A Long Night Cry follows a detective searching for three missing teenage girls who places his career and loved ones at risk by refusing to only focus on finding the Senator’s daughter. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

This was justice story. Part of this story was exposing corruption, power, and money among those who have it and use it to cheat the system. Additionally, to have one of my kids go missing, especially a daughter, might be my worst nightmare. Contrasting the economic and racial inequities was part of showing the injustice, and having my main character go through the trials he went through made this an agonizing story to write, believe it or not. I cannot say my personal history had nothing to do with the story. I’m a veteran of the U.S. Military and my childhood was torn apart by drug use, among other things.

What were some challenges you felt were important to defining your characters in this story?

There were so many characters, giving them their own mannerisms and habits was a challenge. I had to attach each character to real versions of someone I know. Usually, these were their opposites. The most corrupt were based on the opposite—the most stand-up people I know. It is easy to define characters when you have real people to connect them with, and then you add a little spice to the soup, and they come out with a unique flavor.

Do you think there’s a single moment in everyone’s life, maybe not as traumatic, that is life-changing?

I think most people have an all-is-lost moment. It varies of course, and some decide to throw in the towel, but this is necessary for growth and for an inception point in life. Mine was when I decided to surrender to God, others rely on friends, or the universe, but I believe most have an inception point in their life. For those who are self-destructive, I’ve heard and believe, we (because I was) hit rock bottom when we quit digging. My main character ends the novel with some surrender.

Will there be additional mysteries for Eli Ridge to solve in the future? If so, when can your fans expect the next book out?

The next Eli Ridge novel will be a revenge plot/detective blend. I’m still recovering, I feel, from this one. But Eli Ridge must live on, with some of the other characters, because I love them and they need to entertain me and others.

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