You seem to enjoy making life very tough for Cape.  Talk about complications and character conflict in thriller storytelling.

Writers should love their characters but treat them like shit. By that I mean the story emanates from conflict, so although you might be rooting for your characters, the stakes need to be high if you expect me (or the reader) to care. If Cape didn't get in over his head, the stories wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

How do you sustain tension over the course of multiple books in a series?

I think each conflict or investigation comes with a price, sometimes a terrible choice that has to be made, where life or death might be determined by a single decision.  If you feel empathy for the characters, those choices (and the consequences) are as much yours as theirs. Plus I'm obsessive about pacing --- if the book has the right velocity, you'll want to go on the ride just to see what happens around the next turn.

Cape's partner, Sally, is a real kick-ass tough-as-nails woman.  What led you to create her character for the series?

I wanted a female protagonist that broke the mold, one who didn't need men in general or a relationship with her partner to be complete. Someone who could be a confident, kick-ass counterpart to Cape's more instinctive and stubborn approach. Sally is like an avenging angel. Cape might be the character most readers relate to, but Sally's the character most readers want to be in their personal fantasies of retribution.

The cape Weathers novels are rich with details on a variety of topics from the function of the DEA to the inner workings of various ethnic mobs.  Discuss your process for research.

I start by making up the most outlandish plot I can think of, then run to the library and the web to see if there's any basis for the premise. Then I work backwards, reading as much as possible, throwing out most of it while looking for the gems, those little-known facts that could point to something bigger, an unseen hand or conspiracy behind a crime. Then I try to talk to as many people as possible who actually know what they're talking about, people who have the jobs I'm writing about, folks who live in the places I'm describing, that sort of thing. I think for every ten pages of research you transcribe, you're lucky if you get one solid paragraph of information that can be woven into your plot.

Publishers Weekly compared your novels to those of Elmore Leonard.  Is that a fair comparison?

I find the reference flattering, because I'm a huge fan. I carry a lot of my stories through dialogue, and many of my characters are a bit twisted, so in that sense I think it's a fair comparison. Like I said, I took it as a huge compliment.

There's a wicked sense of fun in your novels.  Is that your own inner smartass fighting to get out?

I think reading should be unapologetically entertaining, something you desperately want to do as opposed to something you feel you should do.  I also think part of the appeal of protagonists in mysteries and thrillers is that they can say or do the things you'd love to do in real life, if only you could get away with it.

Tell us about your new short story, Hardboiled.

It's a short piece I wrote for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine that just appeared in the January issue, sort of a twist on a classic encounter with a hardboiled detective.  I occasionally take a break from my novels to write short stories and next year will be in a couple of anthologies. Stories give me a chance to try out different voices and characters.

Your books have a very fast pace and yet you manage to include a lot of fascinating detail.  Talk about amping up and maintaining the pace in a modern thriller.

Velocity is key, you really have to get the reader's pulse pounding on page one. That said, there's no reason you can't deliver a ton of information along the way. Ideally you want information coming at your protagonists with the same velocity, one situation or clue after another, not giving them much time to think but at the same time providing enough puzzle pieces for them (and the reader) to figure out what's really going on. If you think about what's happening, that will drive pacing, and if you remember why it's happening, that will drive your plot.
  
Greasing The Piñata is available now in Hardcover from Poisoned Pen Press. ISBN: 978-1590585665
Visit Tim Maleeny online at www.timmaleeny.com

Contributing editor Jonathan Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning of PATIENT ZERO (St Martins Press, March 2009) and PUNISHER: NAKED KILL (Marvel Comics, April 2009).  Visit his author website: www.jonathanmaberry,com