ALL GOOD DEEDS was chosen as the January Book of the Month for the Goodreads group Psychological Thrillers. It’s a large group, and the members loved Lucy Kendall so much they bought the second book and started a new thread for that. Talk about being humbled! Seeing readers discuss my work and being invited to chime in has been absolutely amazing and very gratifying.

Since the Lucy Kendall Series deals with some dark topics, one of the constant themes of the discussion has been whether or not readers agree with Lucy’s belief that killing child molesters is right. Now, those who know Lucy probably realize her problems go far beyond this vigilante agenda. Killing these horrible people might just be a vehicle for something far more sinister. But you’ll have to read the series to find out.

Like many authors, bits and pieces of my own personality have wormed their way into my characters. To be honest, Lucy is more like me than any other character I’ve created. I promise you I’ve never killed anyone, but her intolerance for child molesters mirrors my own. Our system is broken, and these people are released into the streets way too often. I have no problem with a one strike law for them. Do I agree with Lucy’s choice to kill them? From a mother’s perspective, yes. If it were my child, I don’t know what I would be capable of, and if someone like Lucy took the bastard who hurt my kid out, I’d probably throw a party. From a realistic perspective, I’m not sure. Taking the law into her own hands makes Lucy just as bad as anyone else, even if she’s ridding society of the scum of the earth. But were I to meet Lucy in real life and find out what she’s been doing, I think I’d turn the other cheek and walk away.

What would you do? Would you allow someone to keep taking the law into their own hands if it meant your children were safe? Or would you step up and report them?

Newsflash! DEAD WRONG, book 2 in the Cage Foster series, hits the e-shelves today. Keep an eye out for it!

My parents still live in the same white farmhouse I grew up in, and sometime in the last several years they started locking up at night. But that was it. No one ever thought about locking the doors during the day, whether they were home or not. That changed a week ago when my dad came back from taking my mother to dialysis and a strange, white van was in the driveway. As he sat in his truck trying to figure out who the vehicle belonged to, a blond woman walked out of their house.

Dad confronted her, and she gave him some half-assed excuse about looking for Stockport, another tiny town every local knows how to get to. He didn’t see anything missing, and he didn’t call the Sheriff. But when Mom got home later in the day, she realized her Percocet was missing. I got involved and called the Sheriff. We didn’t have much hope of finding out who the woman was, and I posted a warning to local Facebook friends. Guess what? No less than five different people contacted me with her name and various but similar stories about her.

That’s when I got really pissed. If these people knew who she was just by description, how could the deputy not? I called the Sheriff with her name, and he knew exactly who she was. As a matter of fact, he’d had recent dealings with her. My father later identified a recent booking shot, and the deputy said he’d see what he could put together. Since my father caught her trespassing at the very least, we were hopeful she would be charged. From what I hear, it’s been very hard for the police to keep her nailed down with anything. I’m not sure why that is, and I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it’s infuriating. This girl preys on older people for their prescription medications, as if the senior community doesn’t have enough to worry about. On top of dialysis and watching everything she puts in her mouth, my mother now has to wonder if she’s totally safe in her own home.

Times have changed. The doors are locked now. Our kids will never know what it’s like to grow up trusting their neighbors, and that’s very sad to me. We now have to teach them to be wary of anyone who approaches them, and to constantly warn them that no matter how nice anyone looks, any individual is capable of harming them. It sucks, but that is at least something I can control.

Nearly two hours away from my aging parents, I’m frustrated. I’m waiting for an update from the deputy tonight, and if nothing is moving in the case, I’ll be talking to the Sheriff again. And I’m not above taking out an OP-Ed in the county newspaper, because if this girl isn’t stopped, she WILL prey on more senior citizens.

What about you, readers? Would you let things lie or keep pushing the issue?

Don’t forget, See Them Run (Lucy Kendall #2) is now available! And if you’re not a member of my mailing list, sign up now. A brand new character is coming to the Delta Crossroads, and I’m giving my mailing list subscribers a serial novella featuring the character for FREE. Coming in February!

