The RV Book Fair 2026: Interview with Verlin Darrow

Your background is incredibly diverse—you've been a psychotherapist, professional volleyball player, singer-songwriter, and much more. How have those life experiences shaped your storytelling?

I think my experiences have enabled me to get in the heads of characters who would otherwise baffle me. How and why do people change? Why would a factory worker start a fight? How would an academic experience a natural disaster? What’s the back story behind someone’s motivation to swindle others? And how does a spiritual leader reconcile his humanity with his need to role model exemplary behavior? I don’t think I could construct convincing book plots with elements such as these without firsthand experience of such things. I know other authors who can manage this, but I’m limited by an imagination that can take what I know and run with it versus dream up whole-hog new things.

Many of your novels blend mystery, suspense, psychology, humor, and spirituality. What draws you to combining these seemingly different genres?

As a reader, I love books that intertwine these elements. A lot of the time, I write books that I’d like to read, and hope others will, too. Mostly, that’s true. Sometimes it isn’t. I have what I think of as a wonderful manuscript sitting around because everyone who reads it hates it. Aargh! Anyway, the absurdity of being in a body in this world demands humor as far as I’m concerned. And I happen to know a lot about psychology and Eastern spirituality, so these perspectives fall out of me as I write with no conscious effort. Mystery and suspense novels are simply the best vehicles for what I’m good at—dialogue, plotting, and character development. I have to work hard at description, and most genres demand more of that.

Your latest mystery, “The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow,” introduces readers to a spiritual leader with a strong moral compass who is challenged to hang onto it in the face of adversity. What drives Kade Tobin and what makes him different from the heroes we usually see in a mystery/courtroom drama?

-Kade’s shadowy background creates ambiguity. Is he the great guy his followers think? Is he actually the murderer? He endeavors to help everyone, but is still simply a person subject to the universal human condition. Sometimes his help isn’t help. He makes mistakes. But he is an amusing, self-aware character with a great deal of insight into the other characters, so we experience them more deeply through his eyes. I hope I’ve made Kade sufficiently, realistically complex so that he can’t actually be summed up in a short response like this.

Several of your books explore mindfulness, personal transformation, and spiritual growth alongside thrilling mysteries. Why is it important for you to weave those deeper themes into your stories?

I think this stuff needs to be disseminated as widely as possible. It’s quite helpful to most folks to know more about it, however it truly resonates with them. But a lot of people don’t read self-help or spiritually-oriented books, so their exposure to these ideas is limited to clickbait versions. One of my goals as an author is to introduce helpful ideas into mainstream mysteries and thrillers as a way to reach more people. The books could stand alone without this additional depth, but why should they? And I’ve worked hard not to distract readers. The ideas are intrinsic to the plots and characters.

As a practicing psychotherapist, how much of your understanding of human behavior finds its way into your characters and their motivations?

A lot. Characters need to change in response to what I put them through with my plots, just as real people have to do when they’re challenged. Life is like a curriculum, and each of ours is different, yet there are common patterns and themes. As a therapist, I help people get unstuck by helping them have a more direct relationship to reality as it actually is. No one—and no character—can navigate life while conning themselves about who they are and what they’re dealing with. I’m reminded of my first therapist (I started on the other side of the room). He told me my problem was that I believed my own bullshit. He was right. Like me, my main characters move from cluelessness to something approximating reality-based behavior. Unlike me, they need to do this in order to survive when a murderer is on the loose.

Books like "The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth” and “Coattail Karma” feature unforgettable characters facing both external mysteries and internal journeys. Which character do you relate to the most, and why?

I identify the most with Sid in “Coattail Karma” since I was also singled out at one point as being someone special by a spiritual authority (one who I’ve subsequently discredited.) I exaggerated my experience in a ton of ways to make a more exciting book. Sid is told he’s a clone of Buddha, for example. I was only supposed to be a saint (Ha! If you knew me, you’d laugh too.) Sid goes on a journey to New Zealand and India to try to sort out who he really is. I did as well. But no one on a motorcycle shot at me, and spirit dogs didn’t follow me around. What Sid and I mostly have in common is our internal reactions to what happened to us. In both cases, we had to sort out what to make of these extraordinary events, and I did my best to transfer my own experience into him.

Your dialogue is often praised for its wit and humor. How do you balance moments of comedy with suspense and darker themes?

Actually, I have to be careful I don’t break the flow of the pace or the suspense I’m generating by introducing too much humor. In real life, I’m funny most of the time (unless you ask my wife, who will tell you that I think I am.) But comic mysteries are incredibly hard to write, so I’ve given up trying. Read The Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell if you get a chance. There’s a master.

Readers often say your books leave them thinking long after they finish the last page. What conversations or reflections do you hope your stories inspire?

I think everyone should periodically update their life paradigm—the operating manual they use. Sometimes a book, a conversation, or a dramatic event pries our eyes open to how things are in a way that leads us into a personal frontier. It would be grandiose for more me to believe a book of mine could serve that purpose, but perhaps the ideas in one of them could motivate someone to start down that road. Several professional reviewers mentioned they learned things of value to them. On the other hand, I don’t want to overemphasize this at the expense of the fun factor. My books are an enjoyable, unpredictable rollercoaster ride (once again, I’m quoting a reviewer.)

As your career has progressed, have you discovered something about yourself as an author that surprised you?

Yes. I have always considered myself to be work-avoidant, if not outright lazy. Plenty of unfinished manuscripts and undone chores speak to this. Yet I’ve traditionally published seven novels. Talk about needing to update a perception. Also, I discovered that when I’m fully engaged in a writing project, I’m happier. That’s enough reason to keep at it, regardless of anything else.

What projects are you currently working on, and what can readers look forward to next?

I’m most of the way through a drama that’s set almost entirely in a courtroom during a murder trail. The legal scenes in my last book were really fun to write and readers liked those parts the best. I feel qualified to write in the voice of a defense attorney since the main hobby in my family growing up was arguing.

Verlin Darrow is a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in La Selva Beach in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. He is a former professional volleyball player, country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, NCAA coach, and an assistant guru in a small, benign cult.

A younger Verlin ran a punch press in a sheetmetal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood floors. He barely missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8.0), and (so far) has successfully weathered his share of internal disasters.

Verlin began writing novels when he was nineteen. The first one was hideously amateurish. The quality of his writing progressed all the way up to just plain bad by the time he’d written a few more. That era of his life was characterized by an inability to learn much, since that would’ve entailed acknowledging that he didn’t already know everything.

Eventually, Verlin morphed into a simulacrum of a mature adult, and has published seven mysteries and thrillers with The Wild Rose Press. The three he submitted to book contests all won awards. Find out more at https://www.verlindarrow.com.

Interview published in The Relatable Voice Magazine - The RV Book Fair 2026 - Special. Download the full magazine for free at The RV Book Fair | Relatable Media.