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Lisa Gardner, author of Crash & Burn, interviews Karin Slaughter

Lisa Gardner (LG): You've had great success with your Will Trent and Grant County series and your first stand-alone, Cop Town. How did your previous books lead you to your first psychological thriller?

Karin Slaughter (KS): It felt like a natural progression to eventually find myself writing about the impact of crime from the point of view of a family. I touched on this a little bit in Fractured, where we get part of the narration from a mother whose daughter has been abducted. Even when I write books where the focus is more on the investigation, I always wonder how families go on after tragedy strikes. Pretty Girls gave me the opportunity to explore that question.

LG: What is it about psychological thrillers that make them so popular today?

KS: I grew up on Daphne Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith, so that dark, internal narrative is a familiar path. The vast majority of readers across all genres are women and I think what’s different now is women are wanting stories that show women as more layered characters with jobs and families and responsibilities—what we see (and are) in real life. To me, this seems to reflect a broader desire among women to see themselves in books, TV and movies as something more than the hero’s girlfriend.

LG: You use crime as a lens to focus on issues affecting society. What do you hope your readers get from your stories, and what have you learned in writing about crime?

KS: First and foremost, I always want my readers to get a good story. It's very important to me that when they get to the end of one of my books, they say, "oh, of course" instead of "what the—???" I play very fair with my plots, just like you do, which means that the plot has to make sense. As far as greater themes, Pretty Girls was a way to hold a lens up to the reader and remind them that these crimes we all love reading about actually happen to real people. We see how a single bad act can resonate well into the future. Violent crime has an institutional memory, and the story behind the crime can sometimes be just as tragic as the crime itself.

LG: Do you think being labeled a genre writer is a blessing or a curse? Do you think that there are any misperceptions about crime novels and novelists?

KS: I don’t mind being labeled. Let’s be honest: crime is usually the most popular genre, so it’s a good place to be. What annoys me is when a great crime novel becomes hugely popular, and people say it "transcends the genre," but the fact is that something like Gone Girl doesn’t transcend the genre; it defines it. Gone With the Wind, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird. . .you would be hard-pressed to name a story that endures in the popular canon that doesn’t have some sort of crime in it.

LG: What are you reading now and what can fans look forward to next?

KS: I just got my hands on Make Me, Lee Child's new one, which I am incredibly excited to read. After that, I'll go back to writing my next book, which has Will Trent and Sara Linton. It's called The Kept Woman and it's been a blast getting back into Will's head—though of course nothing comes easy for him, especially now that Angie is back in town. . .

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Q&A with Author Cara Putman

Not only are a writer, you’re also an attorney. How does your legal experience inform your writing?

Being an attorney gives my books authenticity. These characters are in roles I’ve held or know someone who has. It helps me get the details right as well as highlight the tensions and motivations, the fears and concerns these women would have if they weren’t fictional. I’ve clerked for a federal judge. I’ve run trials as the plaintiff’s attorney. I’ve worked with domestic violence victims on their legal matters. I haven’t run my own firm like Savannah does, but I’ve mentored women who are rising professionals and I was mentored by someone like Savannah.

What should a reader expect from Flight Risk?

When a reader closes the cover on Flight Risk, they’ll be encouraged to do the hard work in relationships because there’s always hope. They’ll also want to spend more time seeing what develops between Jett and Savannah. Most of all I want them to be encouraged and hopeful at the last word.

Industry Praise for FLIGHT RISK

“Cara Putman’s new novel, Flight Risk, is more than an unputdownable legal thriller. This rich, multi-layered story features real characters finding their way through a morass of problems that add to the depth of this compelling story. Flight Risk is Putman at the top of her game. Highly recommended!” —Colleen Coble, bestselling author of the Lavender Tides series and Strands of Truth