Eddie Mahler, the lead detective in my debut police procedural THE SILENCED WOMEN, is haunted by his failure in a two-year-old case to prevent the murder of a young woman and to convict the man he knows to be her killer.

In my dream, they were in the base exchange, the equivalent of a general store at U.S. military outposts. I knew it was night, and I knew the place was closed.

I am a nurse who has spent much of my career in the ER and, as with so many ER nurses, our roles include a significant bit of detective work and skills.

The inspiration for The Next Widow came from what is any ER doctor’s worst nightmare: having absolutely no control over the fate of a loved one.

Twenty-five years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to Tuscany, Italy, for three weeks. My then parents-in-law had taken a beautiful rustic villa just twenty minutes outside San Gimignano for the summer and had generously invited their son and I to join them.