Meet Me in Monaco

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:     I mean, look at this photo. Do you absolutely swoon? Grace Kelly has got to be one of the most glamorous but mysterious women ever—

from her iconic roles with the likes of Cary Grant

and Jimmy Stewart

her terrifying “relationship” with Alfred Hitchcock

to her effortless fashion sense to her fairy-tale-seeming wedding to the Prince! Of Monaco

and then her children, and her tragic death—

It seems like the stuff of fiction, doesn’t it? And now, it is.  The wonderful Heather Webb (under the talented and confident hands of  Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor) bring  her to fabulous fictional life is their Meet Me In Monaco—a brand new book with non-stop buzz.

Where did this book come from?  Well, of course.  We have it for you first- hand.

Meet Me in Monaco: A Novel of Grace Kelly's Royal Wedding

                 by Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and unforgettable wedding to Prince Rainier, MEET ME IN MONACO is a novel about passion, fate, and second chances in an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur. It's about legacy, about the challenge of artisans to stay afloat in an ever-modernizing world, and it's about taking chances. 

The story revolves around the intersecting lives of the future princess, a passionate French perfumer, and a loveable British press photographer. As a summer book it is deliberately full of 1950s glamour, and while there is romance at the heart of the story (there’s a wedding between a prince and a princess after all!), it is also about so much more.

We especially loved developing our protagonist, Sophie Duval, and her world as a struggling perfumer. Sophie was desperate to preserve her father’s legacy in Grasse, Provence - the perfume capital of the world- and she is tested by everyone she loves to see just how far she's willing to see her vision come to life.

 Capturing all the evocative scents on the page as she hones her craft was great fun to write from the fragrant tuberose and night jasmine, to the salty breezes wafting over the rocky soil of Provence. La Belle France is all about appealing to the senses, n'est-ce pas? It was the perfect backdrop for blooming love, both for Sophie and James, as well as for Grace and her prince.

We also wanted to delve into what influence a woman like Grace Kelly might have had on those who came into contact with her, however briefly. We wanted to understand the very ordinary people caught up in a most extraordinary love-affair between an American actress and a little-known Prince. 

We wanted to highlight the people who surrounded Grace in the months, weeks and days leading up to her wedding, and later, who were deeply affected by the untimely death of one the most loved stars of Hollywood’s golden era. We wanted to illustrate how Grace’s kindness, influence, and courage touched the lives of many around her. The question of legacy, in our book, takes on several meanings here, for all of our characters.

Our story began with the basics, however--lots of research. Research is everything for a historical novelist, and between books and articles, old newsreels and newspaper reports, we discovered a tantalizing detail about Miss Kelly’s wedding dress being packed for its journey from New York to Monaco amid rolls of tissue paper scented with a perfume that had been especially made for her wedding day. 

Again, our novelists’ minds saw an intriguing angle to the story. Who was the perfumer who made that scent? And who were the harried photographers chasing the perfect shot of the most famous woman in the world, and who caused near riots in the days leading up to the wedding?

This is where our fictional protagonists—Sophie Duval: a passionate perfumer, struggling to secure her father’s legacy, and James Henderson: a press photographer searching for far more than Hollywood glamour through his lens—were inspired by real people and roles that were connected to Grace and the royal wedding in surprising ways. 

Our novelists’ gaze also wandered behind the scenes of those famous images of Princess Grace on her wedding day. Who was the woman behind the Hollywood smile? What were her private thoughts behind the many public appearances?

In writing Meet Me in Monaco, we discovered that Grace Kelly was far more than an icon of the silver screen, or the Princess she became. She was also a dear friend, a devoted daughter, a loving wife and doting mother. 

Through the lens of Sophie and James and their proximity to Grace Kelly during her transition from Hollywood star to Princess Grace of Monaco, we hope to have honored her memory, and brought her story to a new generation of fans, as well as showing a different side of her to those of us who, like us, have long admired her.  

We are so thrilled to see Meet Me in Monaco resonating with our readers, and we celebrated when we discovered it was named one of InStyle's best books to put in your tote bag for the summer, as well as one of Popsugar’s best books of July!  We hope you'll enjoy your trip to the Cote d'Azur, over the rolling fields of Grasse, and the beautiful cliffs of Prince Grace's Monaco, too!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Sigh. Shall we talk about Grace Kelly? What’s your favorite movie? Or story about her?