Have a wonderful and SAFE holiday!

i’ve decided to try a new theme on the blog. I’m calling it Confessions of a Thriller Author, and every Monday, I’ll be posting about some of the darker things that go through my own twisted mind.

Confessions of a Thriller Author #1

People often ask me about my love of true crime, thrillers, and all things dark. Those who are under the impression that I am a sweet mom from Iowa are amazed at the sinister things I prefer to read and write. In my bio, I mention watching crime shows with my parents growing up, and I know that’s probably what planted the seed. The theme song from Hill Street Blues is one of my earliest memories, after all. Along with Dallas, which is probably where I got my flair for the dramatic.

But it goes much deeper than that. If I had to do it over again (and I actually understood myself when I was in college) I would have majored in criminal psychology. I am always fascinated by the WHY of things, and it is frustrating for me not to get an explanation. On one hand, I cannot fathom killing another human being, much less torturing them. But on the other, I want to crawl inside the mind of the person who would do such a thing. Are they really just a coldblooded psychopath? Are they a combination of nature and nurture? Many times, law enforcement and psychologists don’t get these answers handed to them on a silver platter. There is no reason why. And I still I want to know more.

Consider the psychopath Ted Bundy. What sort of things went on in his mind when he was seeking his next victim? Was he excited for the kill, for the control, or for the depraved acts he would do to them? Or what about coldblooded killer Gary Ridgway, better known as The Green River Killer, who is believed to have killed over 100 women, all of whom were prostitutes. What would a day in his head be like? How could someone look at another human being and so coldly judge them, let alone dispose of them so callously as Ridgway?

For me, it is the unknown about the psychopathic killer that is the most interesting. And their ability to blend into the crowd, to become Average Man, that makes them so frightening.

From a law enforcement perspective, I’d love to be able to understand what the police and other departments go through in the search for these people. Watching the crime shows on Investigation Discovery is no more than a glimpse into the criminal world.  Without being in the moment with the police, FBI, criminal profilers and psychologists, we will never truly understand what’s it’s like to be in their shoes and follow these killer’s paths.

It’s this sort of dark interest that drove me to create Lucy Kendall and to explore the idea of her being a sociopath. If I can’t find my answers in real life, I seek them through fiction. In many ways, writing Lucy has been like interviewing my own serial killer. I find myself digging deeper, wanting to know more about the choices she makes and if she will ever realize who she truly is. The fun part is that I get to provide the answers.

And that is the long version of why I like to read and write about sociopaths and psychopaths (pick your term), serial killers, criminal minds, cops, and all around bad people. It’s the thirst for understanding and the need to unravel their minds. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to do so with my fictional characters.

What about you, crime fiction lovers? Do you enjoy reading and researching about criminals and serial killers because you need to understand? What drives your dark interest?

Come back next Monday for my next confession, and have a wonderful and SAFE holiday!

Lucy Kendall lived her life in a strange mixture of carefully calculated moves and impulse decisions. Cracking the skull of the man who molested her sister and attacking her was impulse. Spending half her teenage years drinking and acting out were calculated cries for attention from her narcissistic mother followed by impulsive rages at her lack of concern.

The decade spent working in Child Protective Services before becoming a private investigator taught her two truths. One, CPS failed miserably in protecting children. Two, Lucy was more than willing to do it for them, meting out her brand of dark justice in spite of her own fear of death. But Lucy’s crusade is compromised when a self-proclaimed sociopath offers to help—and leaves her no choice but to accept it.

When eight-year old Kailey Richardson is abducted, it sets off a chain of events linked to Justin Beckett, a suspect in a life-changing case in Lucy’s past. The path she’s chosen since dealing with Beckett has been dark and terrifying—but she has no idea just how deep she will go or where the twisted road will take her.

She’s about to find out.

