Goodreads asked Catherine Ryan Howard:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Catherine Ryan Howard In November 2011 the Guardian newspaper in the UK/Ireland had a cover story in their 'Weekend' magazine about a British woman who had disappeared from a Disney cruise ship. My mother had read it and saved it for me because I used to work in Walt Disney World in Orlando and she thought the Disney connection would interest me. The story was tragic and unsettling - but what really struck me about the piece was that it mentioned something called the International Cruise Victims organisation, a U.S.-based lobby group. I'd never been on a cruise at that stage, but I had what I think are typical ideas about cruise holidays: sun, fun and endless buffets at sea. So what was this group about? Victims of what? And why were there so many of them that this group (clearly) needed to exist? I started researching cruise ship disappearances and maritime law, and what I discovered shocked me. Another part of my brain, the wannabe-crime-writer part of my brain, also thought, 'A cruise ship is the perfect place to get away with murder.' That's how the idea for DISTRESS SIGNALS was born.

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