CREAKING FLOORS AND UNLOCKED DOORS

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: We've talked in this space about the joy of blurbing novels... and how, sometimes, because we are asked to blurb a book, we get the first look at a novel that the public has not seen before, and when we finish, we get to rub our hands in delight at the joy of having gotten a fabulous and exciting first look.

That's exactly how I felt when I was sent Katie Garner's debut novel, THE NIGHT IT ENDED. Reds and readers, it is wonderful, chilling and absolutely surprising. I mean, I never figured that…well, you’ll just have to read it.

And one of the main characters is a school. Let’s let Katie tell it.

 

CREAKING FLOORS & UNLOCKED DOORS:

WHY WE LOVE OUR HOUSES OLD AND CREEPY (…IN MYSTERIES)

 By Katie Garner

 

In romance novels, readers sometimes choose books by their tropes: enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forbidden love. For some mystery readers, it’s all about location location location. Haunted mansions? Check. Creepy schools? Check. Isolated hunting cabin in the middle of nowhere? Check!

Readers love enticing, hauntingly delightful settings. The first spooky house I came across as a kid wasn’t really a house, at all. But a mansion. I was about five and came across a book about Disneyland. I’d never been anywhere, and of course I wanted to visit, so I read the book over and over, but always had to skip one page—a page about the original Haunted Mansion ride. It terrified me.

 

But I loved, even then, the spookiness of a haunted house. How in the darkness, it wasn’t what you couldn’t see, but what you could. How candlelight flickered against stone walls and spiderwebs fluttered in dark corners and dust clouded the spines of antique books. I loved the creaking floorboards and doors that mysteriously opened by themselves. It’s no wonder, as I got older, I loved horror movies—but above all—I loved a good mystery.

As I read and started to study the guts of the genre, I began to notice (good) patterns. Most mystery and thriller novels seemed to have familiar yet interesting settings: a summer camp on a lake, a cabin in the woods, a city apartment building—a secluded boarding school. Each of these locations are, essentially, a creepy building. But regardless of what the building is, the concept is the same: humans live in structures with walls, windows, doors, and a roof. What happens within those constructs belongs to our imagination.

 

Choose from the smorgasbord of options and the end goal is mostly similar—thrill and chill—so why not have our buildings add to the feeling and emotion and themes of a book? For example, in THE VILLA, by Rachel Hawkins, our cast is trying to escape the rigors of daily life and have anchored in a luscious Italian villa, where whispered rumors ignite the plot and lead us straight into the house’s historic underbelly. The setting is the concept. The building is a character. And it works.



In Lucy Foley’s, THE PARIS APARTMENT, the apartment building houses our characters, and is the titular character. Same for the foremother of the genre: THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, by Agatha Christie. The library and the train shelter our characters, but they are characters.

 

I have to move inward for a minute. In my debut psychological thriller, THE NIGHT IT ENDED, the locked room setting is a historic mansion turned private boarding school. It was based on a real-life abandoned mansion I’d visited, nestled deep in the Catskills of New York. And I fell in love. I fell in love with its once-marvelous splendor. The decay. The quietness. I fell in love with the attention to detail and the craftsmanship. I loved thinking about who else walked these halls, what were they thinking, where did they go. The history. The atmosphere. The smell.

It was something. It was everything.

THE NIGHT IT ENDED could’ve been set in a modern structure, of course. Or in a bustling city, set in a renovated brick building. It could’ve been set in a building like my old high school, built in the 80s and renovated throughout the years…but it wouldn’t be the same. The setting is its own character. A member of the cast.

No matter the book, the setting—and the building at its heart—doesn’t want to be ignored. It wants to be seen, smelled, touched, heard—it wants to be alive.

What’s one of your favorite locations?

HANK: For a scary book? I think old high schools are fabulous locations—when I think of the one I went to, probably built in the forties? With those lines of brick walls and lockers and doors we didn’t know what was behind. Yikes. It was formidable, then, but now it’s just…creepy. And the Boston subway stations. Rain and rats and electricity. Yeesh.

How about you, Reds and readers?

 

Katie Garner was born in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She has a degree in Art History from Ramapo College and is certified to teach high school Art. She hoards paperbacks, coffee mugs, and dog toys and can be seen holding at least one of those things most of the time.

Katie lives in a New Jersey river town with her husband, baby boy, and shih-poo where she writes books about women and their dark, secret selves. The Night It Ended is her debut novel.