If you liked Dexter, you’ll love Lucy! The first book in my new thriller series will be available at all vendors on September 15th, but Kindle readers can PRE-ORDER NOW! This means the book will automatically load onto your device at 12:01 a.m. September 15th. How’s that for the early bird getting the worm?

CLICK HERE to PRE-ORDER

An excerpt from ALL GOOD DEEDS

“The Iceman.” Chris ignored the bait. “That’s your inspiration, right? The mob hit man who lost count at 200 murders. His method was easy and anonymous. He spilled the bad stuff, his mark got angry about it but didn’t do anything about the wet shirt or pants. The goods seeped through his the mark’s skin and twenty to thirty minutes later, into the bloodstream, and the Iceman was long gone. It’s brilliant, really. Great choice, for cold weather anyway, considering the health hazards. I just hope you’re more than a hit man. Woman, excuse me.”

My chest tightened into an iron cast, and my jaw ached from the hard set. If this guy knew the routine, he no doubt had proof. “Seriously, have you ever thought about seeking professional help?”

He ignored me and kept rambling. “Like I said, I’m a paramedic. And I’m observant. I saw you at a scene a few months back. You were standing to the side, in the middle of the onlookers. But something on your face gave you away–to me, at least. Guess I’m good at spotting my own kind.” He rested his chin on his hand and gazed at me with obvious admiration. To anyone else, we probably looked like we were on a first date and still stuck in the awkward getting-to-know-you stage.

“I’m not your kind.” He was nothing like me. I was just sick and tired of seeing a broken justice system routinely fail children who’ve already been treated like disposable playthings. So I did everything I could to balance the creaking scales of justice–the same scales many people want to believe are designed to protect the vulnerable in society. But those scales don’t shield anyone, even our most innocent victims. Their function is to balance the lines of bureaucracy.

Sometimes I have to fill the void.

He probably picked his victims at random and took them somewhere to torture them before finally killing them. If he was actually a serial killer.

Pre-Order ALL GOOD DEEDS

Thanks so much for holding down the fort, Kass. Take it away!

While Stacy’s off gallivanting around the blogosphere talking to folks about her new book coming out on November 30th, she let me squat here asked me to come visit here at Turn the Page and talk about a topic near and dear to both of us at the moment–psychopaths!

Okay, you may be thinking that’s a little sick.

Let me explain. Stacy and I are so fond of psychopaths because they all too often play a very pivotal role in the novels we write. They are our bad guys.

I’m frequently asked, by students and fellow mystery/thriller authors, whether psychopaths are born or made. The answer is “Yes, all of the above.”

Lots of research has been done on this and that research tells us there’s a strong genetic predisposition to antisocial behavior, i.e., behavior that goes against society, that defies the rules, breaks the law.

This predisposition doesn’t usually come to fruition, however, unless that child is placed in a very unhealthy environment. Full-blown psychopaths always come from abusive backgrounds, with harsh and often inconsistent parenting.

Scientists are still trying to tease out some of the inherited components in antisocial personality disorder (the official diagnostic term for psychopaths) and how they interact with the environment. But here’s what we know so far:

• There seems to be something inherently wrong with the wiring of psychopaths’ brains, because they never develop much in the way of a conscience. Most children, by age five, are starting to feel guilty when they break the rules they’ve internalized from their environment. But not budding psychopaths. They intellectually understand what the rules are, but they have no qualms about breaking them. They don’t feel remorse or guilt.
• Another area where the wiring may be lacking to begin with is empathy, our natural ability to feel what others are feeling. Psychopaths lack empathy for others.The smarter ones may become quite skilled at reading other people’s emotions for the purpose of manipulating them, but they feel little or no concern or sympathy for others.This is one of the areas where environment interacts a good bit with genetics. On the mild to moderate end of the genetic predisposition continuum, the child often is capable of feeling empathy. With the guidance of a patient, loving parent, this empathy can be nurtured. I’ve seen a couple real-life examples of this! But in a highly dysfunctional abusive environment, that glimmer of empathy gets snuffed out early on.

