Crazy or Dead centers around a psychology PhD candidate whose life is forever changed when her parents die in a house fire that turns out to be something much more sinister. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I wanted to start with the kind of tragedy that does not just break your heart—it breaks your understanding of the world.

A house fire is already horrific. Losing both parents is devastating. But what if the facts do not line up? What if the official explanation feels too clean? What if grief is telling you one thing, evidence is whispering another, and everyone around you thinks you are falling apart?

That was the spark for Crazy or Dead.

I liked the idea of beginning with something painfully ordinary—a phone call, smoke, police lights, the awful shock of loss—and then slowly letting the floor drop away beneath Gabby. The story asks a question I find terrifying: when something impossible appears to be true, do you trust your mind, or do you trust the people telling you your mind is broken?

That tension pulled me in and would not let go.

Gabby is both a psychology researcher and someone whose grip on reality is constantly challenged. Why was she the right protagonist for this story?

Gabby was perfect because she knows just enough to doubt herself.

She studies the mind. She understands trauma, memory, perception, dissociation, grief—all the clinical explanations someone might use to explain away what is happening to her. That makes her smarter, but it also makes her more vulnerable. A person with no psychology background might simply say, “Something is wrong here.” Gabby says, “Something is wrong here… unless it is me.”

That is a much more dangerous place to live.

I wanted a protagonist who could analyze herself almost too well. She is not reckless in the usual thriller-hero way. She is thoughtful, wounded, stubborn, and scared—but she keeps moving. She is trying to solve a mystery while also trying to prove she can trust her own mind.

To me, that made her more interesting than a detective with a badge. Gabby does not walk into the story armed with authority. She walks in with grief, intelligence, doubt, and a desperate need to know the truth.

That is plenty.

Were there moments where you worried readers might figure out the truth too soon?

All the time.

With a psychological thriller, you are always walking a tightrope. Give the reader too little, and they feel cheated. Give them too much, and they are standing at the finish line waiting for you with a cup of coffee.

I wanted readers to suspect several things and be right about some of them—but not all of them. That is the sweet spot. A good twist should not come out of nowhere. It should feel impossible and inevitable at the same time. After the reveal, I want readers thinking, “I should have seen that,” not “Where the hell did that come from?”

So yes, I worried about it constantly. I moved clues around. I trimmed. I sharpened. I tried to make every suspicion lead somewhere, even if it was not the final answer.

The trick is not hiding everything. The trick is making the truth stand in the room wearing a disguise.

If readers remember one thing about Crazy or Dead, what do you hope it is?

I hope they remember Gabby.

The twists matter. The danger matters. The ending matters. But for me, the heart of the book is a woman who refuses to surrender her own truth, even when grief, fear, and other people are all telling her to sit down and be quiet.

I hope readers remember that feeling of not knowing whether Gabby is crazy, being hunted, or both. And I hope they remember that she keeps fighting anyway.

At its core, Crazy or Dead is about trust—trusting your mind, trusting your instincts, trusting the people beside you, and knowing when not to trust the story you are being handed.

Also, I would not complain if readers remember they missed sleep because they wanted one more chapter. Authors are humble people, but we’re not saints.

Author Links: GoodReads | Bluesky | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website