Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Readers who love psychological thrillers that illuminate the domino effect of secrets within all families will be swept up by this story. Anyone with an interest in genealogy will enjoy the way in which the many branches of one family tree are introduced in their specific era and environment, from the present to 1800s England.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Tom Nelson is struggling after the death of his son at the hands of his wife Jane. While Jane sits in a Texas mental hospital for her part in the crime, prosecutors turn their focus to Tom, believing he knew Jane was in decline, and charge him with “failure to protect.” Enter attorney, Dave Frontella, who employs a radical defense strategy – one that lays the blame at the feet of Jane’s nature and nurture. To gather evidence about Jane’s forbears, Frontella hires a woman with the power of retrocognition – the ability to use a person’s belongings to re-create their past.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I passionately wanted to understand the days and moments leading up to a woman deciding to take the life of her child. My quest for answers and months of research helped me develop an understanding that the pivotal moment is not, in fact, a moment or a sudden snap, but a series of events and breakdowns leading up to this moment. I am also a mother. I don’t think I could have written this without the full understanding of the challenges of parenthood.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: If I met your grandfather, what would that tell me about your personality? If I observed a day in the life of your childhood, what would that tell me about how you make choices today? Jane, the character who committed this terrible crime in Janeology, is drawn from the perspective of her genealogy. To know her, we must also know her parents, her grandparents and her great-grandparents. And we also meet her on one critical day of her childhood. While there are wonderful non-fiction treatments of nature and nurture and genetic inheritance, Janeology is a unique fictional account exploring one family and its legacy of secrets.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Janeology explores the idea that genes passed down through the generations impact who we are in countless ways; that nature and nurture are illuminated by the other. The reader is introduced to four generations of Jane’s family on both her maternal and paternal sides – from her English-born great-grandmother to her rough and tumble west Texas father. All the while, we watch as her husband – a man torn apart by still loving a woman he can no longer understand – grapples with putting the pieces of his life back together.

To read an excerpt or view the heart-stopping trailer, please visit www.karenharringtonbooks.com