“Yes. I took a course in parapsychology at New York’s New School of Social Research, during which I observed people being regressed to former lifetimes. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I am fascinated by its dramatic possibilities.
“The novella, The Anastasia Syndrome, was inspired by the true story of Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia—a claim debated and tried in court for over fifty years but which remains, to this day, an enigma. In The Anastasia Syndrome, Judith Chase, a prominent historical writer, is living in London and becoming traumatized by early childhood memories of bombing raids during World War II, in which she was orphaned. She goes to a prominent psychiatrist for help and becomes the victim of his experiments in regression. She is regressed not only to her childhood tragedy, but to 1660, the era of the Civil War in England. In this regression process, she absorbs the persona of murderous Lady Margaret Carew, a woman with a mission of vengeance. In her persona of Lady Carew, Judith becomes the subject of a massive hunt by Scotland Yard.
“The four stories in The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories deal with such themes as obsession and supernatural phenomena. Obsessive love is the theme of ‘Terror Stalks the Class Reunion.’ A supernatural phenomenon occurs in ‘Double Vision.’ ‘Lucky Day’ begins with a premonition of imminent danger. ‘The Lost Angel’ is a Christmas story in which a mother’s intuition becomes the overpowering force in the search for a lost child.
“The book reflects an intense personal interest on my part in such phenomena as sixth sense and thought transference.”
• What prompted you to choose the world of personal ads as a background for Loves Music, Loves to Dance?
“People in all walks of life are turning to personal ads to find romance or companionship. Personal ads are risky, but they are big business in America. The scary aspect is that you are taking on faith what a stranger tells you—his name, his job, his marital status, his background. Women can fall prey to sexual harassment, rape, even murder.
“I attended a lecture by an FBI agent while I was Chairperson of the International Crime Congress in 1987. When he talked about a serial killer who enticed his victims through personal ads, the words ‘loves music, loves to dance’ walked through my mind and the seed for the book was planted. The speaker that day was Robert Ressler, Director of Behavioral Forensic Sciences, who has since retired from the FBI. As the FBI’s top criminologist and serial murder and violent crime expert, Ressler had conducted original research in violent criminal behavior and interviewed some of the most notorious criminals, such as David Berkowitz, the ‘Son of Sam Killer’; Ted Bundy, killer of over thirty-five women; Richard T. Chase, the ‘Vampire Killer’; John Wayne Gacy, Chicago killer of thirty-three boys; and Charles Manson. Robert Ressler acted as my consultant on Loves Music, Loves to Dance.
“Loves Music, Loves to Dance revolves around a serial killer who uses personal ads to entice his victims. Erin Kelly, a talented young jewelry designer and her best friend, Darcy Scott, a decorator, have been dating men through personal ads. They were helping a friend, a television producer, to research a documentary on the kinds of people who place and answer personal ads and their experiences. Darcy had persuaded the reluctant Erin to participate. One day, Erin is missing. Soon after, her body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier. On one foot is her own shoe; on the other, a high-heeled dancing slipper. Guilt-stricken over Erin’s death, Darcy decides to meet the men Erin dated, to find her killer. What Darcy does not realize, what she cannot know until it is too late, is that she has been targeted as the killer’s next victim.”
• All Around the Town deals with a young woman with multiple personalities who is accused of murder. How did you get the idea for this book?
“It emanated from the request for an autograph. A friend of my daughter Carol came to visit, an art therapist from the National Center for Treatment of Dissociative Disorders in Denver, specializing in the treatment of multiple personality disorder. She wanted me to sign a book for one of her patients. When I asked for the name, she hesitated and said: ‘Now which one of her personalities reads your books?’ This aroused my interest and led to my writing this book.
“Laurie Kenyon, the main protagonist in All Around the Town, a twenty-one-year-old college senior, is accused of murdering her English professor, Allan Grant. When he is found stabbed to death, her fingerprints are everywhere—on the door, on the curtain, on the knife. Arraigned on a murder charge, Laurie has no memory of the crime. Traumatized by abuse she suffered after she was kidnapped at the age of four and held for two years, she has developed multiple personalities. Laurie, the host personality, does not know that others co-exist with her, nor is she aware that one of her alternates, Leona, has been writing Allan Grant crazed love letters and secretly entering his home.
