If you’ve picked up one of Dr. Crystal Hernandez’s first two published books, you may be surprised to learn she doesn’t only write nonfiction. Her third book, The House on Blackthorn Hill, draws from her expertise in forensic psychology to create an eerie, fast-paced thriller that will have you reading deep into the night.
We reached out for the scoop on her latest release and what she has planned in the coming year.
The House on Blackthorn Hill is your third book published with Argyle Fox Publishing in 2026 alone. There are going to be people who say you used AI in your writing. What do you say to them?
I get why people ask this. Four books in one year (her fourth is in process!) sounds like a lot. The truth is, some were written before 2026, and they’re all very different books. They’d been taking shape for years in journals, notebooks, doodles, and voice memos. I have several others in various stages, too. The ideas, characters, experiences, and writing are all mine. The House on Blackthorn Hill, especially, grew out of experiences I had in a very similar place with a daughter drawing.
The big change this year was that I finally stopped holding everything back. I spent years building a career in behavioral health and telling myself the stories could wait. Then I watched my thirteen-year-old daughter take her own creativity seriously, and I made sure she knew I supported her. That made me realize I was encouraging her to do something I kept postponing for myself. I didn’t have to keep putting my own writing off. By the time I decided to publish, I had years of material ready to go. The ideas and characters come from my experiences in the field, including what inspired The House on Blackthorn Hill.
As your first fiction novel, The House on Blackthorn Hill is very different from your other books, but there are still themes from your previous books that run through this one. Tell us what this one is about, who’s it written for, and why you felt the urge to write and publish it.
The House on Blackthorn Hill is a psychological thriller about Dr. Denise Miller. She takes a leadership job at a forensic psychiatric hospital that spent its first hundred years as an asylum, a place where unwanted people were sent and almost nobody left. Denise shows up thinking she’ll do better than the people who came before her. Of course, they thought that too.
It’s my first novel, but anyone who has read my other books will probably recognize some of the same questions. Obedience for a Paycheck looks at what systems ask of the people working inside them. True Crime Soothes the Soul digs into why we’re drawn to the darkest parts of human behavior. Blackthorn Hill brings those two ideas together for a story that’s very personal for me.
I wrote it for readers who like slow, unsettling thrillers, especially anyone who knows what it’s like to work inside a broken system. The story was inspired by my time spent living in a house on the grounds of an abandoned asylum. I dedicated it to the people who suffered quietly inside places that were supposed to help them. A lot of their stories were never told. Fiction gave me room to face that history in a way nonfiction sometimes cannot.
I imagine you have goals for everything you do. What are your goals and hopes and dreams for this book? Are they different than your goals for your nonfiction work?
With my nonfiction, I want readers to understand themselves, their workplaces, or their interest in true crime a little better. With Blackthorn Hill, I want readers to see Denise stand her ground against systemic corruption while trying to manage her fears, protect her family, and hold on to her career.
I also hope the book gets people interested in the history of institutional care, the people who disappeared inside those places, and the way modern institutions treat vulnerable people. If someone finishes it and starts looking into the real history, that’s a win for me. I’d also love to see book clubs pick it up. It’s the kind of story people will argue about, which is part of the fun.
I also hope it makes people who work inside institutions a little more willing to speak up when something feels wrong or when they see vulnerable people being harmed.
Some people get nervous when they present themselves in new ways. Did you have any fears about releasing a fiction book? If so, how did you move past those fears? If not, what gives you such confidence?
Definitely. With nonfiction, I can fall back on my credentials, research, and years of firsthand experience. Fiction feels a lot more personal. People judge what you know and what you imagined, and that hits differently.
What helped was realizing how much of my professional experience was already in the novel. The pressure, the human behavior, and the way institutions shape people are all over the book. Fiction let me explore parts of that experience that wouldn’t fit neatly into research. Once I understood that, releasing it didn’t feel quite as scary. The real inspiration was much scarier.
There are still lots of other stories up your sleeve, and you have big plans for 2027. Would you like to give a sneak preview of what readers can expect from you next year?
In 2027, I’m launching my first series, Silver Sleuths. I can’t say much about it yet, but I’m having more fun writing it than anything else I’ve worked on. And there are more projects behind that one. I still have plenty of notebooks to empty.
What would readers be surprised to learn about you?
I have more books in progress than I can easily count. They’re spread across journals, handwritten notes, doodles, and voice memos, all in different stages. The books I’ve published are just the first few to make it out of the pile. I also once lived at an abandoned asylum, which tends to stop a dinner conversation pretty quickly.
Thanks for sharing once again, and here’s to readers loving your first fiction book as much as we do!