Rochelle Krich: I certainly had Dr. Laura in mind when I wrote the character, in the sense that I wanted to create a talk show host who doesn't mince words and spares no feelings. But I wanted Dr. Renee to be a real person, not a stereotype. I haven't heard from Dr. Laura, and have no idea whether she's aware of my book and Dr. Renee. I wonder what she'd think…. 

Crescent Blues: Do you ever base your mysteries on people or situations you encounter in real life?  

Rochelle Krich: I certainly base plot elements on situations or events that have taken place in real life. Till Death Do Us Part, which deals with the problem of a woman who can't obtain her "get," is based on women who actually face that terrible limbo. Fertile Ground was based in part on the embryo-switching scandal that rocked UC Irvine's fertility clinic and in part on an article I read in The Los Angeles Times about young women being recruited to donate eggs.  

My inspiration for the plot of Blood Money was the expose of the less than noble Swiss handling of Holocaust victim's bank accounts, and the character of the murder victim, Holocaust survivor Nathan Pomerantz, was based on my father. Most of the experiences that I attribute to Nathan are my father's actual experiences before, during, and after the war. I feel privileged to have been able to tell a small part of my father's story of courage and survival. 

Crescent Blues: What do you think "microwave psychology" says about America and its people? 

Rochelle Krich: We live in a fast-food society. We want instant gratification. With all the technological advances, we are busier than ever and conduct our lives at a more frantic pace. At the same time, while we are connected as never before by phone and fax and email, we are sometimes a civilization of lonely people who turn to strangers for advice and hand-holding. 

Crescent Blues: What inspired you to delve into the issue of domestic violence in your novel Dead Air? 

Rochelle Krich: I'm sorry to say that the basis for this element of the book was the murder of a woman in my Orthodox community. I knew Rita, though not well, and my children and hers attended the same schools. We heard at one point that her husband was abusing her and that she'd sought help. We heard, again, that while Rita's social worker had urged her to leave her husband and seek safety, her parents had urged her to stay and preserve the family unit. Then one day Rita disappeared.  

Her best friend told the police that Rita had met with the foul play. The police interviewed the husband, who claimed that Rita had left because they'd argued, and that he too was worried about her. The friend persisted and the police ultimately found Rita's body in a warehouse blocks from my home. She had been strangled to death in her house, while the children were asleep. The husband fled, taking his young son with him. For some reason he returned and was apprehended. He was convicted of second degree murder -- the D.A. couldn't try him on first degree unless the children testified and the court psychiatrist felt that this would be too emotionally damaging.  

The funeral was horrific. The rabbi, who could barely speak, talked about communal responsibility and even without his words we were all wondering whether we could have done something to save Rita. After the funeral, as we were all leaving, Rita's mother assaulted the friend who had reported her daughter missing to the police. Strange, and pitiful, and so painful I wrote Dead Air to empower Rita and women like her -- to give her a chance to survive. 

Crescent Blues: Which among the social problems confronted in your books gave you the most satisfaction to address? 

Rochelle Krich: That's a tough question! I'll choose two: One is the problem of the agunah -- the woman who is trapped in a terrible limbo because her husband won't give her a get. I feel passionate about the subject because it's such a travesty not only of women's rights, but of the Torah law which is intended to protect women. Subsequent to writing the book, three of my close friends found themselves in this terrible situation. They all eventually obtained a get -- but at an expensive price. 

The other issue is Holocaust denial, which I tackle in Angel of Death. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors who lost almost their entire families to the Nazis, I'm appalled and frightened by liars who call themselves historians (like David Irving, who was recently soundly defeated in his suit against Debra Lipstadt and was called a liar and anti-Semite by the British judge who ruled against him) and claim that the Holocaust never happened. I wanted to write an entertaining mystery. More than that, I wanted to reach that segment of the population that might not pick up a nonfiction work on the Holocaust and might be easy prey to Holocaust deniers who claim to be offering a "different" view of history. I've been enormously gratified by the response to that book. 

Crescent Blues: I was fascinated with the premise for your novel Fertile Ground. How did you go about researching the topic of fertility, the profession and the problems? 

Rochelle Krich: I visited a fertility clinic and read pages and pages of material on the different techniques used in assisted reproduction. I also clipped every article that appeared about the UC Irving scandal. I even found a Consumer Reports issue that rated fertility clinics and discussed their success rates! For the Jewish element, I spoke with rabbis about the Torah laws -- the halacha -- concerning assisted reproduction, aspects that include egg donation and artificial insemination. I learned a great deal, some of it eye-opening, some of it troubling. 

Crescent Blues: What were the particular challenges of presenting this issue in the context of a novel? How did you keep the book from sounding preachy? 

Rochelle Krich: I wasn't worried about being preachy so much as too technical. The challenge was in presenting the science as a natural part of the narrative and not boring the reader with detail. But I knew that mystery readers, more than any other group, enjoy learning about different subjects and worlds. 

Crescent Blues: Blood Money spoke of issues close to my heart when you addressed the problems that men and women face as they become elderly and vulnerable. The issues facing Holocaust survivors fascinated me. What sources did you draw upon to paint such realistic situations? 

Rochelle Krich: I had read in The Los Angeles Times that ruthless people were hijacking elderly residents of board and care facilities so that they could get their Social Security and MediCal checks. I was horrified and knew I wanted to deal with that subject within a larger context. I also knew from my students, who would visit with board and care residents every Friday afternoon, that these elderly people were invariably lonely and craved company. At the same time, some of them are fiercely proud of their independence. 