“Bic Hawkins, Laurie’s abductor, an unsavory drifter, had been scratching out a living singing in taverns and as a fundamentalist preacher. Now he has become a celebrated television evangelist. Before releasing her, Bic had threatened six-year-old Laurie with death if she ever talked about what he had done to her and, terrified, she erased the experience from her mind.
“Attorney Sarah Kenyon has quit her job as assistant prosecutor to defend her younger sister. Her strategy is to prove that Laurie’s childhood trauma was the direct cause of Allan Grant’s murder. Sarah brings in Dr. Justin Donnelly, a specialist in the treatment of multiple personalities, to unlock the unbearable memories she has been suppressing. As her multiple personalities emerge in therapy and the date for her trial approaches, her fate hangs on the question: If one of her alternate personalities perpetrated Allan Grant’s murder, is she to be held accountable?”
• What is the theme of your novel I’ll Be Seeing You?
“The ‘what if’ of in-vitro fertilization and human cloning.
“In I’ll Be Seeing You, Meghan Collins, a television news reporter, is covering a story in the emergency room of a large metropolitan hospital when an unidentified stabbing victim is brought in. Attempts to revive her fail. When Meghan looks at the dead girl’s face, she recoils in horror—she is looking at a mirror image of her own. As she attempts to learn the identity of the dead girl, her search becomes linked to a story she is doing at the Manning Clinic.
“The Manning Clinic, an assisted reproduction facility, has a remarkably high success rate in helping childless women conceive through in-vitro fertilization. Now they have ventured into cloning of embryos and a woman is about to deliver the identical twin of her three-year-old son. At first the director, Dr. George Manning, welcomes the idea of television coverage, but bars Meghan when Dr. Helene Petrovic, embryologist in charge of the laboratory, abruptly quits. He refuses Meghan further access to the clinic. That evening, Helene Petrovic’s body is found—she has been shot to death. Then, a scandal erupts at the Manning Clinic.
“Petrovic is linked to Meghan’s father, Edwin Collins, whose executive search firm had placed her in the lab. For nearly a year, Collins had been missing and presumed dead. Now suspicion arises about his disappearance. Meghan is sure that Petrovic’s death is the key to learning the truth about her father, the dead girl and the Manning Clinic.”
• Remember Me, a psychological thriller, is set on Cape Cod. What motivated you to choose this locale?
“The idea originated twenty years ago, when I visited a bookstore on the Cape, where I have a home, and came across a book on its legends and history. At that time, the idea for a novel titled Remember House first took root in my mind. It became Remember Me, in which the main character, Menley, goes to Remember House. I realized that the story of the early settlers, their lifestyles and their homes, would provide a rich historical background for a suspense story in which today and yesterday become inexorably linked.”
• Menley, heroine of Remember Me, suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. What made you use this as a theme in your novel?
“The medical profession has only recently recognized
that a traumatic event can be re-experienced if something triggers the memory of a contributing factor to the trauma—earthquake victims may panic if a subway train rumbles underneath; a woman who has been attacked in an elevator may find it impossible to enter an elevator again.
“In Remember Me, Menley drives across an unguarded railroad crossing and a train hits the back of the car, killing her little boy. The sight of the railroad crossing, the sound of a train whistle, or the sound of screaming is enough to make her relive that awful moment with the same desperate anxiety and panic she experienced at the time. Menley has never stopped blaming herself for the death of her two-year-old son, Bobby, though she was blameless. In the aftermath, as Menley suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, her marriage to Adam, a high-profile criminal lawyer, starts to fall apart. The birth of their daughter, Hannah, revitalizes their relationship.
“Seeking tranquillity, Menley and Adam rent Remember House on Cape Cod, where strange things begin to happen. Incidents occur which make Menley relive the horror of the accident and make Adam fear for Hannah’s safety.
“Menley and Adam become involved with Scott Covey, a strikingly handsome but impecunious young man, who is suspected of murder when his wealthy young bride of only three months drowns in a storm. Sympathetic to his plight, Menley persuades her husband to take on his case.
