In Cold Black Hearts, however, everything comes together. "Cold Black Hearts bridges the two, with its New Mexico setting, and there are hints in this one that make clear that all three books are taking place within the same fictional universe."

Mariotte says that each book in the trilogy stands quite well alone. "There's no reason they have to be read in order," the author jests, "as long as they're all read!"

Cold Black Hearts is about Annie O'Brien, a Phoenix detective who loses her hearing in an explosion, but gains a super-enhanced sense of empathy.

"This quickly becomes a problem," says Mariotte, "since in American's fifth largest city, the range of emotions she's subject to is overwhelming. When she has the chance to escape, by taking an investigative job in New Mexico's barely-populated bootheel, she jumps at it. But that investigation leads her to the ruins of a town abandoned after a mass killing there, and the terrifying modern-day aftermath of that event."

Beyond what is seen on the surface, Mariotte says that "Cold Black Hearts is about honesty and openness, the value of saying what you mean and meaning what you say, which might be a vanishing art."

Though the research for Cold Black Hearts was fairly extensive, Mariotte found aspects of it to be a great deal of fun. "Any book that gives me an excuse to get out in the wilderness and tramp around is a plus for me," he says. "I went into southwestern New Mexico looking for whatever towns I could find, and quickly learned that there aren't many and you'll miss them if you blink. But that suited the needs of the book. I also studied up on temporary hearing loss, Celtic culture, and religious artifacts, but for me the on-the-ground research is always most interesting."

Mariotte lives on a ranch in Arizona with his wife, Maryelizabeth Hart, with whom he and one other partner own the well known and loved Mysterious Galaxy specialty bookstore in San Diego.

Back in Arizona, Hart and Mariotte labor from their own offices. "I call the Flying M Ranch a word ranch," Mariotte says of their spread. "We raise our three dogs, a lot of dust, and books."

Contributing editor Linda L. Richards is also the editor of January Magazine and a contributor to The Rap Sheet.  Her fifth novel, DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE, will be published St. Martin's Minotaur/Thomas Dunne January 2009.