Q13 - Writing suspense has always seemed really hard to me! I always wonder how authors manage to build and build and build, all the while carefully revealing certain salient details, and then wrap it is all up at the conclusion. It seems like that would be really difficult! Did you write and/or plan the ending first, and then work your way back? If not, how did you manage to plot it all out? And, how did you approach the suspense aspect of the book?

A - Your question highlights a crucial problem with the type of book I write. The maintenance of suspense requires that I do not reveal too much about my characters, but at the same time I see myself as writing family drama in which well-formed characters have important choices to make. Development of character and suspenseful plotting thus pull in opposite directions. For me the solution lies to some extent in presenting events through different characters' eyes at different times, and then the courtroom scenes are essentially pure dialogue where the witnesses may or may not be lying. That is for the jury and the reader to decide.