And a copy of MEET ME IN MONACO to one lucky US commenter!

Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of six historical novels including The Girl Who Came Home and, most recently, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. She was the recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, and shortlisted for the 2017 Irish Book Awards. She lives in Ireland with her husband and children.

Heather Webb is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of six historical novels set in France, including Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover, and the upcoming Ribbons of Scarlet, Oct 2019. She was the recipient of the WFWA 2018 STAR award. She lives in New England with her children and husband. 

About Meet Me in Monaco

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and unforgettable wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take the reader on an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur in this page-turning novel of passion, fate and second chances...

Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flash-bulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique to fend off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across thirty years of friendship, love, and tragedy.

James Henderson cannot forget his brief encounter with Sophie Duval. Despite his guilt at being away from his daughter, he takes an assignment to cover the wedding of the century, sailing with Grace Kelly’s wedding party on the SS Constitution from New York. In Monaco, as wedding fever soars and passions and tempers escalate, James and Sophie—like Princess Grace—must ultimately decide what they are prepared to give up for love.

What Would Hitchcock Do?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  It’s a conflict that faces every author—and reader—of crime fiction. What we’re writing about—and reading about—is usually terrible . So how do we balance the reality that we are focused on crime—without making it exploitive and sensational?

Then add to that true crime—where in real life, there’s no fictional literary buffers to call into play.  It’s heartbreaking—and it’s often  violent.  Difficult to look at, difficult to think about, and difficult to report.

So the juggle for the experienced and skillful Lis Wiehl was to take a riveting and ghoulishly gruesome real life story—and show why it mattered.. And do so without relying on the hideous details that gave the Manson murders a place in the annals of inhumanity.

How Hitchcock Did It

By Lis Wiehl

My daughter and I got lost the other day on our journey home, and I decided to make a quick u- turn in to a circular driveway in front of an old hotel in order to get back on to the road home.  The hotel was run down and kind of creepy looking, and the day foggy and overcast. My daughter said, “It looks like the Bates motel. By the way mom, did he kill all of the people that stayed at that hotel?” And I replied, “The only one that any one remembers is the woman in the shower. And the images of his dead mother in the rocking chair.”

Norman Bates may well have been a serial killer with dozens of victims stacked up in the basement of that fictional Bates Hotel. But what is important to us, what resonates and sticks with us, is the horror of the shower scene, complemented with terrifying music.  We feel the fear and panic of one woman, as we imagine the likelihood of many more victims whose stories we will never hear.  That is the key to the genius that was Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitchcock was able to convey fear and horror in fiction while spilling relatively few drops of blood on screen.  True crime is different because it demands showing true crime scenes. And true crime scenes are, by their very nature, full of blood and guts and gore.

We live in a world saturated by images of man’s inhumanity to man. Our evening news splays those images every night on our television screens, and the internet carries images of absolute brutality that can make it hard to sleep at night.  As a writer of true crime, I do not feel compelled to add to arbitrary images and then move on to storytelling about the humanity or lack thereof behind the action.

In writing “Hunting CharlesManson”, for example, I devote only two chapters in a 36-chapter book to the actual murders in August of 1969. The narrative is linear, but there are no bloody crime scene photos in the book. I write about facts descriptively, but not overly colorfully.  

 I assume that if you’ve picked up a book about Charles Manson you’ve probably heard something about the murders, so I’m less interested in the gory details of the murders than in the preamble to the murders. What lead up to Charles Manson’s amassing his following, for example? How did he get his ‘Family’ to murder all those people, while he stood by in the wings without so much as lifting a knife? And what was this grand scheme of Helter Skelter?

After the Manson murders of August, 1969, the LAPD completely bungled the investigation. And, for a while, Charles Manson was a free man.  How could the police have missed the clues that were literally written in the victims’ blood at the crime scene? Why were the different investigative agencies not communicating with each other and apprehending Manson and his followers earlier? These were the questions I was interested in asking in my book.

Once the police finally did get their man, the prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, had a not to be underestimated task before him: How was he to convict a man of multiple murders who had never wielded a murder weapon and who not even at the crime scene during the time of the murders?! 

