Episodes
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On this episode, I talk with Heather Chavez about her newest thriller What We'll Burn Last. We dive into her desire to write a thriller with a wildfire, the complexities of three POVs at war with each other, and how much fun she had writing the wildfire as a POV.
What We'll Burn Last Synopsis
Three women.
When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works—and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.
Three secrets.
But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home—even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns. . . and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night—and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.
Who will you trust? -
On this episode, I talk with Gregg Podolski about his debut action thriller The Recruiter. We discuss how his job as a recruiter inspired the story, why we both love comedy with our action thrillers, and the fun of writing an action hero who isn't good at action.
The Recruiter Synopsis
When bad guys need good help, they call Rick Carter.
He's a criminal recruiter, searching for contract killers, cyber hackers, gun smugglers, and any other assorted villains-for-hire a European crime boss might need. But, when the family he left behind in New Jersey is caught up in a client's plot to monopolize the black market, Rick has to save them from two of his own top candidates: deadly assassins known only as Ghost and The Persian.
Fixing his own mess will require a set of skills he doesn't have--not a problem, as finding qualified help is where he excels. But stepping into action, becoming the hero his family needs, that's new territory. For a man who's spent the last ten years being the best at helping the worst, this may be his last chance to do something right.
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On this episode, I talk with John Fram about his genre-bending gothic thriller No Road Home. We dive into how he found inspiration for the story in his dad, his use of Biblical imagery, and the touches of horror throughout.
No Road Home Synopsis
For years, single father Toby Tucker has done his best to keep his sensitive young son, Luca, safe from the bigotry of the world. But when Toby marries Alyssa Wright—the granddaughter of a famed televangelist known for his grandiose Old Testament preaching—he can’t imagine the world of religion, wealth, and hate that he and Luca are about to enter.
A trip to the Wright family’s compound in sun-scorched Texas soon turns hellish when Toby realizes that Alyssa and the rest of her brood have dangerous plans for him and his son. The situation only grows worse when a freak storm cuts off the roads and the family patriarch is found murdered, stabbed in the chest on the roof of their sprawling mansion.
Suspicion immediately turns to Toby, but when his son starts describing a spectral figure in a black suit lurking around the house with unfinished business in mind, Toby realizes this family has more than murderer to conceal—and to fear.
As the Wrights close in on Luca, no one is prepared for the lengths Toby will go in the fight to clear his name and protect his son in this “grand gothic story as enthralling as it is terrifying." -
This week, Gare is back! And we share some of our favorite reads of the first half of 2024.
Books We Talk About
Listen for the Lie
Kill for Me, Kill for You
An Inconvenient Woman
The Man on the Train
This Family Lies
The Hollywood Assistant
The Hunter’s Daughter
Love Letters to a Serial Killer
Bodies to Die For
How We Name the Stars
Rabbit Hole
Missing White Woman
Things Don’t Break on Their Own
No Road Home
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This week, I got to chat with Sarah Easter Collins about her exceptionally emotional debut novel Things Don't Break on Their Own. She shares how the shifting nature of memory, sibling differences and the first dog in space inspired her book.
Things Don't Break on Their Own Synopsis
A heart-wrenching mystery about sisters, lovers, and a dinner party gone wrong.
Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t.
Her sister’s disappearance has defined Willa’s life. Everyone thinks her sister is dead, but Willa knows she isn’t. Because there are some things that only sisters know about each other—and some bonds only sisters can break.
Willa sees fragments of her sister everywhere — the way that woman on the train turns her head, the gait of that woman in Paris. If there’s the slightest resemblance, Willa drops everything, and everyone, and tries to see if it is her.
When Willa is invited to a dinner party thrown by her first love, she has no reason to expect it will be anything other than an ordinary evening. Both of them have moved on, ancient history. But nothing about Willa’s life has been ordinary since the day her sister disappeared, and that’s not about to change tonight.
