The Big Idea: Bryan Gruley

“Innocent until proven guilty” isn’t always as black and white as it may seem in some cases. Author Bryan Gruley takes a look at what happens when other factors are at play in a seemingly open and shut case of murder. Plunge into the icy depths of the Big Idea for his newest novel, River Deep. BRYAN GRULEY: In the middle of a northern Michigan winter, a young mother drives into a river, drowning her twin infant boys. My God. Why? Was she drunk? Or drugged? Or both? Was she under intense stress? Was the father complicit? Did she have a reason, however misguided, to plunge into that freezing water? If she was at the steering wheel, is she guilty regardless of countervailing circumstances? I didn’t know the answer to any of these questions when I put Catriona Dulaney into the Jako River outside little Bitterfrost, Michigan, at the start of my novel, River Deep. And I worried that, however my story answered those questions, Catriona would inevitably repel readers. After all, how can a…