In Danger of Judgment follows two Chicago police detectives that are investigating a series of heroin deaths and stumble into an assassination plot. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I’ve been interested in the so-called “Golden Triangle” and its role in heroin production and smuggling ever since I watched the Miami Vice series in the 80s, which featured it in a couple of episodes. The history behind it is fascinating, and I delve into it in the book. But I wanted to go beyond a drug-smuggling story by wrapping it into a larger conspiracy. The Vietnam War provided the perfect context for that larger story, both geographically and in terms of the era, so events in Vietnam became the spark for the plot.

Did you create an outline for the characters in the story before you started writing or did the characters personalities grow organically as you were writing?

I thought about the characters and the plot for 20+ years before I started writing the story. It’s not a very efficient way to create a book, but it did give me an opportunity to think about the characters for a good long while. By the time I started typing, the characters were fully formed, and I was so familiar with them that in any given situation, I knew what they’d say and how they’d act. Sometimes, I felt like the dialogue wrote itself.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

For me, the principal theme is the importance of friendship. The secondary theme is: when is it morally justifiable to kill someone?

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I’m working on a sequel to In Danger of Judgment. It will be set in Chicago and, perhaps, elsewhere. I can’t predict when it’ll be finished because I won’t release it until I’m sure it’s as good as I can make it, but I’ll try to produce it a lot faster than I did with my first book!

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