Sarah Easter Collins has written an extraordinary novel about memory, lost love, and long-buried secrets that sometimes see the light of day. -
This week, I got to chat with Eliza Jane Brazier about her new erotic assassin thriller It Had to Be You. We dive into her inspiration for the book, and how she never intended for it to be taken as anything other than fantasy.
It Had to Be You Synopsis
Two contract killers, each with a hit out on the other, must fight their growing attraction as they face off in an epic game of lust and murder across Western Europe.
When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they’ll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn’t on the agenda in their line of work.
Six months later, they run into each other in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She’s a contract killer, but what she doesn’t know is that he is too.
Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. There will be tourism. There will be bodies. Eva and Jonathan might even fall for each other.
As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear that they are also being hunted—by something even more dangerous than love. . . . -
This week, I talk with Liz Keenan and Greg Wands about the inception of their new podcast Imposter Hour, a show that delves into the syndrome haunting creatives, impacting their lives and work. We dive into the origin story of the show and their plans for it in the future.
Subscribe to Imposter Hour on Apple or Spotify
Follow Imposter Hour on Instagram
Or check out their website ImposterHour.com for more info!
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This week I talk with Rachel Graham and Lee-Ann McGuire Whitlock, who as a writing duo make up pen name Rachel McGuire, about their super-bingeable destination thriller On the Surface.
On the Surface Synopsis
Sawyer Stone III and Dani Fox, a young couple who spend their time circumnavigating the globe aboard their 42-foot sailboat and documenting it for their fledgling YouTube channel Sailing with the Foxes, have anchored in Exuma, in the Bahamas. As they wait for the price of crypto to rebound so they can provision and continue their journey, they’re partying and exploring with their fellow cruisers offshore. On the surface, everything looks perfect. But one night, Dani vanishes after a boat party, and Sawyer has no memory of her disappearance.
The search for Dani is initially fueled by concerns that she drowned during one of her daily ocean swims, but Dani's prescheduled video posts, recorded before she went missing, soon reveal a darker side to her relationship with Sawyer. Meanwhile, Royal Bahamas Police Force Inspector Veronique Knowles has her hands full trying to keep the investigation on course as the story of the American woman missing in the Bahamas goes viral and the internet sleuths unearth secrets from Sawyer’s past. Sawyer Stone is far from perfect, but is he a murderer?
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This week, I talk with May Cobb about her twisty erotic thriller The Hollywood Assistant.
The Hollywood Assistant Synopsis
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA.
The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury: Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay.
When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy and talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around.
But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect. -
This week, I talk with Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh about their new thriller Echo Road, where they combine their Mercy Kilpatrick and Bree Taggert series into one mystery.
Echo Road Synopsis
During a vicious heat wave, a county maintenance worker stumbles upon two suspicious suitcases abandoned by the side of the road. Sheriff Bree Taggert responds to find two bodies stuffed inside the luggage. The press demands action. The community is on edge. Suddenly, Bree is at the center of a media firestorm.
In Oregon, a senator’s daughter goes missing. FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick agrees to keep the politically sensitive case on the down-low. When she finds a link between the disappearance and a double homicide three thousand miles away, Mercy takes the next plane out—and lands right in the middle of Bree’s double homicide investigation.
To save the missing girl, Bree and Mercy must work together to stop a killer who’s playing deadly games with the press and stirring up public rage. Hungry for notoriety, he dares Bree and Mercy to catch him before he kills again. -
This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about some of our favorite bookish characters!
Books We Talked About
Where Are You Echo Blue?
It Will Only Hurt for a Moment
No Road Home
Lay Your Body Down
How Can I Help You
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Man on the Train
Follow Her Home
Midnight is the Darkest Hour
Thursday Next Series
Over Her Dead Body
Must Love Books
I Didn’t Do It
Vladimir
The Outlier
Kill for Love
Eight Perfect Murders
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This week, Steph Lauer and I share books that pair well with each other. If you liked the first one, you'll probably love the second one.
