All of my books have been inspired by something ripped from the headlines.

And the case of, look for me, that family situation we see a couple times a year.

It is almost like a family annihilation, but there will be one survivor, generally a teenager.

I was drawn to it as a writer, as in real life, you have a 50-50 chance.

Half of the time, the teenagers sadly assisted in the murder of their own family.

Maybe a teenage daughter who parents didn't approve of the boyfriend.

The other half of the time, the family is murdered to kidnap the daughter.

So when I went to talk to my detective about this, we actually had to mop out the house.

We had to talk about each member of the family.

He's like, before he could even start, we had to nail down all the particulars of the scene

because it really does make a difference.

And then at one point, I'm like, I'm doing a fundraiser for my Humane Society.

Some people have paid money to have their dogs in the book.

He's like, really?

I'm like, yes.

So the family will have these two spaniels.

He's like, that makes all the difference.

Everyone's going to want to try to find the dogs.

That's just human psychology.

Dogs are helpless.

People want to help the dogs.

You know, but we're kind of scared of teenagers.

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