I bend over and put my hands on my knees. Sucking air. A pause that lets the panic in. The horrific imaginings. Who he’s with. What they will do. Are doing. How he will never come back.

I saw someone. Looking in the window.
Did you see who it was?
A man. A shadow.

I have already started to run back to the concession stand when I see it. A figure disappearing into the stands of corn. As tall as me, if not taller. There. And then not there.

-Excerpt from the opening of The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper

1. What do you love about being a writer?
   Not having a boss.
   
   
   
2. What is your biggest challenge as a writer?
   Being out in the sunny, exciting, new-people-filled world (as I am these days promoting The Killing Circle) and then going back into my hole to work.
   
   
   
3. If you were not a writer, what other profession would you want to pursue?
   The only things I can think of are other kinds of writing: screenwriting, journalism. But this is probably cheating the parameters of your question. I always kind of liked bartending. Maybe I'd go back to that.
   
   
   
4. In your opinion, what is the most influential crime novel of the last 100 years?
   For me, it's a novel that isn't really considered a "crime novel," but that lives within its extended borders: The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
   
   
   
5. Which fictional hero do you admire or despise the most?
   In fiction (unlike the real world) I don't really admire nor despise anyone. I merely try to understand, to empathize. This is the unique use and power of literature: we are relieved from moral judgment, and are permitted to live in other skins just to see how it might feel.
   
   
   
6. After writing, how do you spend the rest of your time?
   My daughter just turned two, and she's my favourite person to be around these days. When I'm not working, I want to be with her. (And even when I am working, she's often at the top of the basement stairs, calling down for me, which soon makes work impossible anyway).
   
   
   
7. What city or location has the most impact on your writing?
   My novels have been set in places both faraway and close to home - I'm not a writer with a specific geographic terrain I'm mapping out. Having said that, though, I find myself returning in my mind to the places where I've lived for long stretches. Not for the place, but for the mood I was in at the time, or the people I met. Stratford, Peterborough, Montreal, Dawson City, Whitehorse, Toronto.
   
   
   
8. Do your books have a message?
   God, I hope not. They have themes, and investigations, and ideas. But no message.
   
   
   
9. What are you currently reading?
   When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson.
   
   
   
10. If you could meet any person (living or dead), who would that be?
    It's a toss-up between Henry James and Scarlett Johansson.
    
    
    
11. What is your greatest vice?
    Booze.
    
    
    
12. What is your greatest extravagance?
    Expensive booze.
    
    
    
13. What is your idea of misery?
    To be separated from the people I love.
    
    
    
14. What is your idea of happiness?
    Knowing there are people who love me.
    
    

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