Before You Leap

Ask Keith Houghton what he writes about and he won’t say crime or murder, even though these are major themes in his work. Instead, he’ll say contrasts and extremes. When it comes to storytelling, what interests him are life’s polar opposites, both internally and externally—what pushes us to reach for the moral high ground or pulls us deep into our psyche. Moreover, his stories aren’t simply concerned with good versus evil, but also with the crossover between the two—the gray area where the line between right and wrong is often blurred. It’s not surprising, therefore, to see his good guys turn out to be half bad and his bad guys half good, all the while being drawn in opposite directions along plot lines split equally between denying truths and embracing lies. In the world of Keith Houghton’s imagination, not everything is black and white—sometimes it’s blood-red. Keith Houghton is the author of the stand-alone psychological thrillers No Coming Back and Before You Leap, as well as the three Gabe Quinn thrillers: Killing Hope, Crossing Lines, and Taking Liberty. To read more about Keith and his writing, please visit www.keithhoughton.com.