“It's like being involved in a detective story, looking for that thing ...” — Erik Larson Quote

It's like being involved in a detective story, looking for that thing that nobody else has found.

We, of course, have the power of hindsight in our arsenal, but people living in Berlin in that era didn't. What would that have been like as this darkness fell over Germany?

Isaac Cline was a creature of his times. He embodied the hubris of his times and, in many ways, was a victim of the storm, not just in material ways - loss of a family member and damage to the town - but also in metaphoric terms.

It was a civilian ship, and the Lusitania could outrun any submarine. So this population of people was very confident that Cunard and the Royal Navy would be looking after them. Why weren't they under convoy? That's the real question.

I remember watching 'Colombo' a lot with my dad. That was one of the first detective shows I remember watching. And I remember my dad turning to me - my dad loves to turn to me and explain why things are funny. He used to do that with 'Seinfeld' all the time. He did it with 'Colombo', too, set the scene.

At first I imagined I'd write detective novels, because I loved 'Nancy Drew.'

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

Nick Fear was just a ridiculous name I'd been kicking around when thinking about writing some detective stories.