Why do I write?  

I sit down at my desk every morning. I like to write. Passionate about criminal cases, I relish diving into them in search of understanding human nature, which is too complex to be reduced only to the good in us. Evil, which finds its ultimate expression in crime, surprises me in every case I investigate. And it makes me think. Every time, I ask myself, “Would it have been possible to prevent it?” I don't always have an answer.

When you are lucky enough to be a writer, you can't live in a bubble. As a writer engaged in society, in each of my novels I address social issues:

• schizophrenia in The Devil's Billhook,
• antisemitism and spousal abuse in The Ascension Day Crime,
• incest in The Assassinated Virgin,
• child neglect and pedophilia in The August Murderer,
• parental control and child abuse in The Poitiers Affair,
• perversion in Henri Pranzini: The Splendid Darling,
• childhood impulses and passions in The Assassin Was a Child,
• political extremism during the interwar period in She Poisoned Them with Digitalin,
• disability in Demonic Powers and Freemasons,
• ego and evil in The Killer on the Paris-Mulhouse Line,
• premeditated crimes in The Monsters of Waldighoffen,
• nationalism and Nazism in The Double Face of Dr. Karl Roos,
• resistance fighters in They Came for Us: Olga Bancic and Joseph Boczov,
• a child predator in Little Girls from Angers in Danger,
• and others…

In my retelling of the crimes, I'm objective, but never neutral.

I have only one wish: that after reading one of my books, my readers will have more compassion for others.

My novels? A little more humanity.