Mystery/Thriller Episodes

Nicole and I discuss Everything We Didn't Say, researching cold cases for inspiration, rewriting this book three times, setting books in her home state, being selected as one of the October Book of the Month selections, what she has learned …

Kimi and I discuss These Silent Woods, living off the grid, the book's original title, her tweak to the cover design, how writers need to have both the thickest and the thinnest skin, her writing process and how it has …

Alice and I discuss A Blizzard of Polar Bears, working as a wildlife researcher and bioacoustician, how she believes strongly in including accurate science in her novels, the animal she is focusing on in her third book in the series, …

Megan and I discuss The Family Plot, exploring what it is about true crime that fascinates people, what that fascination does to a person and whether it can help or hurt them, plotting a thriller with all of the twists …

Taylor and I discuss Down Range, how Garrett became his protagonist, creating a believable main character, bringing the Texas landscape to life, crafting his exciting ending, and much more.

Stephanie and I discuss her new book Fatal Family Ties, the complexity of researching individuals who fought in the Civil War, her favorite secondary characters to write, how her title came about, how the theme of second chance ended up …

Riley and I discuss Survive the Night, how he enjoys making the reader scared, setting a story over the course of one evening in a car, using a screenplay format for the chapter headings, converting from a plotter to a …

John and I discuss Bad Moon Rising, the inspiration for Heidi Kick, weaving timely issues into his mysteries, connecting his community in rural Wisconsin with the bigger themes and conflicts in culture, the most challenging part of writing for him, …

Clare and I discuss Hostage, the idea that it is far more terrifying when you do not know where a threat is coming from, landing a plane herself at a flight simulation center (listen to learn if she successfully landed), …

Katherine and I discuss her new book The Siren, using three points of view to slowly disseminate information to the reader, how she enjoys writing about the messiness of life, taking unexpected life paths, how lives are lived in chapters, …

Flynn and I discuss her new mystery Northern Spy, how she creates such a strong sense of place, writing about a place where turmoil is always just under the surface, the roots of radicalization, being selected as a Reese Book …

J.T. and I discuss her latest mystery Her Dark Lies, closed circle versus locked room mysteries, the trip that lead to her creating Her Dark Lies, the character that she really struggled to write, writing books in a series compared …

Mark and I discuss his new Gray Man novel Relentless, the inspiration for Court Gentry, the character he enjoys writing the most, what it was like working with Tom Clancy and continuing his series, writing two books a year, the …

Sarah and I discuss her debut The Sanatorium, having her novel chosen as a Reese’s Book Club selection, how she created such a strong sense of place, making the sanatorium a character in the novel, writing a closed circle mystery, …

Eliza and I discuss her adult debut If I Disappear, how she created her unique format, finding a place in today’s world, how grief can impact and infect everything else, the importance of focusing on mental health, the fabulous true …