lockwood in your head? Phillip Margolin: My books frequently have strong female characters who get into dangerous situations. When I started the Robin Lockwood series I wondered how I could make a fight between my heroine and a man realistic and I decided to make Robin a professional…
Describe the first time you pictured Vera in your head? Ann Cleeves: Vera appeared suddenly, in one of those incredible moments that make writing such a joy. The Crow Trap was never intended as a traditional detective novel, which is why she doesn’t arrive until a good way in. I never plan my books in…
You have so many details woven into the story like the CIA office in the World Trade Center and the precursor to the CIA, the Pond. Did you find these true facts before you wrote “The Tourist” or did you add them later? Was there an advisor who had intelligence work knowledge you worked with…
Thank you again to everyone who participated in our Q&A with Olen Steinhauer. We were thrilled with all of your questions, and we tried to choose 10 of them that Olen will answer next week on the site. If your question/username appears below, congratulations on being selected to win an early copy of The Last…
It’s been four years since a Jake Hinkson novel appeared in the United States, but now the wait for a new book is finally over. His newest, Dry County, explores terrain familiar to Hinkson readers, rural Arkansas, while at the same time going places Hinkson hasn’t gone before. The story takes place in 2016, just…