Bugliosi masterfully used Manson’s own theory of Helter Skelter to prosecute him: his plan to use the murders for starting a race war in Los Angeles which he could stop at will and thereby assume leadership of further actions. Bugliosi persuaded a jury that Manson had effectively convinced Tex Watson and the “girls” to commit the murders, i.e. “do something witchy”, in the pursuit of Helter Skelter. And it worked. Manson was convicted of all seven murders. And sentenced to death. (Which was later commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)

In writing “Hunting Charles Manson” I made a deliberate decision not to focus on the gory details of the murders.  Instead, I studied the man before the murders, his followers, the police and their investigation, the prosecutor’s tactics. And I studied these things and events with a goal: to understand why these events happened, so we may learn from history, lest history repeat itself. 

I believe that if we learn from the mistake that was Charles Manson and his playbook of wooing young women in to his “family” and using them to murder innocent people, then maybe we can spot and stop fledgling Manson’s out there today. 

I, for one, would be happy to have fewer real life stories of blood and guts and gore to write about.  It would challenge all of us true crime writers to aspire to be more like Alfred Hitchcock and tell a spell binding story without bloody crime scenes.

HANK: Yeah—I have to admit I’ve found myself reading scenes in some books that are hauntingly gruesome—and you know? I skip them. And then, often stop reading the book.  But that's just me. And so many writers—and terrific writers—do not shy away from the close up descriptions.  In my own books, I write about the search for justice more than I write about the elements of crime.

So where do you fall in the close-up-to-crime spectrum? How do you feel about that?

And LIs will be stopping in today! What would you like to know about her book? And a copy of the new paper back to one lucky commenter!

*****************-

Lis Wiehl is the author of HUNTING CHARLES MANSON (Nelson Books; available in paperback on June 25, 2019) and former legal analyst for Fox News. She has appeared regularly on Your World with Neil Cavuto, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and the Imus morning shows. The former co-host of WOR radio's “WOR Tonight with Joe Concha and Lis Wiehl,” she has served as a legal analyst and reporter for CNN, NBC News, and NPR’s All Things Considered, as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s office and was a tenured professor of law at the University of Washington. She lives near New York City.  www.liswiehlbooks.com

Let's Twist Again

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So, first. Have you voted? Are you voting? The Reds are relying on it, so do that. And tonight, we'll all be watching the returns, hoping for--good and reassuring news. Knowing  knowing that some where some time there'll be a surprise. In a novel, we'd call it--a twist! 

And that makes what Jon Land is thinking about today perfect. We can talk twists!  His new Jessica Fletcher  book MANUSCRIPT FOR MURDER is out today. Yay. It's his  second book since taking over the MURDER, SHE WROTE series, and it features a twist ending. (Jon says I can tell you that.)  Many of his other books do, too.

Are you a fan of the twist? (Stop singing, I can hear you.) Jon thinks his twist-affection was born in his earliest days...and the love of the twist has only gotten stronger.  He's even offering his top twisty movies..see what you think!

A TWIST IN THE TALE

   by Jon Land

Call it the influence of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents on me when I was growing up. But I’ve long found nothing more satisfying than a jaw dropping reveal that sticks with you long after you first found your heart in your mouth. So in honor of that, and my own stab at such in MANUSCRIPT FOR MURDER, here’s a list of some of the greatest twist endings ever.

((HANK: oh, ed note: spoilers lurk ahead. But you HAVE seen or read all of these, right? If not, start watching (or reading) right after you vote. Okay, Jon, take it away.))  

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: The moment when Chazz Palminteri’s customs agent Dave Kujan drops his coffee cup after studying the back-office wall Kevin Spacey’s Verbal Kint has been facing for much of the movie remains the benchmark against which all other shocking twists will be compared. Outside, as Verbal completes his incredible metamorphosis into Keyser Soze, we realize we’ve been conned; that the metaphorical devil isn’t just real, he’s loose. It was right there in front of us the whole time but, like all great twists, we never saw it coming.

