CANR
WORK TITLE: We Are Watching
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.alisongaylin.com/
CITY: Woodstock
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 321
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Daughter of Robert and Beverly Sloane; married Michael Gaylin, 1994; children: one daughter.
EDUCATION:Northwestern University, undergraduate degree; Columbia University, M.S.J.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, editor, and journalist. Journalist for over ten years; senior editor, Soap Opera Digest; writer for In Touch Weekly magazine. Bauer Publishing, articles editor, 2003-13.
AWARDS:Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original P.I. Novel, 2013, for And She Was; Edgar Allen Poe Award, Best Paperback Original, 2019, for If I Die Tonight.
WRITINGS
Author maintains a blog at http://www.firstoffenders.typepad.com.
SIDELIGHTS
Alison Gaylin spent several years as a journalist working in the arts and entertainment industries before she published her first suspense novel, Hide Your Eyes, in 2005. The book introduces Samantha Leiffer, a preschool teacher who lives in Manhattan. While sitting on a pier one day, Samantha witnesses a man and woman dumping a large ice chest into the Hudson River. She makes eye contact with the man and then begins to fear for her safety when threatening objects and messages start to appear among her possessions. The police find the ice box and discover a murdered three-year-old child inside. Detective John Krull offers to stay in Samantha’s apartment to protect her and a romance develops between them. Samantha continues to fear for her life as the killer stalks her and more children are murdered.
Many critics praised Gaylin’s debut novel. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book “a consistently entertaining evocation of Manhattan’s strange and artsy underside,” while Susan Scribner, in a review posted on the Mystery Reader Website, applauded Gaylin’s “vivid characterizations” and “fast-moving plot.” Scribner also noted that Samantha’s “wry first person narrative strikes a perfect note between rapidly growing terror and gallows humor, even during the final heart-stopping confrontation.” Additionally, Sheri Melnick, writing for RT Book Reviews, commented: “Quirky and original, this novel has levity as well as suspense.” Noting Gaylin’s effective style, Harriet Klausner, in a review posted on the Best Reviews Website, concluded that the author “is a bright new star in the psychological suspense and thriller horizons.”
You Kill Me
Gaylin’s second novel, You Kill Me, is the sequel to Hide Your Eyes. Readers once again encounter Samantha Leiffer who is still coping with the traumatic events of the first story. Samantha feels safe now that John Krull is her live-in boyfriend, but she begins to worry when John withdraws from her emotionally and physically. Her fears escalate when a random man slips her a note telling her that she is in danger. When Samantha’s ex-boyfriend, the woman who moved into her old apartment, and the man who gave her the note are all murdered, Samantha must find help before it is too late.
Critical response to You Kill Me was mostly positive. A Publishers Weekly reviewer pointed out that “though the novel has some trappings of generic chick lit … Gaylin casts them all in a fresh light.” Harriet Klausner, in a review posted on Best Reviews, found the book to be “much darker in tone” than Gaylin’s first novel, but also maintained that “Samantha’s perspective allows readers to feel her gradually growing feelings of tension and terror.” Critic Robyn Glazer held a similar opinion; in her review of the novel for RT Book Reviews, Glazer acknowledged: “The story is clever, with many suspenseful, well-written moments.”
Reality Ends Here
Gaylin followed You Kill Me with several suspense novels, including Trashed and Into the Dark: A Novel of Suspense. She also tried her hand at the young adult genre with Reality Ends Here, a mystery revolving around a reality television show. Sixteen-year-old Estella is the older half-sister of sextuplets, and she stars with her family on Seven Is Heaven. Estella receives a package from her long-dead father, and the show’s producers accuse her of sending the gift to herself. She is then sent to a therapy group comprised entirely of child stars, and the friends she makes there help her discover the real origins of the package.
“It is just not a story that lingers,” an online Unforgettable Books writer complained: “I hardly remember many of the characters of reaching beyond the surface.” A Buried in Books Web site reviewer offered a similar assessment, remarking: “I really like the way Estella treated her siblings and that was about all I could say about her. There wasn’t a lot of development after that.” However, the reviewer concluded, “if you can suspend belief easier than me in your contemporaries, you’ll enjoy this fast paced novel.” Proffering more enthusiastic praise in Kirkus Reviews, a critic declared: “Reality-show lovers and haters alike will enjoy the behind-the-scenes perspective.”
What Remains of Me
In What Remains of Me, a stand-alone thriller novel, “Gaylin delves into the dark side of pop culture, Hollywood power and tabloid reporting for a multilayered story about a woman forever associated with a crime,” commented Oline H. Cogdill in Salon. Protagonist Kelly Lund has had a difficult life. When she was a teenager, her older sister, despairing of her lack of success in Hollywood, jumped to her death. Kelly thought she might get better after falling in with a high-powered Hollywood crowd, including friends Vee, son of prominent director John McFadden, and Bellamy Marshall, daughter of acclaimed actor Sterling Marshall. At a wild party at McFadden’s mansion, things get even worse: a drug-addled Kelly shoots and kills John McFadden. She is sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison.
The story picks up more than two decades later, after Kelly has been released from prison and has attempted to settle into a low-key, low-profile life. She’s married to Bellamy Marshall’s younger brother Shane and lives near Los Angeles. Her marriage is troubled by Shane’s drug use, but Kelly manages to keep out of the spotlight, working as a writer for a Web site where married people look for illicit hook-ups. Five years after her release from prison, Kelly is again under suspicion of murder when her father-in-law, Sterling Marshall, is killed—shot in much the same way that John McFadden was killed. Moving between past and present, the narrative puts Kelly in a predicament that she’ll find hard to escape. Yet the truth, and not the sensationalist image that the media creates of her, will be her most powerful weapon.
“Gaylin has created a compelling protagonist” in Kelly Lund, remarked Xpress Reviews contributor Nicole A. Cooke. A Kirkus Reviews writer observed that Gaylin “is excellent at reproducing the TMZ-style blog posts and news articles that surround sensational crimes.” A writer on the Web site BlackFive concluded: “Anyone fascinated with Hollywood and true crimes needs to read What Remains of Me. ”
[open new]
Gaylin next wrote a series of standalone novels. If I Die Tonight presents multiple points of view of a fatal hit-and-run accident. Aging rock star Aimee En reports to Havenkill, New York, police officer Pearl Maze that a teenage boy stole her Jaguar. When 17-year-old football star Liam Miller rushes to help, he’s run over by the driver and left for dead. Meanwhile, school pariah Wade Reed’s mother and younger brother report to police Wade’s suspicious behavior that night, condemning Wade in the court of public opinion and social media. Wade, who posted a suicide note, could clear himself if he just explains what he was doing that night, but he remains silent.
