Gardiner: “This woman is as good as Michael Connelly…her novels are, simply put, the finest crime-suspense series I’ve come across in the last twenty years.” Gardiner was also recently reelected President of the Mystery Writers of America for 2020.The Dark Corners of the Night is the third novel in her Barry Award–winning UNSUB series, which received three starred reviews from the major trade publications and is soon to be a major television series.
From Gardiner's Q&A at the Walmart blog:
1. Do crimes that happen in real life inspire your work? If so, could you give an example?Learn more about the book and author at Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.
The UNSUB series features a young FBI profiler who hunts serial predators, and each book has been inspired by a true crime case. The first novel, UNSUB, was loosely based on the Zodiac. The second was based on Ted Bundy. The Dark Corners of the Night was sparked by the Night Stalker—a home invader who struck the Los Angeles area more than a dozen times and left nightmares in his wake.
2. Could you describe the process and research that went into developing The Midnight Man, the serial killer in The Dark Corners of the Night?
I lived in Southern California during the Night Stalker’s attacks, and remembered the dread I felt back then. An unknown killer haunted the darkness, and seemed unstoppable. No matter how vigilantly everyone tried to stay on guard against him, we all had to sleep sometime. He owned the night.
When developing the Midnight Man, I dredged up that sense of dread. What kind of person feeds on relentless fear? I researched the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez (who was eventually chased down and captured by outraged East L.A. residents). Despite his terrifying reputation, he wasn’t some supernatural demon. He came from an ordinary family. He played football as a kid. I tried to understand what sent his life careening off track. What turned him into a killer? I studied the latest psychological and neuroscience research on psychopathy and personality disorders. From that I created a home invader who slinks through the night like smoke, scrawls messages on the walls of homes he attacks, and leaves...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Dirty Secrets Club.
The Page 69 Test: The Memory Collector.
My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Evan Delaney series.
The Page 69 Test: The Liar's Lullaby.
My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Jo Beckett series.
The Page 69 Test: The Nightmare Thief.
The Page 69 Test: Ransom River.
The Page 69 Test: The Shadow Tracer.
The Page 69 Test: Phantom Instinct.
The Page 69 Test: UNSUB.
The Page 69 Test: Into the Black Nowhere.
The Page 69 Test: The Dark Corners of the Night.
--Marshal Zeringue