I write the sort of books I would like to read, and the most important thing for me is to have a good convincing story with strong characters that you can really believe in. So the background has to be the real world - no vampires, fantasy or paranormal for me - sorry! I've spent a fair time in British law courts, which led to three legal thrillers about a tough lady barrister called Sarah Newby. Readers have been kind enough to compare these books to those of John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Scott Turow, which is very flattering - I admire their writing very much.