Inspired by a true hit-and-run incident made worse by gossip and out of control social media, Gaylin explained how she chose her point of view characters: “I often write from many points of view, and in choosing those POVs, I try to figure out who can tell the story in the most dynamic way.” For example, for cop Pearl, “I thought that her own backstory could make her uniquely suited to solve this crime—to see it from a different perspective.”
Calling the book anxiety-fueled, a Kirkus Reviews critic noted that Gaylin “takes the gulf that naturally develops between teenagers and their families and stocks it with sharks.” Despite some implausible final twists, “the novel’s lasting impact comes from its indelible portrait of people in crisis,” according to a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. “Gaylin’s skillful balance of tension and intimacy will appeal to fans of psychological and domestic suspense,” said Carol Munroe and Frank L. Weyenberg in Xpress Reviews.
In Gaylin’s next standalone psychological suspense thriller Never Look Back, the repercussions of a killing spree are felt decades later. In 1976 teenagers April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy killed 12 people before dying in a fire. Forty years later, Quentin Garrison, whose mother Kate’s little sister was a victim and Kate committed suicide, launches a true-crime podcast to examine the events of that time. He’s given a tip that April never died and now lives under the name of Renee Bloom, who has a daughter, filmmaker Robin Diamond. When Quentin contacts Robin, she’s preoccupied with a crumbling marriage, a violent home invasion, and internet trolls. The events prompt the question of how well do we really know our parents, our partners, and ourselves.
“Artfully strewn red herrings and a kaleidoscopic narrative heighten tension while sowing seeds of distrust concerning the characters’ honesty and intentions,” according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Jane Murphy in Booklist called the book an “addictive and complex tale related through the experiences of April, Quentin, and Robin, with multiple startling conclusions.” A writer in Reviewer’s Bookwatch observed that Gaylin has “a genuine flair for originality and a distinctively engaging narrative storytelling style as an author.”
In Gaylin’s chilling The Collective, Camille Gardener is still grieving the death of her teenage daughter Emily who was raped and left for dead by privileged college fraternity bro Harris Blanchard. Emily died three days later. When Harris’s trial ends in acquittal and he starts a new life in Colorado, Camille joins a group of similar mothers called The Collective who discuss and post revenge fantasies on perpetrators who killed their children. But Camille starts to realize that the fantasies are real vigilante justice. “Escalating stakes and a tight, twisty plot fuel this timely domestic thriller, which unfolds through a visceral first-person-present narration,” according to a writer in Kirkus Reviews. In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer noted: “A breathtaking twist will catch readers by surprise. This tale of justice without mercy is a page-turner.”
According to Gaylin, the conspiracy laden We Are Watching is her scariest book so far. Bookstore owners Meg and Justin Russo are driving their daughter Lily to college. Suddenly a car full of skinheads taunts them and forces them off the road, killing Justin. That was only the beginning as the bookstore is vandalized, an online post by a QAnon-like cult accuses Meg and her once famous musician father Nathan of being satanists, and that a book called The Prophecy Meg wrote as a teenager will bring about the end of the world unless her family dies violently. The cult accuses Nathan of having sold the souls of his family to Satan in exchange for a hit record.
Speaking to Elise Dumpleton at Nerd Daily, Gaylin said she was inspired the write We Are Watching by true-life conspiracy theories with real tragic consequences, such as Pizzagate and those wrongly accused in the McMartin pre-school abuse scandal. Gaylin added: “The biggest challenge was taking this outlandish, crazy idea I had and making it feel like it could really happen. In order to accomplish that, I needed characters that truly felt like people you might know, a setting that was very real.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: “Gaylin writes perceptively about grief, guilt, and the complexities of parent-child relationships, while also spotlighting the dangers of misinformation and the allure of conspiracy theories in times of chaos.” A reviewer remarked in Publishers Weekly: “Gaylin matches her lucid, propulsive prose with cracker jack plotting. This will grip readers from start to finish.”
[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2019, Jane Murphy, review of Never Look Back, p. 33.
Crimespree, March 14, 2016, Elise Cooper, “Alison Gaylin: The What Remains of Me Interview.”
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2013, review of Reality Ends Here; December 15, 2015, review of What Remains of Me; January 1, 2018, review of If I Die Tonight; May 1, 2019, review of Never Look Back; September 1, 2021, review of The Collective; November 15, 2024, review of We Are Watching.
Library Journal, September 1, 2008, Susan Hayes, review of Heartless, p. 116.
Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2005, review of Hide Your Eyes, p. 47; October 31, 2005, review of You Kill Me, p. 38; July 21, 2008, review of Heartless, p. 140; December 21, 2015, review of What Remains of Me, p. 130; November 20, 2017, review of If I Die Tonight, p. 73; August 30, 2021, review of The Collective, p. 39; November 25, 2024, review of We Are Watching, p. 37.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, July 2019, review of Never Look Back.
UWire Text, February 23, 2016, review of What Remains of Me, p. 1.
Variety, March 2, 2016, Pat Saperstein, review of What Remains of Me, p. 96.
Xpress Reviews, March 18, 2016, Nicole A. Cooke, review of What Remains of Me; February 9, 2018, review of If I Die Tonight.
ONLINE
Alison Gaylin Home Page, http://www.alisongaylin.com (December 12, 2016).
Best Reviews, http://thebestreviews.com/ (March 13, 2005), Harriet Klausner, review of Hide Your Eyes; (November 15, 2005), Harriet Klausner, review of You Kill Me.
BlackFive, http://www.blackfive.net/ (March 15, 2016), review of What Remains of Me.
Book Club Girl, http://www.bookclubgirl.com/ (February 24, 2016), description of What Remains of Me.
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (March 6, 2018), Deborah Kalb, “Q&A with Alison Gaylin.”
Buried in Books, http://www.buriedinbooks.blogspot.com/ (June 13, 2013), review of Reality Ends Here.
Fantastic Fiction, http://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (December 12, 2016), biography of Alison Gaylin.
HarperCollins Web site, http://www.harpercollins.com/ (December 12, 2016), biography of Alison Gaylin.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (June 23, 2014), Mark Rubinstein, “‘Stay with Me:’ A Talk with Alison Gaylin.”
MysteryPeople Web log, http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com/ (August 1, 2016), “MysteryPeople Q&A with Alison Gaylin.”
Mystery Reader, http://www.themysteryreader.com/ (April 12, 2006), Susan Scribner, review of Hide Your Eyes.
Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (January 28, 2025), Elise Dumpleton, “Q&A: Alison Gaylin, Author of ‘We Are Watching.’”
RT Book Reviews, http://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (April 12, 2006), Sheri Melnick, review of Hide Your Eyes; (April 12, 2006), Robyn Glazer, review of You Kill Me.
