AP: After so much success for so many years writing epic historical fiction such as The Thorn Birds, why switch gears and write a whodunit?

McCullough: Actually, I've written quite a number of shortish, non-epic novels over my 32-year history as a published writer. It's just that they never do as well as the biggies! Some of these shorter books have never been published in the U.S. . . . Among the literati I am best-known for the variety of my output, which ranges across just about the entire gamut of fiction: family saga, love story, historical fiction, humour, myth, futuristic, and even a biography. I also wanted to write a whodunit, but had never gotten around to it when I received the horrible news that I am going blind due to hemorrhages in the retinas. I still had (a novel about) Antony and Cleopatra to write to finish my gargantuan work on Republican Rome, but I took a break and wrote two novels after The October Horse. (One) was my whodunit.

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AP: Are you considering writing another mystery novel? If so, might it also feature Police Lieut. Delmonico?

McCullough: Thus far I have managed to stave off complete central blindness, but I live with the knowledge that it can happen at any time, so I'm delighted that I managed to write my whodunit. I also thought that if I do go completely blind, I will be able to write more whodunits but never do the research reading necessary to write history. So there may be other novels starring Lieut. Carmine Delmonico. In the meantime, I've managed to finish The Queen of Beasts, my novel about Antony and Cleopatra, so I feel good about that too.