1. What was your inspiration for this book? My wife, who is Jewish and from New York City, gave me the idea about showing the issue of anti-Semitism following the Civil War. I was intrigued, so I began doing research and I came up with a plot that featured a kidnapping that takes place inside the Mount Sinai Hospital in December, 1866. The victim is the wealthiest man in the United States, Dr. Arthur Mergenthaler, who also happens to be a Jewish autistic savant (those terms were not known in the 1800s). The sub-plot involves my Detective Pat O’Malley’s father, Robert, and his anti-Semitism and racism, and how he learns acceptance of other cultures and races. 2. Would you classify your writing as plot driven or character driven? I would classify it as character driven, even though the books are historical mysteries. I learned from guys like Lawrence Block and Stephen King that in order to hook your reader into the creative twists and turns of a good plot, the reader must first become entranced with the characters in your book. That’s what I try to do. I give my characters problems and personalities to overcome those problems with some difficulty. That’s what provides conflict, which is at the heart of any great fiction. 3. Can you tell us a little about your main character? Patrick James O’Malley came over from Kilkenny, Ireland with his father, Robert, and his brother, Timothy, in the 1830s. His mother, Kathleen, died in one of the famines in Ireland, so the family became quite masculine in nature, and this was a big problem with these three male characters, especially Pat and Tim. Tim was a bit jealous of his younger brother because Pat learned to read early, and Tim was a more physical type who eventually participates in the Draft Riots in 1863. Tim dies shortly thereafter from alcoholism and an altercation in his father’s bar with a local gang member. Pat goes off to war as a replacement for a wealthy young stock broker and earns the Congressional Medal of Honor by saving the life of his general, William T. Sherman. Pat’s PTSD (another term not used in the 1860s) causes him to not be able to be intimate with the opposite sex, and he gets a living place at the behest of the government because he had been a manuscript boy for Edgar Allan Poe before the war. Pat is a “literary detective” because of his love for writers and writing, especially the work of E. A. Poe. 4. Without giving away too much, tell us a little about the main conflict in this book. The main conflict is the anti-Semitic, world-wide movement that takes hold in the Reconstruction South of President Andrew Johnson. O’Malley must travel down there to find the kidnapped Dr. Mergenthaler because he suspects they’re using him for nefarious purposes. O’Malley has reason to believe the anti-Semitic push goes the very top of the Johnson Administration, including General U. S. Grant and his own former boss, General Sherman. 5. What do you hope readers take away from this book? I hope they have a better understanding of the anti-Semitic and racist turmoil that existed in America after the Civil War. 6. What song best describes your writing style? “Hard Day’s Night” by The Beatles. I find myself working when “the spirit” moves me, and it can be during the day or at night. 7. Night Owl or Early Bird? See #6 above. 8. Skittle or M&Ms? Old school: M&Ms (melt in your pocket, not in your hands) 9. Who are your favorite authors? Block and Bloch, King and Patterson, Twain and Swift, Salinger and Heller, and me. 10. Can you tell us about any future projects? I just hatched my third mystery’s premise: O’Malley’s partner, Rebecca Charming goes to “brothel war” with Jane the Grabber. Jane Haskins is providing under-age children to paying clientele of the 1860s (factoid: the “age of consent” in NYC was 10!).