Salon, http://www.salon.com/ (February 23, 2016), Oline H. Cogdill, “Book Review: Author Alison Gaylin Delivers Stunning Story,” review of What Remains of Me.
Unforgettable Books, http://unforgetablebooks.blogspot.com/ (August 11, 2013), review of Reality Ends Here.*
Alison Gaylin
(A L Gaylin)
USA flag
Alison Gaylin is a journalist who has covered the arts and entertainment for more than fifteen years. Her first novel, Hide Your Eyes, debuted in March, 2005 with nearly a quarter of a million copies in print and was nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award for a first novel. The sequel, YOU KILL ME, was published in 2006 to rave reviews. Her first hardcover, Trashed, out in September 2007, launched NAL's new Obsidian imprint. Alison lives in upstate New York with her husband, young daughter and old dog.
Awards: Edgar (2019), Shamus (2013) see all
Genres: Mystery
New and upcoming books
2025
thumb
The Twisted Women's Book Club
September 2025
thumb
Booked
(Sunny Randall, book 13)
Series
Samantha Leiffer
1. Hide Your Eyes (2005)
2. You Kill Me (2005)
thumbthumb
Simone Glass
1. Trashed (2007)
2. Heartless (2008)
thumbthumb
Brenna Spector
1. And She Was (2012)
2. Into the Dark (2013)
3. Stay With Me (2014)
thumbthumbthumb
Novels
Reality Ends Here (2013)
What Remains of Me (2016)
If I Die Tonight (2017)
Never Look Back (2019)
The Collective (2021)
We Are Watching (2024)
thumbthumbthumbthumb
thumbthumb
Collections
The Twisted Women's Book Club (2025) (with others)
thumb
Series contributed to
Hush
5. The Gift (2020)
thumb
Sunny Randall
11. Bad Influence (2023)
12. Buzz Kill (2024)
13. Booked (2025)
thumbthumbthumb
Graphic Novels hide
Normandy Gold (2018) (with Megan Abbott)
USA Today and international bestselling author Alison Gaylin has won the Edgar and Shamus awards. Her work has been published in the US, UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Romania and Denmark, and she has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Macavity, Anthony, ITW Thriller and Strand Book Award. In addition to her novels, she has published many short stories and collaborated with Megan Abbott on the graphic novel Normandy Gold (Titan/Hard Case Crime, 2018).
Alison Gaylin on the Challenges of Bringing a Robert B. Parker PI into the Social Media Era
How Sunny Randall got on Instagram
June 15, 2023 By Alison Gaylin
VIA G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
I’ve always loved Sunny Randall. Introduced at the dawn of the Millennium, Robert B. Parker’s youngest—and only female—PI is also his most modern creation.
Article continues after advertisement
00:22
01:42
Divorced and sex-positive, Sunny has always enjoyed the company of men, yet she’s never needed a male presence to complete her. Right out of the gate, she’s been unabashedly great at her job (In one of the first scenes I remember reading in 1999’s Family Honor, she impresses a chauvinistic would-be client with her shooting skills.) And she unapologetically puts that job first. At a time in which women were typically relegated to supporting roles in crime fiction, Sunny earned herself a place alongside such shining exceptions as Kinsey Millhone, VI Warshawski and Tess Monaghan—even though she was created by a man.
Her effect has been lasting. Twelve years after Parker’s death, she’s still out there, solving crimes, dealing with an increasingly complicated world around her. And though she’s aged less than a decade in the past 23 years, Sunny has managed to stay thoroughly modern… in most ways.
When I signed on to write the 11th novel in the Sunny Randall series (taking over from the talented Mike Lupica, who re-introduced Sunny to the world after an 11-year hiatus, with 2018’s Blood Feud) the one anachronistic thing I noticed about this 39-ish woman was her lack of online engagement. In a world in which 75 percent of adults are on some sort of social media—with Sunny’s demographic representing the second largest group—I figured there had to be a reason why she wasn’t tweeting out her witticisms, chatting with her dad on Facebook messenger, posting photos of her artwork on Instagram, or making reels of her adorable dog Rosie for TikTok. And while she certainly does seem to have no need for Tinder—or any dating app, really—it’s a little surprising that a woman of her worldly tastes hasn’t at least given Raya a try.
For a new legacy writer like me, bringing a classic and beloved series lead into the modern age is a balancing act. How can you maintain the integrity of a strong and multi-faceted character who was introduced at the time of flip phones, while still acknowledging that much has happened since 2007, when her creator released his final Sunny Randall book, Spare Change? I mean, back then, MySpace was barely a thing (and it was completely understandable that Sunny wasn’t signed up.)
Article continues after advertisement
I decided to explore all of this by writing a story in which our intrepid PI is hired by a woman who manages influencers—and, as a result, becomes immersed in the world she’s managed to (mostly) avoid until now.
My first step was to reread several of the earlier books, in order to figure out what Sunny’s feelings might be toward social media. Clearly, she knows what an influencer is. In fact, there’s mention of a local social media star named Carly Meme (nee Carlotta Espinoza) in Lupica’s Payback (2021).
And even if there wasn’t, Sunny doesn’t live under a rock. Someone who has survived lockdown without social media has to be avoiding it for a reason, I reasoned. And it should be a compelling one. I decided that, after a bad Facebook experience in her early 20s, this skeptical investigator decided she had no need for online “friends” or followers. And being a stubborn person as well as a contrarian (remember, she’s a Bostonian who hates baseball!) she’s stuck to her guns over the years.
Certain family members, though, seem more susceptible to the allure of Insta-fame. Though she has little contact with her sister Elizabeth or her mother, I imagine they both have active online presences—they really do sound like selfie queens to me. It might irk the two of them that Sunny isn’t a follower of theirs – and their efforts to convert Sunny would definitely make her dig in her high heels even more.
I saw an opportunity to illustrate this when I was writing Bad Influence. In Revenge Tour, Sunny broke up with detective Jesse Stone—leaving her single for the first time in a long while. In Bad Influence, she reveals that she actually does have a never-used Instagram account—which her sister Elizabeth created for her after the split, signing her up for a dating app as well. Sunny, of course, used neither. But it did force her to reflect on her sister’s good intentions.
Article continues after advertisement
She does just that in an early scene, when she logs onto Instagram for the first time in many months in order to direct message her new client, and remembers the circumstances leading to the creation of her account. [Elizabeth] even posted a few shots of my paintings, Sunny recalls. A gesture that I must say I was moved by.
Of course, she wasn’t moved enough to try the dating app. While she didn’t delete the account altogether, she renamed it @RosieRandall and switched out Elizabeth’s curated photos for glamour shots of her dog.
