A Child’s Guillotine follows a Tennessee detective in 1982 who is investigating a young girl’s murder that is connected to a Croatian immigrant and horrors from WWII. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I’ve long felt that WWII was a worldwide trauma that has left its mark well into the 21^st century. People don’t talk about it, but those who experienced its horror will never forget. Unfortunately, there are very few of those people left and the rest of us need to be reminded that this is what can happen if we let our guard down. Croatia and the Balkan states were a theater of the war that has still not been fully analyzed or understood. The hatred goes back centuries, and no one knows why. I lived in Tennessee for a year and it’s a very beautiful and peaceful place. I thought the area could use a good murder.

What interested you about exploring the ways historical atrocities can influence individuals and communities decades after the original events?

What are we but for our history? We all scurry like rats hiding our secrets and our pasts, but when we admit to the worst of our past, we become more strongly committed to change, where cruelty and violence might just become a thing of the past.

How does Morris’s struggle with alcohol and personal regret contribute to his character development throughout the investigation?

Morris is your typical tough guy with a heart. His character evolved as I wrote. I realized that if I had seen what he saw in Detroit, I’d be drinking up a storm. I tried to make his character less stereotypical and more human. His city lifestyle smashing up against good country folk was my attempt at humor, and I do believe it helped round out his character. I didn’t want to minimize his struggle. Too many stories or movies have a heavy drinker who quits, wins a big victory, and then has a drink to celebrate. That’s not how it works.

What were the greatest challenges of balancing the novel’s murder mystery with its extensive historical and psychological themes?

I didn’t really think of this as a murder mystery until about halfway through writing it. When I realized I had created a whodunit, I knew I needed a twist, so I came up with the commandant of the concentration camp, which was exactly what I wanted to write about in the first place. “Who are these people?” “How could they do such a thing?” These are the questions I wanted readers to ask. The challenge is in making ethical self-examination entertaining. If I succeeded in doing that, then I have done a good thing.