We love Clea Simon's BAD BOY BEAT, so we asked her to walk us around Em Kelton, her protagonist's, Boston...

My husband’s grandmother, when, after the death of her husband, was faced with having to make her own way in the world, began to rent out rooms in her three-story house as a means of making money to provide for her two small children.

At the start of my latest Swiss mystery, A Fondness for Truth, Andi Eberhart is riding her bicycle home from curling practice when she is killed in a hit-and-run. Since her death turns out to be murder, readers hoping to solve the crime will want to learn more about Andi.

There wasn’t supposed to be a third book. I mean, a second Sherlock Holmes book made sense, because I had already written it, lo these many years ago, as a screenplay. So my second book actually inspired my first one. that was alright. That was cool.

THE PRICE YOU PAY is my most autobiographical novel to date.

Cozy protagonists aren’t supposed to have secrets, and cozy mysteries aren’t supposed to be controversial. But my new cozy, THE NEST breaks these conventions.