THE SIXTH SENSE:  Everyone seems to have a different moment when they realized Bruce Willis was one of the dead people Haley Joel Osment’s tortured young boy could see, but whenever that might’ve been it’s sure to have sent a chill sliding up your spine. The later the better, of course, because figuring it out too early is like getting the punch line before the joke is finished. M. Night Shyamalan’s brilliant misdirection makes us think we saw things that weren’t there, concealing the twist, for most anyway, until much closer to the end than the beginning.

THE STING: The film’s director George Roy Hill famously said that you can’t make a movie about con men without conning the audience. Well, all great twist endings are cons but this one was wondrously elaborate and a straight kick in the pants to those in the audience convinced they had everything figured out. Making us think the heroes are dead only to reveal they’re not makes for the perfect finish to a perfect film, much imitated but never equaled.

ARLINGTON ROAD: The sleeper in the group. Since relatively few know the movie, so no spoilers here. I’ll just say that the film’s slow, relentlessly suspenseful build makes us think we’re watching one thing when we’re actually watching something else entirely. I saw the film in a crowded theater and the moment in the end when a character says to Jeff Bridges’ tortured terrorism professor, “Michael, the only one who doesn’t belong here is you,” you could feel the audience lose its collective breath. A stunner that sticks with you long after you leave the theater.

THE CHASER: The classic short story by John Collier remains a subtle study in inevitability, all show and no tell since it’s comprised almost entirely of dialogue. A young man who enters a potion shop gets considerably more than he bargains for—at least he will eventually—after purchasing for mere pennies an elixir that will make the woman of his dreams love him. The twist lies in the fact that the price is so low because those who purchase it always come back for the chaser of the title: a much more expensive, and deadly, potion held in a different case. The young man never realizes that, of course, even when the professorial figure behind the counter bids him farewell with “Au revoir.” Until we meet again.

THE GLASS EYE: This installment so typical of Alfred Hitchcock Presents features a penny-pinching, lonely woman who finds herself obsessed with a ravishing ventriloquist for the joy he brings into her life. Wanting to prolong the feeling, she begs to meet her crush, leading to a shattering denouement no one could possibly have seen coming. Ever the master of misdirection in his films, Hitchcock similarly relished leaving us utterly shocked in the short form penned by the likes of Academy Award winner Sterling Silliphant.

TO SERVE MAN: The brilliant Rod Serling’s ending is right there in the title of this titular Twilight Zone episode, thanks to the double meaning that nobody sees or gets, not until the moment when the episode’s hero is boarding a space ship bound for a distant planet along with the rest of the world’s top leaders. The title actually refers to a book one of the aliens leaves behind to tempt and taunt the world. And its translation should have been obvious, but wasn’t.

DEMON WITH THE GLASS HAND: The classic Harlan Ellison penned Outer Limits episode features a lone human at war with aliens amid a sprawling warehouse complex while trying to find the missing fingers to complete his glass hand. Each finger brings that computerized appendage closer to explaining who he is and what he’s doing there. But the reveal imparted when the final finger is in place is one we never could have seen coming and is all the more perfect as a result.

THE SWIMMER: The brilliant short story by John Cheever, made into a surreal film by Frank Perry, features a super successful businessman on a shattering odyssey through affluent suburbia, uncovering the truth about his past, and present, through dips in his neighbors’ backyard pools as he makes his way home. It’s a slow burn that ignites in a final flashpoint when the character of Ned Merrill (played brilliantly in the film by Burt Lancaster) finally gets back to his house on the hill.

MEMENTO: Few films have ever come together better in the final moment than Christopher Nolan’s ground-breaking shocker about a man whose short-term memory only extends five or so minutes. He tattoos cue cards all over his body to keep track of his life, which doesn’t stop everyone he meets from conning him. Then, in the final fadeout, he cons himself to the pitch perfect voiceover (for a film that unveils in reverse fashion), “Where was I?”

Those are my choices. What about yours? Leave your suggestion(s) in the comments and I’ll respond with my thoughts!

HANK: Oh! This is SUCH fun. I will never forget that Twilight Zone. And the one with the guy with the glasses. And monsters on maple street. Ah.  And a good twist does not only have to come at the end, right? Clare Mackintosh's wonderful I Let You Go has one, and my Trust Me. More I cannot say. 

 But what do you think, reds and readers? Favorite twist endings, or middles? And do you want to know when a movie or book has a twist? 