THE NIGHT IT ENDED

Finding the truth seems impossible when her own dark past has her seeing lies everywhere she looks…

From the outside, criminal psychiatrist Dr. Madeline Pine’s life appears picture-perfect—she has a beautiful family, a successful mental health practice, and a growing reputation as an expert in female violence. But when she's called to help investigate a mysterious death at a boarding school for troubled teenage girls, Madeline hesitates. She’s been through tragic cases before, and the one she was entangled in last year nearly destroyed her…

Yet she can’t turn away when she hears about Charlotte Ridley. After she was found barefoot and in pajamas at the bottom of an icy ravine on campus, the police ruled her death a tragic accident. But the private investigator hired by her mother has his doubts. If it were Madeline’s daughter who died, she’d want to know why.

Arriving at the secluded campus in upstate New York, Madeline’s met by an unhelpful skeleton staff and the four other students still on campus during winter break. Each seems to hold a piece of the puzzle. And everyone has secrets—Madeline included. But who would kill to protect them?

Intertwining the narrative with the transcript of an anonymous interview, this stunning suspense debut will take you on a twisting path where nothing—and no one—is what it seems.

Cinderella Under Pressure

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Happiest day after pub day to the brilliant iconic and fabulous whirlwind that is Ann Garvin. She is absolutely fabulous you all, generous and wise and I'm just not sure how she does it. You can read her bio below, but she is the queen of the Tall Poppies, and I am honored to be her colleague. She simply leaves joy and magic dust wherever she goes. And when she reads this—I’ll bet she’ll say "Oh that’s just dust, honey."

 

Her new novel, THERE’S NO COMING BACK FROM THIS came out yesterday!

And it is already the Number One best seller in friendship fiction. And that is not only cause for celebration, but profound.  She is a number one perfect friend.

 

Cinderella Under Pressure

   By Ann Garvin

 

I write books about women who do too much in a world that asks too much from them, and I saw one of these women just the other day.

 

The woman I am thinking of was at a gas station, responding with incredible grace and dignity while under great duress. After filling her tank, this woman saw that she’d locked herself out of her car with her small child inside. She didn’t shout for help or make a scene.

I noticed her because I am not a dignified person when stressed. I’m a flustered crier who talks to strangers when things go wrong.

 

It was a nice day, there were not many people around, and she solved her problem with a placid look on her face and some fairly impressive flexibility.

 

While I stood, nozzle in hand trying to figure out which button to push or pull for gas, she moved to the trunk of a beautiful SUV, where a thick film of plastic wrap covered her back window. Presumedly, she’d been in an accident, and fresh cellophane functioned as a back window for a time. She pulled the plastic apart with zero fanfare, no grumbling, and a lot of strength. I considered offering to help, but she didn’t look like she needed it. Besides I was still trying to get my pump to take my credit card.

 

Once the plastic was yanked free, she began climbing onto the bumper and easing herself inside. She had to clear the back seat headrests, slither her whole body through the window and slide from the back seat over the dividers to the front seat. All while her child slept soundly.

 

Once inside the car, she checked on the baby, kissed the little one on the forehead then drove off. I checked around. I’d been the only one to witness this athletic, motherly feat, but the woman left a memento on the pavement, without so much as a look over her shoulder. There on the stained concrete I saw one brand new, white and blue Nike tennis shoe on the ground. This Cinderella must have kicked it off during the exertion of getting into the car.

 

Maybe she wasn’t as unstressed as she appeared. Maybe she was in a terrible hurry. Maybe, she was too embarrassed to walk partially barefoot across the stained pavement to collect her shoe. I’ll never know, but I wish I could have told her, Never, never, ever be chagrinned about anything when you can display this kind of grace under pressure.

 

This is the kind of person I want on my side when the world ends and precisely the kind of person I write about. Women are amazing. I’m sure you know this already, but I’m writing to remind you.

 

My newest book is right here if you want to read about another person who learns how to pivot with a little more grace. It’s called There’s No Coming Back From This and the Kindle version is available, too.

 

I’d love to hear about a time when you were graceful under pressure. It will give me something to work for!

 

 

HANK: Aww. Love to hear your stories, you all. And yay, Ann! You have done it again.

And reds and Readers, do sign up for her newsletter, it's entertaining and touching and revealing!

