The book is set in Asheville, North Carolina, and in northern Georgia. We had spent quite a bit of time in Asheville before and during the time I wrote the book, had made a bid on a house there, and our home was on the market. The place where Shep, Mira, and her daughter go for the Christmas holidays is where we spent several days on one of our Asheville trips - in real life - and it worked fine for the novel. Part of the book also takes place on Tybee Island, which is one of the barrier islands off the coast of Savannah. We have a close friend who lives on Tybee, have spent time in Tybee, and her house is essentially where the antagonist usually lives. Again, this is where real life creeps in.
In the book, Mira is abducted as revenge against Sheppard for having arrested the wrong man in a homicide years earlier. The antagonist is the sister of the man Sheppard arrested, a strange, complex woman who is an emergency room physician. Yes, the story involves the paranormal.
DC: One final question. What is special about T. J. MacGregor's thrillers? Of the bestselling authors out there, who would you say you are most like? Stephen King? Michael Crichton? Anne Rice?
TJM: I enjoy all three authors! Way back when I was teaching Spanish to hormonal seventh graders, one of my students gave me a copy of THE SHINING, and I have been hooked ever since. As a reader, King pulls me in with his story, I get lost in it. As a writer, I learned how to structure a novel by reading King and have a deep appreciation for his sense of story, characterization, and pacing. As an astrologer, I find King's natal chart fascinating because it really depicts the archetypal storyteller. This is a man who came into this particular life to tell stories and to tell them in his way.