Jessica Fletcher investigates a mysterious manuscript with deadly consequences in the latest entry in this USA Todaybestselling series...

Jessica Fletcher has had plenty to worry about over her storied career, both as a bestselling novelist and amateur sleuth. But she never had any reason to worry about her longtime publisher, Lane Barfield, who also happens to be a trusted friend. When mounting evidence of financial malfeasance leads to an FBI investigation of Lane, Jessica can't believe what she's reading.

So when Barfield turns up dead, Jessica takes on the task of proving Barfield's innocence--she can't fathom someone she's known and trusted for so long cheating her. Sure enough, Jessica's lone wolf investigation turns up several oddities and inconsistencies in Barfield's murder. Jessica knows something is being covered up, but what exactly? The trail she takes to answer that question reveals something far more nefarious afoot, involving shadowy characters from the heights of power in Washington. At the heart of Jessica's investigation lies a manuscript Barfield had intended to bring out after all other publishers had turned it down. The problem is that manuscript has disappeared, all traces of its submission and very existence having been wiped off the books.

With her own life now in jeopardy, Jessica refuses to back off and sets her sights on learning the contents of that manuscript and what about it may have led to several murders. Every step she takes brings her closer to the truth of what lies in the pages, as well as the person who penned them.

Jon Land

Jon Land is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of 45 books, including nine titles in the critically acclaimed Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong series, the most recent of which, STRONG TO THE BONE, won both the 2017 American Book Fest and 2018 International Book Award for Best Mystery. The next title in the series, STRONG AS STEEL, will be published in April. MANUSCRIPT FOR marks his second effort writing as Jessica Fletcher for the MURDER, SHE WROTE series, and he has also teamed with Heather Graham for a new sci-fi series starting with THE RISING. He is a 1979 graduate of Brown University, lives in Providence, Rhode Island and can be reached at jonlandbooks.com  or on Twitter @jondland.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451489306?pf_rd_p=8e0819a9-0ef1-44cd-9544-a7f28374af8b&pf_rd_r=SCFQSGYJNAAKT254Z2NZ

Twitter: @jondland

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonLandAuthor /

Five ways to KILL Suspense

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I met Meg Gardiner in a cab. Well, outside a cab. We were at--something in New York, I forget, going somewhere, I forget, and she was about to take the subway. Come with me! I said. I have on heels!  I'm getting a cab.

So we talked the whole way to wherever it was--she was hilarious and personable and wonderful.  I confess that in these situations, meeting a best-selling Edgar-winning author, I always think--here's a successful writer, I bet she could teach me a lot. But that's not the kind of thing you can ask.

So, isn't this clever? I invited her to JRW, so we can all learn.   And I'll give a copy of Meg's new RANSOM RIVER to a lucky commenter! And an ARC of THE OTHER WOMAN to another.

And now..I don't want to keep you in suspense, but here's--well, no. I DO want to keep you in suspense. And here's how. Um, how NOT to.

Five Ways to Kill Suspense

by Meg Gardiner

Suspense is vital to storytelling. It keeps readers turning pages, desperate to learn what happens next. As a building block of drama, it’s as old as literature itself—Aristotle said suspense consists of having some real danger looming and a ray of hope.

The word comes from the Latin suspendere—to hang up—and writers are the hangmen. We keep readers dangling. But if we do it wrong, we kill the story.

Here are five surefire ways to do that.

1. Sacrifice tension for surprise. Unexpected twists can delight or terrify readers. But if you don’t build up the tension beforehand, readers will be bored senseless long before you get to Boo.

Hitchcock put it this way: an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and know more than the characters do—but can’t intervene to stop it. Say characters are talking in a restaurant. If all the scene shows is their chitchat, it’s tedious. But if the audience knows that a ticking bomb is planted beneath the table, it’s suspenseful.

The writer’s job is to create tension and then let it build for as long as possible. Be cruel. The page is the one place where cruelty’s a good thing.

2. Commit howlers. I don’t mean minor errors about arcane facts. I mean clanging mistakes about common knowledge. Writers should know that the capital of Brazil is not Rio de Janeiro. That the president’s airplane does not have AIR FORCE ONE painted on its flanks. That Interpol doesn’t strafe fugitives from fighter jets (to name three errors I’ve seen in books or movies). Ludicrous mistakes kill suspense by pulling readers from the story, thinking, Oh, come on. Do your research. And after you’ve done it, have knowledgeable people check it.

