I’m often asked how I came to create the Hamilton St. James mystery series, what drove me to do it. The honest answer requires taking a step back, to a time long before I ever signed a financial statement or outlined a plot.

Because of my own background, Certified Fraud Examiner, Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant, and former Trustee in Bankruptcy, I’ve always been drawn to stories that live in the margins of money and morality. The ones where the crimes don’t explode, they unfold. Where villains don’t brandish weapons, they manipulate numbers.

Sometimes the hardest decision a writer makes isn’t who dies or who did it; it’s what to call the one trying to solve the mysteries. A name carries weight. It sets tone, reveals character, and even hints at the kind of story you’re about to read. Get it wrong, and the spell breaks. Get it right, and the name lingers long after the last page.