Books Kate Talked About
The Hollywood Assistant
The Force of Such Beauty
The Hunter’s Daughter : Blood Sisters
Pretty Things : On the Surface
Almost Surely Dead : Missing White Woman
Big Little Lies : The Other Mothers
The Lady Upstairs : Twisted
Books Steph Talked About
Do What Godmother Says
Like it Never Was
Ask for Andrea : Before You Knew My Name
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder : That’s Not My Name
Butcher and the Blackbird : The Girl in 6E
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife : The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Notes on an Execution : Don't Forget the Girl
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This week, I talk with Debbie Babitt about her new Hitchcockian thriller The Man on the Train. We dive into how she gets to know her characters, how she figures out plot and what she's working on next.
The Man on the Train Synopsis
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley is awakened early one morning by two police officers at the door. She has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life during his daily commute from Scarsdale into the city. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case.
And Guy has disappeared.
With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a forty-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons.
But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth—and the past Guy has buried deep—Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.
Featuring tense, atmospheric suspense that moves at breakneck speed, this Hitchcockian thriller careens from a bedroom community just north of New York City to the picturesque beaches of eastern Long Island to a suburban train station, where a killer hiding in plain sight waits to exact a final revenge. -
This week, Halley and I share updates on our 1,000 Words of Summer challenge and dive into what we love about our favorite book covers. We also share what we've been reading, watching and listening to.
Books We Talked About
Almost Surely Dead
Stone Cold Fox
The Last Housewife
The Favorites
The Lies I Tell
The Force of Such Beauty
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This week, I talk with Rob Hart about his new action packed thriller Assassins Anonymous. We dive into how he came up with the idea for an assassin who swears off killing for moral reasons, why musicals and action movies are similar, and how he created an empathetically accessible assassin as a main character.
Assassins Anonymous Synopsis
In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?
Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.
When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle. -
This week, Steph Lauer and I talk with Lori Brand about her insanely fun thriller Bodies to Die For. She shares her inspiration for the book, and her personal journey writing it.
To check out her article about why she wrote Bodies to Die For, click here
Bodies to Die For Synopsis
Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That's if she's not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.
Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back ... by any means necessary. She's never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She'll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.
But when Gemma's toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it's beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.
With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women's bodies--the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves. -
This week, Olivia Day Wallace and Lori Brand join the podcast and tell me all about their experiences at ThrillerFest! They share their most memorable moments, their favorite panels and new books that grabbed their attention.
Books We Talked About
The Den
Such a Bad Influence
A Friend in the Dark
The Drowning Woman
Syndicate Spy
For Worse
Sing Her Down
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This week, I talk with Sara Koffi about her addictive domestic suspense While We Were Burning. We dive into her inspiration for the book, how she ended up writing thrillers, and her favorite part of writing the book.
While We Were Burning Synopsis
After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith’s picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs has spiraled out of control—so much so that she hires a personal assistant to keep her on track. Composed and elegant, Brianna is exactly who she needs—she slides so neatly into Elizabeth’s life it's almost like she belonged there from the start, and proves herself indispensable. Soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend's death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it.
Because Brianna has questions, too.
She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son. Why someone in Elizabeth’s neighborhood called the cops on him that day. Who took that first step that stole her child away from her. And the only way she’s ever going to be able to find out is to entwine herself deep into Elizabeth’s life, where the answers to her questions lie. As the two women hurtle towards an electrifying final showdown, and the lines between employer and friend blur, it becomes clear that neither of them is what they first appear. -
This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about buzzwords that grab our attention in synopses and some of our favorite books that are outliers compared to what we normally read.
Books Kate Talked About
Made For Love
Ace of Spades
Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Carrie Soto is Back
Books Halley Talked About
Heating and Cooling
Mr. Fox
Thursday Next Series
Get in Trouble
How to Be Eaten
Frankissstein
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Jaime Lynn Hendricks is back to talk about her newest twisty thriller A Lovely Lie! Steph joins our conversation about the inspiration for the book, how Jaime builds her large casts, and her favorite part of writing 90s teenagers.
A Lovely Lie Synopsis
Is it better to believe a lovely lie or to know the horrible truth?
1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…
Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past. Who is Zoey’s father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett’s buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.
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