As to my depiction of Holocaust survivors, as I mentioned, Nathan Pomerantz is based on my father. And the truth is that, as a child and teenager, my world was composed of Holocaust survivors. I had no grandparents -- I never knew what that was like. I have a surviving uncle from my mother's side (there were seven siblings, some of whom had been married before they were taken, some with children), but my uncle and his family live in Israel. My surrogate family -- aunts, uncles, cousins -- were friends of my parents and their children. All Holocaust survivors. Sadly, they are ailing and, one by one, dying. And with each death, I feel again the pain of my mother's death twenty-nine years ago. 

Crescent Blues: Please, tell us how you made the transition from educator to mystery writer? What prompted that first novel? Did your background in education and English enhance your writing career? 

Rochelle Krich: I had fantasized for as long as I can remember about being a writer but didn't sit down and write until about twelve years ago, when my husband told me to "stop talking about it and just do it." In retrospect, I think I feared failure -- as long as I only fantasized, I couldn't fail.  

The first novel I wrote, Till Death Do Us Part (it was the second published), deals with agunot -- women whose husbands won't give them a get, a Jewish divorce. 

I don't think my background in English and education enhanced my career -- it certainly complicated my day and made me treasure the hours I was able to steal to write. Actually, being a writer, and receiving critiques from editors and copy editors and reviewers, gave me a different perspective on the marks I was putting on my students' papers. I became a kinder "editor," more tactful and considerate in my comments, though no less honest. 

I do think, though, that teaching helped me as a speaker. Having captured the attention of teenagers who are not all willing members of a classroom audience, I found it far easier addressing adults who elected to come hear me. 

Crescent Blues: Was your husband Hershie surprised by your success? How have he, your children and your grandchildren reacted to your new career? 

Rochelle Krich: I don't think he was surprised by my success -- he was surprised, and continues to be surprised, by the amount of promotion authors have to do. He and my children are extremely supportive and encouraging (and sometimes crabby, complaining that "I'm married to the computer"). My grandchildren range from six months to two-and-a-half, so they haven't reacted yet to my career. Although only yesterday, my daughter-in-law told me that Jacob, the two-and-a-half year-old, was looking at the local Jewish newspaper and said, "There's Nana!" She thought he was being silly. When he said it again, she took a look -- and there was a photo of me, accompanying an interview. 

Crescent Blues: Some authors find different writing rituals enhance their creativity -- what rituals do you follow? What procedures do you follow when researching each novel? 

Rochelle Krich: I don't follow any specific rituals, although I prefer writing on my computer at my desk to using a laptop elsewhere. Mornings, after car pool and breakfast, I like to take a cup of coffee (at the age of 50, I began drinking coffee -- Taster's Choice French Vanilla, which my friends tell me is colored water).

I research as I go along -- not an organized way to do things -- and it necessitates interrupting the writing from time to time. But I'm eager to write, and I do find that I'm more excited about information I've learned when I can immediately work it into the narrative. I do a great deal of newspaper clipping, and I make phone calls to police detectives who help me with procedure. For Speak No Evil, which deals with the criminal justice system, I sat in on a trial, heard a voir dire, and spoke to criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors. I also read a book on date rape, as that is central to the book. 

Crescent Blues: Do you begin a new novel with the characters or the plot or how does it evolve? 

Rochelle Krich: I generally begin with the plot, but I'm not comfortable with the story until I know who the characters are. For me, mysteries are not only about whodunit but, more importantly, whydunnit. I'm more fascinated by the motivation than the action. 

Crescent Blues: What is your advice to budding authors starting a career in this new publishing era of ebooks, mega-publishing conglomerates, competition and Internet marketing? 

Rochelle Krich: Write the best book you can. Be compulsive and dedicate a certain amount of time a day. Don't be disheartened by rejection -- either from editors or reviewers. Everyone encounters rejection, and a rejection is just one person's opinion. Blood Money received rave reviews, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly, yet a small New York paper wrote that "this is obviously Ms. Krich's first book, and we hope she'll improve."  

Attend mystery conferences where you can network with other mystery writers, agents, and editors. Join Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.  

Don't try to write a book that fits a trend -- by the time your book is finished, bought, edited, and published, the trend will be long over. Don't forget that you're writing because it's a passion. 

Be prepared to invest a great deal of time and possibly some money to promote your work. 

Crescent Blues: What authors do you read to inspire you?  

Rochelle Krich: My reading taste is eclectic. I recently read The Reader, by Bernard Schlink, and found it engrossing. Then I read Harlan Coben's Final Detail, which I enjoyed. Also read Memoirs of a Geisha -- a wonderful book with a disappointingly cliched ending. One of the most inspiring mysteries I have ever read is Alice Hoffman's Turtle Moon. And I laughed a great deal at Bridget Jones's Diary. 

Crescent Blues: How do you feel about comparisons made between your work and Faye Kellerman's? 

Faye and I write very different mysteries, and the only commonality is the Jewish content. But I welcome all her readers to try mine! 

Crescent Blues: I couldn't help but notice the change in image from the author's cover photo on earlier books to the current glamour shot included in Dead Air and Blood Money. Does the picture reflect a change in the basic woman or the image? Why? 

Rochelle Krich: Funny, I don't think of that as a "glamour shot!" I thought the jacket made me look very author-like and I wanted to get away from the traditional "chin resting on folded hands" pose. The day I had the photo taken, I was suffering from a migraine headache and could barely see the photographer. I worried that I'd look glazed, but I was pleased with the product.  

Crescent Blues: Is there anything you'd like to add? 

Rochelle Krich: I'd love to hear from readers. They can email me at rmkrich@aol.com or visit my Web site. 

Dawn Goldsmith