Q: So what is Shakedown about?
A: Jack Davis is a fifty-year old FBI agent who is haunted by the murder twenty-years ago of his young son. His marriage is crumbling and his daughter is in love with an undercover FBI agent who may have crossed the line and dragged her with him. Kate Scanlon is an expert in the facial action coding system that reveals the truths hidden in micro facial expressions that flash by in the blink of an eye. When five people are slaughtered in a crack house Jack has under surveillance, his world explodes. He turns to Kate for help in tracking the killer and gets more than he asked for.

Q:  Jack Davis is a departure from the Lou Mason.  What makes him unique?
A: Jack Davis is a man in mid-life whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless victims of crime, to speak for the dead.  In the midst of a murder investigation, he loses control of his career, his family and his body.  He has to dig deep to hold on to the people he loves and the world he believes in.

Q:  How does he do it?
A:  Jack only trusts the hard evidence.  He has to open himself to the more subtle clues of human emotions that are hidden behind our facial masks.

Q:  Is the facial action coding system real?
A:  Absolutely.  Dr. Paul Ekman, a psychologist, developed it in the 1970’s.  Check out his website, www.paulekman.com for more details.

Q:  Will we see Jack Davis in another thriller after Shakedown?
A:  I'm working on a sequel to Shakedown titled The Dead Man.

Q:  Anything else in the pipeline?
A:  I wrote a short story titled Knife Fight that will be published in 2008 in a mystery anthology sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. Linda Fairstein is the editor and I'll be in great company.
 
Q: You have a page on your website called Crime Scene. What's that about?
A: One of the things that make any story come alive is where it takes place. That's certainly been true for me. My books are set in Kansas City, my hometown. Great writers make the setting where the story occurs as real and influential in the story as any character, whether it's a neighborhood, city, county or region. With Crime Scene, I'm going to explore those places and how writers bring them to life and ask readers to share their favorites character places with me.

Q: What drives your stories?
A: That's a great question and it took me about two and a half books to figure that out. About midway through my third book, Cold Truth, I realized that I was writing about families and their conflicts as much as I was writing about murder and mayhem. The conflicts that stem from family relationships are textured, nuanced and varied. It's impossible to run out of ideas. All I have to do is ask myself what happens when things go wrong.

Q: Do you start with the characters or the plot?
A: I start with the names. I create an inventory of male and female names, usually from newspapers and obituaries. Once I get started, I don't like to flop around trying to decide a character's name. After that, I focus more on the characters because their strengths, weaknesses and relationships will drive the plot.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
A: Just do it. The hardest thing for some people to do is to start. Writing a poem, a story, a play or a book seems overwhelming. Many people have told me that they want to or plan to write a book but they never do anything about it. If writing really is in your blood, the hard part won't be starting. It will be stopping.