Anne Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Grace (Eventually), Plan B, Traveling Mercies, and Operating Instructions, as well as seven novels, including Rosie and Crooked Little Heart. She is a past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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I did not want to write a serial killer novel. There's so many of them out there, and I don't really get stoked by that kind of thing anyway. But I started digging a little bit and reading about the cops who had worked [a real life case] and how it haunted them past the end of their careers.
Mattie Ryder is a divorced mother who is trying not only to raise her two young children, but also to care for her aging and ailing mother, in Anne Lamott's novel. And what makes Mattie's life still more challenging is that she's involved with a married man, and still trying to resolve issues she had with her dead father.
I did not want to write a serial killer novel. There's so many of them out there, and I don't really get stoked by that kind of thing anyway. But I started digging a little bit and reading about the cops who had worked [a real life case] and how it haunted them past the end of their careers. 
