MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER--Which ones are YOU?

 DEBORAH CROMBIE:  It's a big day here in-- what did we decide to call it our little English village? Redfields? Anyway, we are all here celebrating Hanks newest thriller! Library Journal called Mother Daughter Sister Stranger “terrific.” And it’s a “Most Anticipated” from Zibby Owens, BookBub, Goodreads, Scary Mommy, Beyond the Bookends, AARP, and more!

Congratulations, dear Hank, on your 18th novel!  (And, hint hint, you all can order it here!

What’s it about and where did it come from? And questions for you, Reds and Readers, and a giveaway, below!

DEBS: Hank, where did MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER come from?

Hank: Oh, it's a total magpie story. A little bit of this and a little bit of that and then, at some point, the story fragments reach critical mass and become something else. An entirely new story. Know what I mean? It’s amazing and so exciting when it happens.

One fragment: I was thinking about how often, when I was a teenager mostly, I'd lied to my mother. Not big deal lies, just homework and where I was at a pick a particular time. I'm sure she didn't believe a word of it, but she let it all go. But recently I started wondering, had she ever lied to me? How would I ever know? What if I found out? I kept thinking about that, that fragile relationship, and how we assume that what we've been told about our family history is true.

I must have been being a little nostalgic, too, because I also thought about how when I was growing up, and my mother would read out loud to me. I was always so frustrated when she said: “The End.” Because that couldn't be the end, could it? What happened after that and after that and after that? 

I have always been fascinated by what happened to the Narnia kids, what happened to Nancy Drew, and later, what happened to Nick Carraway and the Bennett sisters. How did their lives turn out after their books ended? Were the endings actually happy?

I was also looking back at a prior manuscript of mine, and reading bill notes that my editor had put in the margins. And I realized how that shaped the story, how that shepherded what stayed in and what got cut and how people's motivations and desires changed. How the notes in the margins of a manuscript, the discussion between author and editor, can reveal the real story behind the story. More I cannot say.

So, Mother Daughter Sister Stranger:  A missing mom. A frightened daughter. And a sister determined to find a happy ending for their family. Even though, as she discovers, her family's history turns out to be terrifyingly sinister, and all of their lives may go up in flames once again.

DEBS: You are famously a pantser. Were there big changes from the first draft to the final?

HANK: Well, that is a perfect question for this book! When Mother Daughter Sister Stranger was in first draft, the main character, Eliza Ramsey, had a blog where she wrote happy endings for characters in her favorite books. As she says in the original manuscript: she took Psych 101, and is well aware she’s really looking for a happy ending for herself after the devastating tragedy of her childhood, but that is something she cannot control. So she writes happy endings for others.

But!  All that got cut! ALL OF IT! Because my darling editor and I decided it was just a little too much information. Eliza is still looking for happy endings, but in a completely different way. You’ll have to read it to find out.

DEBS: Did any character unexpectedly take the story in a direction you hadn’t expected?

HANK: As you said, I never plan. So the entire book took the story in directions I hadn't expected! But yes, there were two characters, certainly, who as they grew on the page, behaved in ways that were very surprising to me. I kept trying to nudge them back into the personality I thought I was writing. But finally I realized they were right, and that's who they were in the final version.

Yes, I know I am not being specific about this. I am doing that on purpose. I want you to experience the story the way I did--a total surprise!

DEBS: Your books starts in Boston, but then heads way out to western Massachusetts. Why?

HANK: Oh gosh, I adore the Berkshires, in western Massachusetts, my husband and I go every summer to take peaceful walks in the woods, and go to art museums, and try wonderful new restaurants, see every play we can, pay homage to Edith Wharton at The Mount, and enjoy the glorious music of the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. The rolling hills and gorgeous scenery are absolutely immersive, there's a peace and a calm in the Berkshires that is like nowhere else. 

However. It's also a place where many people go just for the summer, And the dynamic between the summer people and the people who live there year-round can be full of simmering conflict. As one character in the book admires the graceful geese flying overhead, another character sneers, and says:  if you had to clean up golf courses after the geese depart, you would not be so in love with them.

Two different worlds. Beautiful on the outside, but sometimes festering on the inside. And that's what shapes the story. 

DEBS: Where are you in your family's birth order? Do you have sisters? Tell us one thing you learned from your mother or your sisters--something that we hear in the book.

HANK: I grew up with three sisters and a brother, and I am the oldest.  And know best. As I remind them at every turn.

But when I was in college, I made a game called Familial Pursuits. It was all questions about our family's history. Like: “Who dented mom's new car? And how did it happen?”  And “Who was home when the barn burned down?”. Let me tell you, we all had different answers to those questions. And we were all absolutely convinced our answers were right.

How did we all remember the same thing so differently? And what did we all assume about each other?   In MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER, family memories, family legacies--and some terrifying murders-- are the center of the story.

As it says on the cover:  Every family has its legacy, and this one's deadly.

DEBS:  I love the title, too. Because everyone of us is at least one of those nouns, right? And some of us are all of them. I'm a mother, and a daughter, and a stranger to many people. 

HANK: Yeah, so true! I'm a daughter and a sister and a stranger. And the way we play those roles is what dictates our lives. What would you do if your mother went missing? What if she had lied to you from the start?

DEBS: Whoa. Love this. Congratulations, Hank!

HANK: Thank you! SO exciting! I’ll be on book tour for about two weeks—hope to see some of you out there! (And I just saw Amanda in one of my online classes! SO fabulous!). Here’s my schedule.

DEBS: Reds and Readers, What's your birth order? And do you think it has made a difference in who you are and how you face the world?

And Hank is giving a copy of Mother Daughter Sister Stranger to one lucky (US only) commenter!