Bad Day for Justice follows two veteran law partners who are pulled back into a forty-year-old murder case linked to a new blackmail scheme involving a lost jewel called the Tsarina’s Spider. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

First, we wanted to illustrate how productive and energetic older people can be if they remain healthy and mentally active. Second, Catherine the Great’s love of jewelry as a means of portraying power is a fascinating story that we wanted to use in at least a small way.

What does that long delay allow you to explore emotionally that a more immediate crime story wouldn’t?

The idea that justice doesn’t always happen right away, sometimes never. But cold cases that are solved can be very satisfying.

How did you approach writing characters like Dawson, Nowak, and Ortez, whose lives are shaped by tragedy and questionable choices?

We all make questionable choices – theirs simply had larger, more visible consequences than those most of us make. Also, we lived through the WPPSS catastrophe, so that seemed like a good place to start. Mistakes were made based on what appeared to be solid reasoning, so that reinforced our theme of questionable choices.

The book keeps asking, “Is justice delayed still justice?” Do you believe the story answers that question?

Justice is more than “fact” – it is also how those involved “feel” about results. So, there is no absolute answer to that question. For instance, someone spends thirty years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit and new evidence emerges to exonerate them. Does that “feel” like justice?

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