3. Write idiot plots. Plots that depend on characters acting like idiots kill suspense faster than cyanide. You’ve read this story: an unarmed woman fails to call SWAT and instead wades into the swamp alone, at midnight, in heels, to rescue her best friend from the maniac with the chainsaw. Go on, honey. Readers will be cheering—for the maniac.

4. Mistake mystery for suspense. Mystery propels our genre. But withholding facts from readers doesn’t always increase suspense. Sometimes it just annoys. Say the hero keeps everything he’s learned to himself until the final pages, when he reveals all. This is meant to make him sound brilliant and the revelation seem huge. But if the audience hasn’t struggled along with him as he digs for the truth, they haven’t experienced the story. They’ll feel shortchanged. (This is another reason to show, don’t tell.)

Or say you hide the identities of characters in a scene. “Two men sat at the dingy bar, scowling.” Maybe the scowlers are assassins, circling for a kill. But if they’re your hero and his brother—and it’s the tenth time you’ve used this ploy—it’s not suspenseful. It's a cheap trick.

5. Put the main character in a tight situation where the only question is whether she’ll survive. Here’s the problem: Readers figure that in mysteries and thrillers, the protagonist is going to live. If your novel’s in first person, they know it. So don’t have the bad guys abandon the heroine in the desert, then spend 50 pages depicting her trek back to civilization. There’s no question she’ll make it, so her tough slog to town contains no suspense.

But what if you truly want to abandon your protagonist in the desert? Then create real, looming danger… to other characters. And put a clock on it. The heroine must get to a phone by sundown—or the puppy farm will be blown up. Otherwise, cut everything after the bad guys dump her in Death Valley. Skip to her stumbling into the 7-11, dehydrated, covered in cactus needles, and hauling the corpse of the rabid skunk that attacked her.

Now, a confession: I’ve committed all these sins.

Sometimes I’ve caught these mistakes when revising. Sometimes an editor has noted, “Tiresome…” And sometimes I’ve decided a cheap trick is exactly what I need.

In my novel Ransom River, a juror finds herself fighting for her life when gunmen storm the courtroom. Then Rory Mackenzie discovers the attack is connected to an old case that was never solved. It's connected to her, and dark skeletons in her family's history. And bringing the truth to light might destroy her and those she loves.

My first draft opened with a long, procedural courtroom scene in Rory’s point of view. Then, boom—gunmen burst in. (Hello, surprise without tension.) I rewrote it to add scenes in a gunman’s POV. Now, while Rory hears testimony about two cops gunning down a teenager, the attackers circle the courthouse, arm themselves, and stalk toward the building. Readers know something bad’s coming, but they can’t tell Rory: Get out of there.

Then, to create a sense of real danger that would loom over the whole book, I revised again—so the story doesn’t open in the courtroom. It opens when Rory is nine years old. Late one night, she and her best friend see something they shouldn’t—something that scares them. They don’t understand it. They only know something's wrong. Something bad. But what—and how does it come back to haunt her twenty years later?

I’d tell you, but I’ve gotta keep you in suspense.

HANK: Thanks Meg! I'm off to look at my WIP one more time... How about you, Reds? Do you go back and add the suspense? Or write it a you go? I find when I'm in the suspenseful parts, somehow, I'm typing as fast as I can.

The most suspenseful thing I've ever read? Hmm. Dracula? The Stand? The most suspenseful movie I've ever seen? Hmm. The Vanishing? Rear Window? How about you, reds?

Remember--you can win!

*******************

 www.meggardiner.com 

Meg Gardiner writes the Evan Delaney and the Jo Beckett novels, best-selling series that have been translated into twenty languages. China Lake won the 2009 Edgar for Best Paperback Original. The Nightmare Thief won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense audiobook of the year. Meg practiced law in Los Angeles and taught at the University of California Santa Barbara. She lives near London. Her latest novel is the stand alone, Ransom River.

Her blog: Lying for a Living.

Twitter: @MegGardiner1