In life I tend to avoid conflict, so writing the first two books was a bit of a departure from reality and in most ways was a ton of fun. I will say, however, that the “bathroom scene” in The Silent Cardinal is a bit more graphic than I probably felt comfortable with and still do. It’s not overly grotesque, and I’ve actually had fans tell me it was one of their favorite chapters of all my books because of how “bone chilling” it was. But it’s pretty contradictory to who I am, and it was a struggle to write. I knew it would be, too. I remember knowing before I wrote that chapter that I would have to really vilify the victim…for myself as much as the readers. And that’s the reason for the page of context about what the guy was doing right before the scene takes place…
