I decided to give myself a break from Thorn, and Thorn a break from me for at least one book. I’d never really intended to write a series with one character but was urged to do it by my editor at Norton. I’d always liked series characters like Travis McGee and Spencer and Lew Archer and Sam Spade, but I never pictured myself as that kind of writer.

I certainly would have given Thorn’s personality a lot more thought at the outset if I’d known I was going to be living with the guy indefinitely.

He’s kind of cranky and very resistant to becoming involved in detective work. He simply wants to fish and tie his bonefish flies and stare out at the beautiful sunsets with his wine at hand. I certainly can identify with that much of his make up.

So Bones of Coral was a chance to take a short vacation from Thorn. The book began with some reading and research I did concerning the high incidence of multiple sclerosis in Key West. The situation aroused my curiosity and I began to read newspaper accounts and several government pamphlets about scientific investigations into the possible causes of the high disease rate. When I came across a small account of U.S. military chemical warfare testing that had occurred secretly in Key West in the fifties and its possible link to the disease rate, I knew I had something interesting to write about.

Bones of Coral has one of my favorite villains, a young man named Dougie Barnes. Dougie was my version of Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of the Rainman. Only Dougie is a far more sinister character than that, a man who had a weakness for silly rhymes and young girls. When Shaw Chandler, a Miami paramedic, comes home from Miami to Key West to look into the sudden death of his father, he encounters both Dougie and his old high school sweetheart, Trula Montoya, who is a victim of multiple sclerosis. Linking Shaw Chander’s father’s death with Trula’s MS was certainly a challenge. And spending 300 pages with Dougie Barnes was unforgettable.