“Step by step, they are drawn into a dark and threatening web of events that disrupt this seemingly peaceful town. Remember Me builds to a climax as Menley faces a mounting threat to her sanity—and to her life.”
• Your suspense novel Let Me Call You Sweetheart has an unusual twist—a plot revolving around plastic surgery. What inspired this theme?
“The idea of using plastic surgery as a theme emanated from a conversation with my longtime editor, Michael Korda. He raised the question: What if a plastic surgeon keeps giving the exact same face to a number of women? I found the idea intriguing.”
• What is the plot of Let Me Call You Sweetheart?
“Kerry McGrath, a young assistant prosecutor, learns that her ten-year-old daughter, Robin, has been injured in a car accident while out with her father, Kerry’s ex-husband, Bob Kinellen. Robin’s face has been cut by flying glass and she has to be taken to the hospital. When Kerry arrives there, Robin is in surgery with the prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Smith.
“A week later, Kerry is in Dr. Smith’s office with Robin, to have her stitches removed. There, Kerry sees a young woman, who appears to be in her mid-twenties, a cloud of dark hair framing her face. ‘I know you,’ she thought. ‘But from where? That face—I have seen her before.’ The woman’s name, she finds out, is Barbara Tompkins, a name which means nothing to her. On her next visit to Dr. Smith’s office, Kerry sees another woman with the same face. Her name is Pamela Worth—a name also unknown to her.
“Kerry cannot get the face out of her mind and starts having nightmares. In the first, she is in the doctor’s waiting room and sees a young woman lying on the floor, a knotted cord twisted around her neck. In the next, sweetheart roses are scattered around her body. Now Kerry knew. The women resembled Suzanne Reardon, the victim in the Sweetheart Murder Case.
“Nearly eleven years earlier, when Kerry McGrath had just begun work in the county prosecutor’s office, Suzanne Reardon had been murdered. Her husband had been convicted of the murder. Was there a connection between the crime and the look-alikes of the victim?
“Kerry decides to probe into the Sweetheart Murder Case, knowing that it may jeopardize her career, but unaware that there is more at stake—her life and that of her daughter. The story builds to a climax as the murderer targets Kerry and Robin for his next strike.”
• You wrote a suspense novel with a Christmas theme, Silent Night. What is it about?
“Catherine Dornan has come to New York with her two sons, ten-year-old Michael and seven-year-old Brian, to be near Tom, her husband, who is lying critically ill in the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It is Christmas Eve and they are on Fifth Avenue, near Rockefeller Center. Later on, they plan to go to the hospital to give Tom the St. Christopher medal that saved her father’s life in World War II by deflecting a bullet; Catherine’s mother and little Brian firmly believe that it will make him well. Suddenly, Catherine realizes that her wallet with the St. Christopher medal is missing and that Brian has disappeared.
“Cally Hunter, a woman from the other side of the tracks, is also on Fifth Avenue on Christmas Eve, looking for a man who sells dolls on the street so she can buy one cheaply for her four-year-old daughter, Gigi. Cally had just served a fifteen-month prison sentence for aiding her brother, a cop killer. When Cally sees Catherine’s wallet drop to the sidewalk, she grabs it and makes off. Brian sees what has happened and knows he must retrieve the St. Christopher’s medal. He follows Cally into the subway, all the way into her dilapidated building in lower Manhattan. As he hovers around Cally’s apartment door, a man comes out and yanks him in. The man is Jimmy Siddons, Cally’s brother, who has escaped from prison and has come to get money from Cally.
“Jimmy Siddons abducts Brian, as traveling with a little boy at Christmas is the ideal camouflage for his planned escape to Canada in a stolen car. The story reaches its climax when Jimmy realizes he is being followed and Brian knows that Jimmy is about to kill him. Brian decides to take action. He knows he has a mission to fulfill—to bring the St. Christopher medal to his father.”
• Describe the plot of Moonlight Becomes You.
“Maggie Holloway, a young photographer, becomes the target of a killer with a twisted mind when she discovers a link between the murder of her stepmother, Nuala Moore, and several deaths at Latham Manor, a magnificent Newport mansion, now a residence for wealthy retirees.