Bringing Sunny into the modern world was an interesting way for me to get to know her. Discovering her feelings about influencing (Harder work than she thought), Only Fans (Good business model! Sunny doesn’t judge.), and paid product endorsements staged to look like regular posts (Okay, maybe she does judge sometimes…) made it easier for me to understand how she’d relate to life in general. As a person who disdains social media—using it only as tool in researching her clients—Sunny is clearly a free thinker, who takes more pleasure in the real world than the virtual one.
But on a different level, she knows also knows more than most of us what it feels like to be truly alone. No matter how much time she spends with her BFF Spike (who is notably not on social media either—unless he just doesn’t talk to Sunny about it) her beloved dad Phil, or whatever man she’s involved with at the moment, Sunny goes home to a life in which there are no dinging notifications, no ongoing gossipy group chats on messenger, no blush-worthy compliments from an unexpected Instagram follower. She’s never tagged in anyone’s Facebook memory. And when she finds herself blessed with great news or coping with personal tragedy, she’ll never know what it feels like to receive congratulations or words of encouragement from hundreds of friends – many of whom she’s never met before. In fact, she probably finds that entire concept as weird and disturbing as most of us did 23 years ago.
In that way, I discovered, Sunny Randall truly is a classic lone detective.
***
Share:
Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
More
Alison GaylinBad InfluencePutnamRobert B. ParkerSunny Randall
Alison Gaylin
Alison Gaylin is a USA Today and international bestselling author whose novels have won the Edgar and Shamus awards. Her work has been published in numerous countries and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Macavity, Anthony, ITW Thriller and Strand Book Award.
The Butcher, The Embezzler, and the Fall Guy The Private Investigator and the Hollywood Con Queen
Get the Crime Reads Brief
Email
Get our “Here’s to Crime” Tote
Crime Reads tote
Popular Posts
The Best International Fiction of February 2025
February 7, 2025
George Pelecanos on Cornell Woolrich, the History of Noir, and 'The Black Curtain'
February 4, 2025 by George Pelecanos
I’m an academic. Here’s why I wanted to write a dark academia thriller.
January 29, 2025 by Liza North
5 Mystery Novels with Unique Settings
January 21, 2025 by Jenny Elder Moke
The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2025
January 10, 2025 by Molly Odintz
So You Want to Flee to Canada: Revisiting a Classic Guide to Leaving America
March 28, 2025
Dancing on the Page: Sulaiman Addonia on Writing in the Footsteps of Pina Bausch
March 28, 2025 by Sulaiman Addonia
New on the Lit Hub Podcast: The Windham-Campbell Prizes and A New Literary Tabloid
March 28, 2025 by The Lit Hub Podcast
The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in April
March 28, 2025 by Emily Temple
AudioFile’s Most Anticipated Audiobooks of April
March 28, 2025 by AudioFile Magazine
The Best Reviewed Books of the Month
March 28, 2025
5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week
March 27, 2025 by Book Marks
The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
March 21, 2025 by Book Marks
5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week
March 20, 2025 by Book Marks
The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
March 14, 2025 by Book Marks
CrimeReads on Twitter
Interview with Alison Gaylin (If I Die Tonight)
March 17, 2018 by Danielle
Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin brings psychological suspense stories to a whole new level. The focus of the plot emphasizes the relationship between parents and children and how social media plays a role. The I-GEN generation characters that keep secrets and isolate themselves, allows readers to realize it is sometimes impossible for parents to really know their children.
The plot begins with Wade, a teenager’s, suicide note, then flashes back five days and unfolds from the perspectives of Jackie, Connor, Pearl, and Amy Nathanson. Amy files a police report claiming that she was car jacked by a teenage boy. Another boy, Liam, rushes to help and is hit by the car. The case quickly consumes social media, transforming Liam, a local high school football star, into a folk hero, and the suspect, a high school outcast named Wade Reed, into a depraved would-be killer. His mother, Jackie, and brother Connor, are convinced Wade is innocent, but must face their own life changes as they too are seen as pariahs.
Gaylin has the uncanny ability to develop likeable and dysfunctional characters. A shining character in the story is police officer Pearl Maze. She has problems that must be worked out with her father. But as a cop she is very astute at realizing there is more to the crime than meets the eye and she is a great judge of personality. Suspense ratchets up as Pearl tries to figure out if Wade is innocent or guilty.
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Alison Gaylin: Years ago, my daughter’s classmate had their brother involved in a hit and run. The story got spun way out of control by the children. They twisted it into something it was not with a hero and a villain. I became fascinated on how things caught on and rumors spread became truths.
EC: It seems you like to address the impact of social media in your stories?
AG: I think it can be the fastest route to fiction. Everybody uses it. Rumors spread and lies get told. For example, Wade is described as a devil worshiper who kills animals. It keeps getting repeated and then everyone thinks it is true. This potential for lying and bullying on social media is very frightening to me. A lie can take hold and get repeated so often that it becomes “fact,” all in a matter of hours. One simple google search and up it comes. In the book, Wade becomes infamous overnight as a result of that lethal mixture of small town gossip and social media.
EC: What would you say is the theme?
AG: Secrets. I write about secrets in most of my books. We really do not fully know someone. There are characters in this book who are willing to let others go down just to make sure their secret does not get out. What I like to do when I start writing is to find out everyone’s secrets. In this book, I felt for Jackie because I am also the parent of teenage children. I love writing a twisting plot, but this is probably my most character-driven novel. A lot of the twists come out of characters lying to each other and to themselves.
EC: Do you think you explore the I-Gen generation in this story?
AG: The role music plays is very important. Jackie speaks in the book about how she blasted the punk music as a child and her parents yelling to turn it down. Children today are the opposite. They always play their music with their headphones on. It is scary how this generation has isolated itself. Even social media has it so they do not communicate verbally. The one good piece of social media is that we might be able to intervene. There have been incidents when my children have told us about what they have read, including someone posting suicidal thoughts, and we were able to inform the parents. In the old days with a diary no one might have known. I think our parents yearned for quiet time, while today, we as parents want our children to communicate verbally.
EC: Music also plays a role in the story?
AG: Jackie loved Bob Marley and punk music, the same music I did. Connor was into rap music like Kanye West. I think the music you listen to tells who you are and plays a part of someone’s life.
EC: You also touch on the issue of divorce?
AG: Jackie and the boys got dealt a really hard blow when her husband and their father decides to have a do-over. He offered no emotional support. I put in the Wade quote, ‘You wear grief like it’s the latest fashion. You don’t care deeply enough about anything or anyone to really feel the pain of loss.’ I think any relationship is similar to the loss we feel when someone dies. It is a similar grief. Wade’s father was no longer in his life even though he did not die. Even the detective Pearl feels that she lost her father after her mother died because he was no longer there for her.
