Q4 - Who has inspired you as a writer?

A - I get ideas from many different books, films and personal experiences. Let me mention two particular inspirations for Final Witness (The Stepmother). Firstly David Gutenberg's "Snow falling on Cedars" is a very good book and gave me the idea of a criminal trial linking a series of related flashbacks. Secondly I have always loved Alfred Hitchcock's films. Their outcomes so often seem to turn on the loss or finding of small objects - a key in "Dial M for Murder" or a lighter in "Strangers on a Train". In my novel a golden locket worn by the victim and found in the possession of the accused turns out to be of critical importance.