• While scientists aren’t sure exactly what goes wrong biologically in the conscience or empathy development arenas, they do know that there are other inherited factors. One is a high tendency to be impulsive. This personality trait is about 60% inherited and 40% influenced by environment. A child who inherits a high tendency for impulsivity is going to be a challenge for the best of parents. If that child grows up in a very dysfunctional, abusive environment where little effort is made to teach self-control, he or she is going to be extremely impulsive!

• Also, the vast majority of people with antisocial personality disorder have learning disabilities, especially attention deficit problems. Seventy-five percent have full-blown ADHD (which we’re pretty darn sure is genetically transmitted). The ADHD child does not make the connection between behavior and consequences nearly as readily as children normally do (Please take my word for this so I can spare you the long, boring brain-malfunction explanation). Children with ADHD often don’t get it that what they just did is the cause of the punishment the parent or teacher is inflicting on them. From their perspective, the adult is just being mean, for some inexplicable reason.

Again, put a child with these learning deficits in an environment where discipline is very inconsistent and often way too harsh, and where out-of-control anger is often exhibited, and you end up with a very confused and pissed-off kid.

• A third genetic piece, and this is the biggie for those of us who write and read mysteries and thrillers, is that people with antisocial personality disorder (i.e., psychopaths) inherit a nervous system that is not easily stimulated. It takes a huge amount of stimulation for them to feel excitement, or any other feeling. Everyday life, that most of us find quite satisfying, bores them and makes them feel “dead inside.”

So psychopaths are constantly looking for a thrill that will make them feel alive! They may find it in a variety of activities–dangerous sports, reckless driving, drinking and drugging, gaining power over others in their family or in the workplace, stealing, pulling off a con or getting away with other criminal behavior, physical violence, sexual aggression… You get the picture.

One myth about psychopaths is that they are often brilliant. Nope, that’s a Hollywood-generated misconception. They run the gamut from stupid to brilliant, just like the rest of us. The dumb ones engage in high risk behaviors and criminal activities early on. They either get killed or get caught and spend a lot of time in jail (although not all criminals are psychopaths).

The smarter ones become politicians, business executives, lawyers, cops, con artists, etc. They may be very successful in their chosen professions because they are quite ruthless; it doesn’t bother them a bit to climb over others to get to the top. (Again, not all politicians and business executives are psychopaths, and definitely this is not most lawyers or police officers!)

Another myth about psychopaths is that they are obvious monsters or highly dysfunctional loners. Most are neither. Most look like everybody else on the surface. They get married, hold down jobs, may even be civic or church leaders! They figure out how to fit in, but behind closed doors they are seeking those thrills.

The BTK killer, Dennis Rader, killed ten victims in and around Wichita, Kansas. He sent sixteen written communications to the news media over a thirty-year period, taunting the police and the public. He was married with two children, was a Boy Scout leader, served honorably in the U.S. Air Force, was employed as a local government official, and was president of his church. –July, 2008, FBI symposium report on Serial Murder.

The degree of antisocial tendencies also exists on a continuum. On the milder end, we have the guys (antisocial personality disorder is twice as common in men as women) who get their thrills through sports, drinking and using recreational drugs on the weekends, and controlling their families. In the moderate range, we have more heavy-duty drug abuse, more violent behavior in the wife battering-barroom brawls category, and more of a tendency to engage in criminal behavior.

Many rapists and a fair number of those more ruthless politicians and business executives are in this group. This is where the bad guy in my latest novel falls (and then my protagonist, Kate, and her private investigator husband discover they have a second psychopath in their midst!)

On the severe end of the continuum, you have the very violent criminals, the totally ruthless business executives and politicians, those who are brutally abusive to their own families, and the serial killers. These are the bad guys that Stacy loves to conjure up in her thrillers.