EC: Will you bring back Pearl in another book?
AG: Maybe. I am thinking of writing a Pearl novella. I can definitely see a possibility of doing a series with her. I wrote her backstory because I’ve always been haunted by the stories I’ve read about toddlers picking up guns and accidentally killing a parent, wondering about what effect that would have on the child. In writing Pearl, I saw an opportunity to introduce that idea. She describes herself as, ‘a murderer before she could even read.’ I imagined what toll that could take on an otherwise level-headed person. Pearl is a complicated young woman who tends to isolate herself from others. Overall, she is a basically good and moral person and a keen judge of character.
EC: Your next book?
AG: Pearl will not be in it. It is titled Closure. It alternates between the 1970s and the 1950s when a woman discovers that her mother might be a co-killer. If I Die Tonight emphasizes the question on how well do we know our children, while the next book is about how well do we really know our parents.
EC: THANK YOU!!
Interview With Alison Gaylin
August 20, 2018 mysterypeoplescottLeave a comment
Alison Gaylin’s If I Die Tonight uses the thriller to examine how social media affects our lives. It shows different points of view when a teenager is sent into a coma from apparently stopping a car jacking involving a one hit wonder from the eighties, and how rumors moving at light speed effect the lives of those caught up in the situation as well as those investigating it. Alison was kind enough to talk about the book and life in the era of Twitter.
Image result for alison gaylin booksMysteryPeople Scott: Social media plays a big part in If I Die Tonight. What did you want to explore with that subject?
Alison Gaylin: I’m really fascinated by social media as an unreliable narrator. In the book, the kids and the adults use it in this way – the grown-ups falsely glamorizing their lives on Facebook, the kids (and I suppose anonymous Reddit posters as well) using social media to spread rumors, lash out at each other, bully each other with untruths. I always say I like to write about things that scare me, and in this day and age, social media can be terrifying.
MPS: You have a teenage daughter. Do you think she will be formed in a different way than when we were teenagers by social media?
AG: Yes, I do. As I mention in the book, I feel like when I was a kid, we blasted music, clomped around in our Doc Martens, tied up the family phone and basically wore our heart on our sleeves. Our power was in making noise. This generation is about earbuds and sneakers and personal devices… They’re so much quieter and more secretive, which makes them harder to know, help, save.
If I Die Tonight: A Novel Cover ImageMPS: How much did having a daughter help you get the voices of the teenage characters?
AG: It did help in terms of getting a grasp of teenagers’ concerns. And it was a story that my daughter told me – about a hit and run in a neighboring town – that gave me the initial idea for the book. She also helped me understand SnapChat, which was invaluable! But my daughter’s voice is very different from that of the two teenage boys in the book. She’s a lot more open than they are – thankfully!
MPS: This is one of those thrillers that probably wouldn’t have existed five years ago. Is there anything as an author you have to keep in mind when you’re writing a story so of its time?
AG: I think the one thing to keep in mind is to make sure that there is something timeless about the story. Yes, this novel has SnapChat and Reddit and Facebook Live in it. But it is ultimately about guilt, secrets, and the terrifying process of raising teenagers – all of which have been around forever.
MPS: If I Die Tonight is a something of an ensemble thriller told through the point of view of several characters. What made you decide this was the way to go for this story?
AG: When I first decided to write a story about a teenager who may have committed a carjacking/hit and run, my first thoughts were, “What if I were his mother?” “What if I were his little brother?” “What if I were the woman whose car was taken?” and “Who is going to solve this crime?” All seemed like valid ways to approach the story, so I decided to go with all of them.
MPS: Aimee Em is the third character you’ve recently used in a novel or short story tied to eighties pop culture. Has anything drawn you to this period?
AG: What is that thing they say about the songs you used to listen to as a teen making the biggest impact on you, emotionally? I am fanatical about pop culture – I always have been — and I think that having grown up in the early 80s, I’m especially obsessed with that time period.
Interview With Alison Gaylin, Author of Never Look Back
July 11, 2019 mysterypeoplescottLeave a comment
Never Look Back: A Novel Cover ImageAlison Gaylin’s latest thriller to deal with family, media, and murder, Never Look Back, centers on the the crime spree by two young people dubbed thrill killers in the seventies, Gabriel LeRoy and April cooper, and the effects of their crimes on the present. Quentin Garrison, whose aunt was murdered by them, is doing a podcast about the two. His research leads to the possibility that April may still be alive under a different name. His investigating leads him to Robin Diamond, April’s possible daughter. Not soon after he gives Robin the news, someone breaks in and attacks her parents, leading to an unraveling of dark secrets. Alison is a good friend and I’ll be interviewing her at BookPeople July 15th. She was kind enough to take some early questions from me though.
The story of Never Look Back is a mix of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, Branch Dividian, pop and podcast culture. How did it come about?
I’ve always been fascinated by the Starkweather murders, mainly because it seems to me that Caril Ann Fugate was so clearly a kidnapping victim, yet she was tried and convicted—at barely 15—as an accessory to murder. I wanted to explore this type of destructive, consuming relationship, though I couldn’t make April the way I perceive Caril to have been—a true victim in every sense. I wanted to create somebody who was a bit more of a survivor, someone a little more empowered by the hate she feels for the man who abducts her, someone who changes drastically with each murder. There’s definitely a Branch Dividian element to the Gideons too—that’s a great observation on your part. I think with all of these other elements in the book, it’s just the case of me writing about things that I’m obsessed with. As you know, I’ve always been obsessed with pop culture, and I really, really love so many of these true crime podcasts—particularly the very personal way in which so many of the stories are told.
What spurred the devise of April’s story by her writing the journal for her future child?
I had initially thought about making those entries diary entries, but one of April’s most telling qualities is that she sees herself as motherly and longs to be a mother. She has these protective, maternal feelings for her little sister, and I feel like the person she would find it easiest to talk to wouldn’t be herself (as in a journal/diary.) It would be her future child. I think she sees her future child as her ultimate confidante. I also liked starting it off as a school assignment. It intrigued me, the idea of this young girl trying to focus on a school assignment as her entire life has been pulled out from under her.
This is the third book in a row where examining the media is part of the book. What about that subject draws you to it?
I have my masters in journalism and have been a magazine writer for years. So, in a way, for me getting into the head of a journalist is “writing what you know.” I also have long been fascinated by the way things like magazines, TV news, social media and more recently podcasts relay “facts”—how these media are often the most subjective and unreliable of narrators.
You have an odd structure that works where one protagonist sort of hands the story off to another. How did you deal with that challenge?