Ann Garvin, Ph.D., is the USA Today Bestselling author of five funny and sad novels. She writes about people who do too much in a world that asks too much from them. Her most recent book, There's No Coming Back From This, releases August 1, 2023. After twenty-five years of teaching in the UW system, Ann runs the professional development residencies at Drexel University’s Low-Residency Masters of Fine Arts Program. She is the founder of the multiple award-winning Tall Poppy Writers, where she is committed to helping women writers succeed.

THERE'S NO COMING BACK FROM THIS

“The show must go on” takes on a whole new meaning for one single mom in a

witty and emotional novel by the USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work.

It seems lately that Poppy Lively is invisible to everyone but the IRS.

After her accountant absconded with her life savings, newly bankrupt Poppy is on the verge of losing her home when an old flame, now a hotshot producer, gives her a surprising way out: a job in costumes on a Hollywood film set. It’s a bold move to pack her bags, keep secrets from her daughter, and head to Los Angeles, but Poppy's a capable person—how hard can a job in wardrobe be? It's not like she has a choice; her life couldn't get any worse. Even so, this midwesterner has a lot to learn about the fast and loose world of movie stars, iconic costumes, and back-lot intrigue.

As a single mom, she's rarely had time for watching movies, she doesn't sew, and she doesn't know a thing about dressing the biggest names in the business. Floundering and overlooked, Poppy has one ally: Allen Carol, an ill-tempered movie star taken with Poppy’s unfiltered candor and general indifference to stardom.

When Poppy stumbles upon corruption, she relies on everyone underestimating her to discover who’s at the center of it, a revelation that shakes her belief in humanity. What she thought was a way to secure a future for her daughter becomes a spotlight illuminating the facts: Poppy is out of her league among the divas of Tinseltown.

Poppy must decide whether to keep her mouth shut, as she's always done, or with the help of a scruffy dog, show the moviemakers that they need her unglamorous ways, whether the superstars like it or not.

BOOKING AND COOKING!

Hank Phillippi Ryan:

 

First, fanfare fanfare, BOOKING first. The trade paperback of THE HOUSE GUEST is available today! I always wonder how much difference that makes in anyone's lives, but I hope it does!

 

 And I am going on a tiny little whirlwind book tour to make sure everybody knows: tonight I will be at Brookline Booksmith with the superb Shari Lapena!  Whoa. If you have not read her book EVERYONE HERE IS LYING, it is an absolute page turner. Honestly, if I hadn't had to make dinner yesterday, I would not have budged from my chair. (SO fun to have my paperback launch day be with such a superstar--and we get to talk about HER book! Perfect.)

 

Wednesday I go to Jacksonville, Florida to appear at the Jacksonville Public Library.

Thursday off to Atlanta, for the Atlanta Authors series at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center.

Thursday, still in Atlanta, at the Sandy Springs Library.

Saturday, racing back to Massachusetts to appear at the Barnes & Noble Hingham. (With some names you will recognize!)

 And then Sunday, in Plainville, at An Unlikely Story Bookstore, with Patty Callahan Henry to talk about her brilliant THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA.

And then zooming back home to zoom for The Back Room, with Kathy Reichs, Polly Stewart, Tosca Lee and Don Bentley!

 

Whoa. And you can get all the deets here.

 

But on to COOKING!  Last week we went to get our farm shares, and we got zucchini and eggplant and golden yellow squash, which meant... make something up.

Something Parmesan? Something Ratatouille?

 

 So here's what I did.

 

I sliced the zucchini and eggplant and squash and salted them liberally, and left them for two hours so the water would come out. So much water comes out, and that makes a huge difference.  (I cut the eggplant  and golden like coins,  and the zucchini in strips. Whatever.)

 

Then I roasted the zucchini and eggplant and squash in olive oil till they were brownish around the edges, then I topped that with parmesan cheese and popped it under the broiler until the cheese browned.

 

Then I took the whole thing out of the oven.

 

Then I lightly olive-oiled a LeCreuset enamel oval pan, put the cheesy veggies carefully along the bottom. Then I sprinkled that with halves of cherry tomatoes from our own garden, then tiny bits of mozzarella cheese, then sprinkled with parmesan cheese, then bacon bits, then snipped basil and fresh parsley from our garden. Popped that back into the oven until the cheese burbled--you can tell it's done.

 

 And wow wow wow it was delicious. Here's a picture.

 

And then –although it was completely unnecessary, I served it with sautéed shrimp.

 

BOOKING AND COOKING! Reds and Readers, either of those things on your schedule this week?

(And oh, because it's August 1, "rabbit rabbit." SO much to remember!)