Unfortunately people with antisocial personality disorder are 3% of males and almost 2% of females in this country. (Yes, you probably know several!) Fortunately, only a very small percentage of people with ASPD become serial killers. What would motivate your average run-of-the-mill psychopath to become a serial killer?

One of the most thrilling things for psychopaths is having power over others. And there is no greater thrill than having power over the life and death of another person.

Most often the serial killer starts out killing for financial gain–robbing people and then killing them to eliminate witnesses, for example–or they kill as part of a gang or drug culture they are immersed in. Then they discover that killing gives them a rush of excitement, and they start to kill for that reason. These are the hardest killers to identify and capture because their victims often have little or nothing in common.

Another major element is rage. Abused children grow up harboring a lot of rage about that abuse. The vast majority of them turn that anger inward and it becomes poor self-esteem and depression. A small percentage deal with that rage by becoming abusive themselves. An even smaller percentage, the full-blown psychopaths (i.e., those who have a strong genetic predisposition to ASPD), discover that killing is a great outlet for that rage. These are the serial killers who have a specific victim type. Their victims usually, in some way, shape or form, symbolize the abuser, or sometimes the passive parent who let them be abused, or the lover who jilted them and set off their rage.

A very small percentage of serial killers are not only psychopaths but they also have other mental disorders. They may lose their grip on reality completely and act out truly bizarre fantasies with their victims. These fantasies are usually based in some triggering event in their histories that tipped them over the edge into psychosis. (Note: psychopath and psychotic are two very different things, but they do sometimes coexist in the same person.)

You’re probably checking the locks on your doors and windows about now. Keep in mind that psychopaths are a relatively small percentage of the population and serial killers are a small percentage of that group. And totally psychotic serial killers are a very small percentage of that small percentage.

But… (You didn’t really think I was going to leave you on a cheery note, did you?)

Psychopaths feel little or no fear. That’s part of their high arousal threshold. The situation’s got to be pretty damn terrifying before they feel even a flicker of fear.

So they don’t fear going to jail, or even dying. Indeed, some view dying as the ultimate thrill! And they can pass lie-detector tests with flying colors, while lying through their teeth. Because those tests are based on the premise that people are anxious when they lie. Not psychopaths! They’re not afraid of getting caught in a lie, because they’re not afraid of much of anything.

Which brings me to the last Hollywood myth I’ll debunk before leaving you. Serial killers are not hoping someone will stop them; they are not trying to get caught. They would have to feel remorse in order to want to be stopped. And they are incapable of remorse.

But they will sometimes escalate to contacting the police or newspapers with taunts or even hints as to where they might strike next, or they may intentionally leave clues behind at crime scenes.

They do this to enhance the thrill! Killing is starting to lose its buzz so they have to up the ante.

If you’d like to read more about psychopaths and serial killers, check out this 2008 report by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (the real one, not the one portrayed on Criminal Minds, which is, by the way, one of my favorite TV shows).

If you have any questions, I promised Stacy I’d hang around until she stops gallivanting gets back later, so ask away!

Celebrity Status, A Kate Huntington Mystery (Book 4)

KINDLE

NOOK

PAPERBACK

A BLURB FROM CELEBRITY STATUS:

Kate Huntington’s new husband has built up a thriving private investigating agency and he’s attracted his first celebrity client, a pop singer whose anonymous stalker has a twisted concept of love. Before Skip Canfield realizes just how twisted, he involves first his psychotherapist wife and then their lawyer friend, Rob Franklin, in the case. Soon they are being hounded by paparazzi and someone is planting evidence to convince Skip that Kate and Rob are lovers. Struggling to deal with this onslaught of unwanted attention and a stalker who will stop at nothing to remove the obstacles in his path, Kate and Skip must face the reality that you can’t always keep those you love from harm.