I realized that the story is equal parts Quentin’s, Robin’s and April’s. (with a few others thrown in for reasons that are spoilers.) I like choosing the point of view of a character who has the most at stake, and in this story, it’s definitely these three. I initially began telling the story from Robin’s point of view, and then went back in time a little bit when I switched over to Quentin. But then I realized that the story is already so complicated, it made a lot more sense to give it a simpler, more linear structure. That meant starting off from Quentin’s point of view.
I was happy to see Brenna Spector pop in a cameo. Ever plan to use her again in the future?
I’m glad you liked seeing Brenna! I was happy to be able to include her and Nick Morasco, and I definitely will continue to do that when my setting allows. I keep thinking I want to pick up on Brenna’s story, but these standalone ideas keep coming to me!
What other authors would you recommend to fans of your work?
There are so many great psychological suspense authors out there that everyone knows about, but as far as someone who might like me wanting to find someone new, I just started reading a new book called No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez—I think it comes out early next year. I am really finding it very suspenseful and love the family relationships she explores.
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Q&A with Alison Gaylin
Alison Gaylin is the author of the new novel If I Die Tonight. Her other books include the novels Hide Your Eyes and Stay With Me. She lives in Woodstock, New York.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for If I Die Tonight?
A: Two events involving social media inspired me. The first happened a few years ago, when my daughter was 13. There was a hit-and-run incident in a nearby town, involving two teenage boys from rival high schools.
What I found so remarkable about the incident was the way in which the story got spun, particularly by the kids, into something that it wasn't. Through small-town gossip and the use of social media, the narrative became something completely removed from the real story, something much bigger and elaborate and clear-cut.
One of the boys also had a 13-year-old brother, and I found myself wondering what he was going through...
The other thing that inspired me was when Sinead O'Connor posted a suicide note on Facebook. She was obviously very troubled, and being an old fan of her music I found it heartbreaking.
But the thing that I noticed most about her suicide note was that it had over 2,000 likes on it. That callousness that social media brings out in people -- I find that so scary, and so that too was something that inspired the idea.
Q: You tell the story from several characters' perspectives. How did you choose your point-of-view characters?
A: I often write from many points of view, and in choosing those POVs, I try to figure out who can tell the story in the most dynamic way.
Connor and Jackie seemed natural points of view to tell the story from, because they're the two people who care most about Wade and who have the most stake in the idea of him having committed this awful crime.
Pearl was a character I thought of before I wrote this book. She was sort of a character in search of a story, and I thought that her own backstory could make her uniquely suited to solve this crime -- to see it from a different perspective, knowing that people often get judged by others who don't know the whole story.
Also, she seemed like, given her unusual background, she'd be more willing to risk her life in order to get to the truth.
Aimee En was another character I kept thinking about -- someone who was famous once, a long time ago. That type of fame fascinates me. She also seemed, like Wade, to be such an outsider in this town that her perspective of it would be different and interesting.
Q: Do you usually plot out your novels before you start writing, or make changes along the way?
A: I make changes along the way, which is often terrifying! But I tried outlining in the past and I never really stuck to it. What I like to know before I start writing is what everybody's secret is. Then, while I'm writing, I figure out ways for those secrets to come out.
Q: The novel takes place in a town in New York State's Hudson Valley. How important is setting in your work, and could this have been set elsewhere?
A: There's something really interesting about the historic towns in the Hudson Valley, which, by the way, is where I live! It's really not that far from New York City, but the towns tend to be so sheltered and insular, you may as well be in the middle of nowhere.
They're also picturesque in a very specific way -- window boxes everywhere, even on the police station! The feeling of safety, that colonial charm.... All of that was very important to me in telling this specific story, which deals a lot in appearances versus reality.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm currently writing a book called Closure, about a true crime podcast, a home invasion, and a woman whose beloved mother may or may not have been a mass murderer in the 1970s.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I don't think so! Thanks so much for these questions. They're great, and it's been a pleasure.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Q&A with Alison Gaylin
Alison Gaylin is the author of the new novel Never Look Back, which is based on the Charles Starkweather murders of the 1950s. Her other novels include If I Die Tonight and Hide Your Eyes. She lives in Woodstock, New York.
Q: Why did you decide to base your new novel on the Charles Starkweather murders?
A: The Charles Starkweather murders of the 1950s have always fascinated me. Badlands, which was based on the murders, is one of my favorite movies.
But the more I've read about the real-life story, the more fascinated I've been with Caril Ann Fugate, who accompanied him on the spree and was just 14 at the time.
From the accounts I've seen, it seems pretty clear that she was a kidnapping victim. He'd murdered her entire family before taking Caril on the road with him, yet when Starkweather was captured, she was tried and convicted as an accomplice. I've long wanted to write something from the point of view of a Caril-like character.
Q: What did you see as the right blend between the actual events and your fictional creation?
A: Well, the murders in my book take place in 1976 rather than the ‘50s. Also, the Starkweather murders were opportunistic and random and Caril, I believe, was a total victim.
For the sake of telling a good story, I made the murders in my book a little less random, and April adjusts a bit more to her situation than I believe Caril did.
Q: You wrote that "the message of the book is to move on, and stop viewing your parents as saviors or ruiners..." How would you characterize the family dynamics in the book?
A: The family dynamics haunt the present-day characters. Both Quentin and Robin think they fully know their parents, but neither one of them does. Robin looks at her mother as more of a savior, while Quentin views his as a ruiner.
When the facts about these mothers emerge, it becomes clear that they were very different people than their children perceived them as.
Q: You note that you're a fan of true crime podcasts. What role do you see the podcast playing in your novel?
A: It's kind of ironic that the podcast in the book is called Closure, because it brings everything but Closure to Quentin. It's a means for him to use his skills as a reporter to investigate the murders that he believes ruined his life before he was even born. But because his point of view is so subjective, his emotions get in the way of his quest for the truth.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: It's in the very early phases, so I can't say too much about it, but it's another standalone book, and it combines psychological suspense with some more thriller-like elements. It's told in the first person, present tense, which is different for me. And it's about female rage.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Q&A with Alison Gaylin
Alison Gaylin is the author of the new novel The Collective. Her other books include the novel Never Look Back. She lives in Woodstock, New York.
Q: In our last interview, you said you were working on a book about female rage. What inspired you to write The Collective, and how did you create your character Camille?
A: A lot of the book was written during the pandemic, and I think I was inspired somewhat by the anger, isolation, and fear that many of us felt at the time.
Plus, I often write about the things I dread most, and in reading news stories about children or young adults whose lives were taken, I often imagine how I would feel if I were their mother. The grief and rage would be unfathomable, and Camille is someone completely overwhelmed by both of those emotions.
In creating that character, I was hoping to write someone who identified first and foremost as a mother – and who was robbed of that identity.
Q: The writer Laura Lippman said of the book, “Alison Gaylin's The Collective feels like the book of the moment, the year.” What do you think of that description, and how do you think the book reflects the current moment?
