I’ve done it again.  I just finished another book that features an animal as one of my main characters. I had no intention of doing it when I was planning CHAOS.  I was going to have a razzle-dazzle plot with lots of dynamite adventures and terrible villains for my characters to triumph over.  […]

The historical figure who inspired a legend. By Signe Pike Nearly 1,500 years ago, a man stood on top of a hill fort in Scotland knowing he was about to die. He was not alone, though he might as well have been, given the size of the army marching to lay siege upon the fortress. […]

By David Heska Wanbli Weiden   The genre of Native American crime fiction remains popular among mystery fans, yet few would be able to name writers in this field beyond the wildly successful Tony Hillerman, Thomas Perry, James Doss, and perhaps a few others.  For those who’ve enjoyed the work of these non-Native writers, it […]

  Of all human relationships, there is none more mysterious, intense and scrutinized than the one between mother and child. We all know that motherhood brings profound joy and extreme exhaustion. What is discussed far less is the extreme fear that can creep in alongside those other, more palatable emotions. And this base terror – […]

Ten Contemporary “Thriller” Novels That Highlight the Natural World   You don’t have to be a nature lover to appreciate a well-written novel scene that incorporates the natural world. Especially during a time of twin global threats brought by pandemic and climate change, it seems like more and more people are paying closer attention to […]

By Vanessa Savage   I love setting my books in small towns because the smallest crime, which might go unnoticed in a city, is shockingly huge in a village. For a writer, it can be challenging – it is so much harder for the perpetrator to hide his or her crime in such a close-knit […]