“She has a chance encounter with Nuala at a cocktail party in Manhattan—a family reunion for the Moore clan of Newport. Nuala, a painter, had brightened her childhood, but they lost touch after her divorce from her father. When Nuala invites Maggie to visit her in Newport, she readily accepts. Nuala plans a dinner for a group of friends to welcome her, but when Maggie arrives, she finds the house ransacked and Nuala dead.
“Nuala had planned to sell her house and move into Latham Manor, but changed her mind at the last moment. Maggie learns that just the day before she died, Nuala had changed her will, leaving the house and everything she owned to her. Nuala’s only request was that Maggie visit her friend Greta Shipley at Latham Manor as often as possible. In carrying out Nuala’s wish, Maggie gets to know the other residents and learns that several women there had died suddenly.
“When Maggie accompanies Greta to the cemetery to visit Nuala’s grave and those of her other friends, she notices something odd. She decides to return and take photographs. When she goes back with the pictures, she makes a strange discovery, not only about Nuala’s grave, but also the graves of four other women who recently died at Latham Manor. Soon after, Greta Shipley herself dies and Maggie begins her own investigation.
“As Maggie begins to unravel the thread linking Nuala’s murder to the deaths of the women at Latham Manor, she comes closer and closer to uncovering the identity of a killer with his own strange signature. What she does not know is that she is now the killer’s target and that each clue brings her closer to an unimaginable fate.”
• My Gal Sunday: Henry and Sunday Stories revolves around Henry Britland IV, a former president of the United States, and his bride, Congresswoman Sandra O’Brien. Tell us about Henry and Sunday.
“Henry is young, rich and handsome, the scion of a wealthy and influential family. Sandra, known as Sunday, is the daughter of a New Jersey motorman. I derived the idea for these characters from my favorite radio series as a child, the once wildly popular soap opera Our Gal Sunday.”
• What are the stories about?
“The four stories in My Gal Sunday deal with the indictment of Henry’s close friend and former Secretary of State for the murder of his mistress, the kidnapping of Sunday, the mysterious d
isappearance from the Britlands’ yacht of a Latin American prime minister and a Christmas story about a little boy who has been abducted and is reunited with his family by Henry and Sunday.”
• Some of the characters in My Gal Sunday are portrayed tongue-in-cheek. Isn’t that unusual in your writings?
“In my novels, I set out to scare people. Here, it is suspense with a touch of whimsy.”
• How did you acquire the knowledge of the presidential lifestyle and Secret Service protocol reflected in these stories?
“I have been a guest at the Bush and Clinton White Houses and also spent time in Washington doing research on protection of former presidents by the Secret Service.”
• What is the theme of your novel Pretend You Don’t See Her?
“It revolves around a young woman who has to go into the federal witness protection program after witnessing a murder.
“Lacey Farrell, a real estate agent in the New York firm of Parker & Parker, is asked by Isabelle Waring to handle the sale of the apartment of her daughter, Heather Landi, a young singer and actress who had been killed in a car accident on her way back from a weekend of skiing in Vermont. Isabelle never believed that Heather’s death was an accident and had moved into her apartment, obsessively looking for clues to her death. Heather’s father, however, famed restaurateur Jimmy Landi, does not share her doubts. He insists that Isabelle, his former wife, accept their daughter’s death and sell the apartment. Lacey takes a prospective buyer to see it—Curtis Caldwell, a lawyer from a prestigious law firm. He makes an immediate offer. It is with horror that Lacey encounters him at the apartment later that day and realizes that he is Isabelle’s killer.
“Isabelle had made a dying wish to Lacey—to take a sheaf of papers to Heather’s father. They were Heather’s journal and, she believed, held the key to her death. To keep her word, Lacey does not give the papers to the police and before handing them to Jimmy Landi, makes a copy for herself. While Lacey is in trouble with the police for removing evidence from the crime scene, her description of the killer enables her to identify him—Sandy Savarano, a professional hitman, who had eluded jail by staging his own death some years earlier. Savarano now receives orders to silence Lacey, who knows more about Isabelle’s and Heather’s deaths than would allow her to live.”