A: I admire Laura Lippman tremendously, and I’m thrilled by that description! I think The Collective reflects the current moment in that it’s about the powerlessness we often feel as women, and as mothers, and how – like so many other things in this day and age -- it can be turned to rage and weaponized.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Like most of my books, I knew how I wanted it to end, but I surprised myself a few times with twists on the way there.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I hope readers are entertained and scared and that they think twice before joining anonymous online groups of like-minded people. Also, the idea that no one is always absolutely in the right.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A book about a normal person who becomes the target of an online smear campaign – and has to figure out the source before she loses everything, including her daughter.
INTERVIEW WITH ALISON GAYLIN
by Elise Cooper | Aug 29, 2023 | Author Interviews, Books, Features
Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence
Sunny Randall Book 11
Alison Gaylin
G. P. Putnam’s Sons Pub
June 13, 2023
Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence by Alison Gaylin brings to life his character Sunny Randall. Those who have read Gaylin in the past know she loves to have twisted endings that are very intense. This story is not any different as she takes readers on a roller coaster ride.
In this story Gaylin includes many of Sunny’s supporting characters and attempts to bring her into the modern world. Bethany Rose hires Sunny to protect one of the most popular influencer couples. She offers the services of her influencer couple, Blake James, and Alena Jade, to help Sunny’s BFF Spike gain new customers for his bar and restaurant. Bethany is willing to do it on gratis if Sunny finds out who is sending threatening messages to the couple.
Sunny must come to terms with social media as she tries to figure out who is the stalker. The problem is she must get up to speed because she did not use any online forums. Now she uses it as a tool to research her clients. She is trying to understand how people can base their entire careers on letting strangers into their personal lives.
She can be stubborn at times and is trying to figure out where she stands emotionally.
This mystery/thriller is riveting, and the readers also can learn about the world of influencers, which makes the story even more fascinating.
Elise Cooper: Why write a Parker character?
Alison Gaylin: I have been a longtime fan of the Robert B. Parker books, although I did not read any of the Sunny books. I was offered to write twenty pages and thought this is a terrific opportunity. I had this idea regarding influencers. A month later I heard I got the job and will be writing a second book.
EC: Did you change anything regarding style?
AG: I tried to stay as loyal to Parker as I best I could. His style is different than my style with more dialogue, shorter chapters, and I have a little more internal dialogue. I did try to make it as “Parkeresque” as I could. All the supporting characters of his was like being given a toolbox to make some furniture. There is her good friend Spike, her father, her ex-husband Ritchie, his mob dad, and her dog Rosie. Parker books had more humor than I usually put but I wrote more intensity, especially at the end.
EC: Did you make any imprint on the Sunny character?
AG: It will always be a little different when a woman writes the character. It is a pleasure to be the first woman to write Sunny. I think the way women move through the world and relate to other women is different. In a lot of his books, she called in for help, but in this book during the climactic scene I had her do it on her own.
EC: How would you describe Sunny?
AG: Funny, tough, smart, strong, loyal, but vulnerable. She never let’s go of relationships. She had this dog Rosie who passed away and she got the same kind of dog and named it the same. She does not love change very much. She has been divorced from her ex-husband for years but still has feelings for him and they still maintain a relationship. Sunny is a solid person. In her profession as a private investigator, she is reckless, observant, and calm. She is in her late thirties. She is very good with a gun.
EC: Jesse Stone, another character of Parkers’ is mentioned on the page but does not appear?
AG: Sunny dated him for a while when Mike Lupica was writing this series. But in the last book, Revenge Tour, he broke them up. I decided they probably did not have a lot of contact now. He is still writing the Jesse Stone books and he has Jesse involved with someone else so I cannot write an alternative reality.
EC: What was the role of Rosie?
AG: She is a great companion for Sunny. I love dogs so Rosie will be in a lot of the stories. In this book Rosie is the go between for Sunny and her client, Blake, who she is guarding. His attitude towards Rosie showed a side to Blake readers would not otherwise see, caring and vulnerable. He was deprived of owning a dog during his childhood.
EC: Blake, Athena, and Bethany represent what?
AG: They are involved with the influencing world, and I wanted to show how things are not as they appear to be on social media and Instagram. As the book progresses there is more of a filter that will change people’s perception of them.
EC: Why influencers?
AG: I find them fascinating because I see them as a con. Everything is filtered and photoshopped. They have created a character of who they hope to be, not who they are. The goal is to be aspirational, not real. There is an element of artificiality. I thought how Sunny as a single woman in her late thirties she would have a social media imprint. But she does not, and I wondered why. Although she does find it fascinating. I think she wonders if followers have a mind of their own and maybe thinks of influencers as the modern-day commercials/advertisements. The influencers are getting paid with a lot of free products. Commercials have lost their power because people fast-forward them, so influencers have taken their place. They have a whole different level of fame.
EC: Idea for the mystery?
AG: I saw a Netflix documentary on con artists. This inspired me for the book, the different layers to the characters. The essence of the book is that these people were someone who they did not appear to be.
EC: Where are you going with the Sunny/Ritchie relationship?
AG: I put it to the test by having him move to New Jersey, six hours away. It has been on again/off again. Will absence make the heart grow fonder or will she decide to be on her own and independent? She relied a lot on his family. I put more change on her.
EC: Next books?
AG: The next Sunny book should come out this time next year. There is no title. It might involve the Energy Drink king who goes missing and Sunny is hired by his father.
For my next book, the tentative title is We Are Watching, out next summer. A normal family is targeted by a cult like group of conspiracy theorists.
THANK YOU!!
Share this:
Q&A: Alison Gaylin, Author of ‘We Are Watching’
Elise Dumpleton·Writers Corner·January 28, 2025·18 min read
Share
We chat with author Alison Gaylin about her latest release We Are Watching, which is a slick, riveting, and all-too-plausible tale of psychological suspense where a mother is desperate to protect her family as they become targets of a group of violent conspiracy theorists.
PLUS we have the first chapter for you to read at the end of the interview!
Hi, Alison! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m currently working on my 15th book – which is more shocking to me than anybody. I have had honor of seeing 12 of my own books published, plus two in Robert B. Parker’s Sunny Randall series and one graphic novel, which I co-wrote with Megan Abbott. I love writing dark, psychological suspense, and I always write about the things that scare me most. At the moment, that thing seems to be large groups of people.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved entertaining myself by writing stories. As for the ones I loved to read, I devoured every Judy Blume book as a kid. They couldn’t come out fast enough for me. My first “crime fiction” read was The Pit and the Pendulum, by Edgar Allen Poe. I also read Helter Skelter when I was 10… I found it around the house and thought it would be about The Beatles. I guess it was, kind of. Anyway, my life was never the same after that.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
The first book you ever remember reading: Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss
The one that made you want to become an author: The Outsiders by SE Hinton
The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Your latest novel, We Are Watching, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Family targeted by conspiracy theorists.
