One of the messages I’d like to convey to readers is that murderers sometimes don’t look or act like you think they’re going to — Skylar comes across as timid, with a high voice, and a charming countenance, but he is a master manipulator, just like his wife Jennifer, who was raised in a strict Evangelical Christian family. I think this book teaches folks that they shouldn’t always take people at face value because sometimes evil lurks within, and things are not always what they seem.
Who are your favorite characters in the story?
Newport Beach Police Sgt. Dave Byington and Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy were both hard-working, dedicated public servants who were witty, smart and fun to work with during the five years that I spent researching and writing this book. They had great senses of humor, but they also took their jobs very seriously and were talented professionals who put together three winning cases for trial that were almost never boring to watch.
Do you have a favorite line or excerpt from your book?
Many, but here are two of them:
“Skylar really had a thing for boats.”
“And there, in the distance, was the deep blue scene of this horrific crime, where, somewhere, the anchor of the Well Deserved was resting on the ocean floor.”
If your current release were to be turned into a movie, who would you love to see play what characters and why?
I’d pick Ryan Gosling for the complex and bizarre Skylar Deleon, who seems so non-threatening, but has such sociopathic violent capabilities underneath, and Scarlett Johansson for Jennifer Deleon, who can seem so innocent and naïve, and yet is so controlling and demanding. Both Gosling and Johansson are very good actors, capable of playing characters with multi-layered personalities.
What are your favorite aspects of writing?
Pulling together bits and pieces from various aspects of my research to craft a moving or dramatic scene that evokes the same emotions I envisioned when I first heard about it. It’s wonderful when it comes together and is even more compelling than I’d anticipated.
Article comments
1 - Caitlin Rother
It's Caitlin Rother not Caitlin Roth...
2 - Christopher Rose
Caitlin, the typos have been fixed and the editor droid responsible disassembled.
3 - Alan Kurtz
What? Blogcritics publishes an interview with an author and misspells her name! If only there were editor droids at BC, they'd do a much better job than the primate "editors." Don't blame technology, blame entrenched human incompetence.
4 - Christopher Rose
Everybody is fallible, Alan, but sensible people just fix mistakes and move on.
5 - Alan Kurtz
And censors just delete my comments and move on. Business as usual.
6 - Christopher Rose
Alan, If you can't refrain from making personal attacks, then your comments will be edited or deleted. If you don't, they won't.
I'm sure you have grasped the principle, if not the practice, so the ball is in your court...
7 - Alan Kurtz
And what about the unsubstantiated accusation against me by a BC "editor" in ΒΆ1 of comment #33 here? You give your fellow editors a free pass to attack me, but then uphold the strictest standards in censoring my own comments. If there's a principle involved here, then you're mistaken: I haven't grasped it.
8 - Christopher Rose
That issue is still under review, Alan, and I will make my decision as to what I consider the appropriate course of action in due course.
For your information, should you find yourself the target of what you may consider an infringement of the comments guidelines in the future, your case would be reinforced if you refrained from entering into debate with the potential infringer and contacted me as your first response.
9 - Alan Kurtz
OK, so I contacted you after I replied online. But then you failed to respond to my email! What a place.
10 - Christopher Rose
I haven't responded to your email because I don't have anything to say yet. When I do, I will.
11 - Alan Kurtz
Out of common courtesy, you might at least have acknowledged my email. But then, you have none of that, do you?
12 - Christopher Rose
Yes, I possibly could have done that, but I was rather expecting to be able to respond to you more swiftly than has in fact turned out to be the case.
As to common courtesy, I think reading all the comments we make here on this site will reveal which of us is the most civil...
13 - April
I am the writer/author of this interview, and I deeply apologize for any misspelling. I had caught myself and corrected "Roth" to "Rother" before hitting submit, but obviously missed another somewhere. Again, I am deeply sorry for this error.
April
14 - Christopher Rose
Don't worry too much, April, we all make mistakes and it has now been sorted out.