In 1948, Dr. Hervey Cleckley published The Mask of Sanity after working as a therapist in a mental institution. The book described clinical interviews with incarcerated psychopaths and is still considered on of the most influential clinical descriptions of psychopath. Cleckley’s basic elements of psychopathy outlined in the book are very much relevant today, including the term “mask of sanity,” for the psychopath wears the most versatile and complex of masks.

The psychopath feels no sort of emotional attachment (unlike the sociopath, who some experts believe differs from the psychopath while others consider the term interchangeable). No conscience, guilt, or remorse. No concern for the well-being of anyone. The idea of responsibility is foreign to a psychopath, something they cannot comprehend.

But the scariest aspect of a psychopath is their ability to mask their true identity. Most are highly intelligent, and almost all realize the need to appear as “normal” to society. Completely free of restraint and conscience, they lead double lives, hiding their true selves from everyone around them.

According to recent studies, psychopaths exists in about four percent of the population. Consider this: anorexic is considered to be a near epidemic, and it’s prevalence rate is estimated to be 3.43 percent. Schizophrenia, a well-known and feared disorder, occurs in only about one percent of the population. The CDC states the rate of colon cancer is “alarmingly high.” It only occurs in about 40 out of every 100,000. That’s still less that the estimated number of psychopaths walking around today. Source

Not every psychopath is a serial killer, but many of the most violent serial killers are psychopaths. While not all of them are as famous as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Aileen Warnous, psychopaths have been killing for centuries.

Cordelia Botkin (1854-1910)

Cordelia Botkin met John Dunning in 1895, when she was forty-one. His bicycle had broken down in the park. Botkin was bold, and the younger Dunning (married to a former congressman’s daughter, no less) began an affair with Botkin. She led him into a raucous life of gambling, alcoholism, and sex. When he decided to end the affair, Botkin sent a Dunning’s wife a box of poisoned candy in the guise of a gift from a friend. Dunning’s wife and five friends and family members enjoyed the chocolate. Both the wife and her sister died. Botkin was eventually convicted, and while in jail, she exchanged sexual favors in order to leave whenever she had the notion. She died in 1910.

Dr. Thomas Cream (1850 – 1892)

Dr. Thomas Cream performed abortions in secret throughout Canada and later Chicago, Illinois. Several of his patients died (both genders), and in a bizarre twist, Cream demanded an examination of the bodies, presumably to drawn attention to himself. He was eventually convicted of poisoning the patients. Released in July of 1891, he moved to London and started killing prostitutes. Arrested and hanged in 1892, his last words were reported to have been “I am Jack.” He was imprisoned during the murders, but some authors purport he may have bribed officials and left before his release.

Leonarda Cianciulle (1893-1970)

Sweet little Leonarda Cianciulle murdered three women in Correggio, Italy between 1939 and 1940. Known as the “Soap-Maker of Corregio,” she turned their bodies into soap. Conceived from a rape, she endured a miserable childhood with a resentful mother and twice tried to killer herself. At the time of the murders, Leonarda owned a small soap shop and was thought of as kind, a doting mother and helpful neighbor. When she learned her eldest and favorite child, Giuseppe, was to join the Italian army, she became unhinged and decided human sacrifices were the best way to protect him. Her victims were three middle-aged neighbors. She described getting rid of the body of her first victim:

“I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.”

She also described the other murders and destroying the bodies in vivid detail. Her final victim was the opera singer Virgina Cacioppo.

“She ended up in the pot, like the other two…her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbors and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better: that woman was really sweet.”

Eventually arrested and convicted, Cianciulli was sentenced to thirty years in jail and died of a brain hemorrhage.

So what can we learn from these heinous individuals? Don’t trust anyone comes to mind. Psychopaths can blend into any situation and manipulate even the most wary of individuals. That’s why they make such prolific serial killers, and in some cases, like Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, take decades to catch.

Have you ever encountered a psychopath? Remember, many of them aren’t killers. They just leave a wake of destruction. Who’s the best literary psychopath, Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman?