The most important aspects in all of his fiction are two-fold: the plot and the characters, major and minor. He constructs plots carefully to create suspense and resolve basic mysteries clearly and logically. But he also loves to draw the reader into caring deeply about the characters, revealing in the course of the narrative how they, and their relationships with each other, evolve.

 

Certain qualities are basic to all of these novels. As an author, he prefers to spend most of his writing time immersed in the lives and minds of characters he like or admires, so his protagonists are people he cares about and for whom he wants readers to feel the same. They often struggle to solve problems, and sometimes to figure out what they believe is the right action to take, but they are fundamentally decent human beings confronting difficult and often dangerous obstacles. For that reason, he wants readers to be able to root for them.

 

Finally, as they do in the world, social issues and conflicts often play a role in the stories. Gender, sexual preference, ethnic and racial attitudes and conflicts, all appear in many of the stories, though they serve less to make specific ideological points than to reveal character.