What can readers expect?
I’ve been told this is my scariest book, and I tend to agree. It’s about a relatively normal family who learns very quickly and horribly that they can’t trust anyone – even people they’ve known for years.
Where did the inspiration for We Are Watching come from?
Several different stories that disturbed me: Pizzagate, where a pizza store owner in DC saw his restaurant incorporated into an elaborate conspiracy theory, which culminated in an armed man bursting into the place looking for trafficked children. Also the McMartin pre-school scandal, which happened in California where I grew up. This poor family lost everything when they were wrongly accused of conducting Satanic rituals in the pre-school they ran. Also heavy metal bands accused of sneaking Satanic content into their lyrics. This list goes on…. Basically, I mashed up Satanic panic of the 80s and more recent online conspiracy theories to create the ideology of the cultists in the book. I realized that this type of thing has been going on for centuries. Since the Salem Witch Trials and before. But the internet has been a powerful accelerant.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Nate, Meg’s father, came as a surprise to me. He is a reclusive, ailing musician who smokes a lot of weed and believes the world is out to get him. I initially hadn’t planned on writing any chapters from his point of view, but plotwise, it made sense. When I started delving into this character, I found him really fun and interesting to write. He’s unlike any character I’ve ever written.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
The first draft of this book was completely different from the final product. The only thing that survived from it were Meg and Lily’s names and the very basic idea of a conspiracy theory. Everything else was different – characters, plot, setting. The biggest challenge was taking this outlandish, crazy idea I had and making it feel like it could really happen. In order to accomplish that, I needed characters that truly felt like people you might know, a setting that was very real, etc. That took a lot of finessing and a WHOLE lot of rewriting.
What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as a writer and about the publishing world since your debut?
Keep your expectations low and your aspirations high. In other words, work your hardest, but don’t expect it to pay off in instant bestsellerdom. Aim for writing the best book you can – nothing more, nothing less. Also, write what you would want to read – don’t try and follow trends. Oh, and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently at work on Booked, my third Sunny Randall book. It comes out in the early fall.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up in 2025?
Laura Lippman’s Murder Takes a Vacation, Alafair Burke’s The Note, Megan Abbott’s El Dorado Drive, Wendy Corsi Staub’s The Fourth Girl, Lisa Unger’s Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten, William Boyle’s Saint of the Narrows Street (which I read and loved in galley form)… it’s a long list, and those are just books from the first part of the year!
We Are Watching
Alison Gaylin. Morrow, $30 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-327518-8
Edgar winner Gaylin (The Collective) delivers a timely thriller about the nefarious workings of cults and conspiracy theorists. Meg Russo and her husband, Justin, own a bookstore in the small town of Elizabethville, N. Y. The couple lives a quiet life with their 18-year-old daughter, Lily, a musician intent on following in the footsteps of her off-the-grid grandfather, who achieved minor rock stardom years earlier. While driving to Ithaca, N. Y., to move Lily into college, the family gets in a nasty car crash; Justin dies, and Meg, who was behind the wheel, blames herself. Back in Elizabethville, she finds the bookshop vandalized and videos across the internet accusing her and her family of practicing satanism. Quickly realizing that she, Justin, and Lily have become the targets of a doomsday cult, Meg wrestles with revealing secrets she's been hiding from her daughter for decades, including the story behind a book Meg published when she was a teenager, and details about Lily's grandfather. Gaylin matches her lucid, propulsive prose with cracker jack plotting. This will grip readers from start to finish. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary, (Jan.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"We Are Watching." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 45, 25 Nov. 2024, p. 37. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A818519066/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c9daf156. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison WE ARE WATCHING Morrow/HarperCollins (Fiction None) $30.00 1, 28 ISBN: 9780063275188
A QAnon-like conspiracy cult targets an unwitting family.
Hudson Valley booksellers Meg and Justin Russo are driving their 18-year-old daughter, Lily, to Ithaca College for freshman orientation when a carload of skinheads pulls up alongside them and starts taking pictures. The Russos try to change lanes, but their vehicle skids, spins, and rolls, killing Justin. When Meg returns to work, somebody posts a three-month-old video on the store's Facebook page in which Justin glares from behind the cash register as the female videographer sings, "We are waaaatching. We are armed. We will triiiiumph. You'll pay for her sins." Meg then discovers the same woman is currently in the store's kids' section, unshelving books and pounding on walls to locate a "secret chamber." As Meg evicts her, the woman yells, "One down, three to go." Meg's reclusive father, retired semi-famous musician Nathan Lerner, insists the Russos' accident was sabotage--a claim Meg writes off to drugs and dementia. Then Lily hears a rumor that sends her down a disturbing internet rabbit hole. Posters on an anonymous 4chan-esque website maintain Nathan is a Satanist who sold his and his family's souls for a hit single. Further, they assert that a small-press fantasy novel Meg wrote as a teen "both predicted and caused the end of the world." To stop the rapidly approaching apocalypse, Nathan, Meg, and Lily "must either repent--or die violently on film at the hands of the true believers." This tense, horror-tinged domestic thriller unfolds via a swiftly cycling third-person-present narrative, the protagonists' mounting fear and paranoia so palpable as to be contagious. Gaylin writes perceptively about grief, guilt, and the complexities of parent-child relationships, while also spotlighting the dangers of misinformation and the allure of conspiracy theories in times of chaos.
Timely, terrifying, and all too plausible.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: WE ARE WATCHING." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A815560563/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7c81b079. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison ROBERT B. PARKER'S BUZZ KILL Putnam (Fiction None) $30.00 9, 10 ISBN: 9780593715642
An offer she can't refuse sends Sunny Randall poking around greater Boston in search of someone who may not even be worth finding.
Although Sunny's repeatedly turned down millionaire Bill Welch, who wants her to look for Dylan, the son who's been missing for two weeks, she's in no position to say no to Bill's imperious wife, Lydia. So concerned is Lydia over Dylan, the Gonzo CEO responsible for an energy drink that's perked up thousands of customers, that Sunny starts her search that same day. It's no mystery why Dylan might have gone into hiding. Gonzo was being sued, and Dylan was being threatened by Rhonda Lewis over the death of her 17-year-old daughter, Daisy, who went into cardiac arrest after downing three Gonzos mixed with alcohol, and somebody had sent him more than two dozen text messages reading simply "MURDERER." Nor have things settled down at Gonzo in Dylan's absence. Product developer Trevor Reed is shot to death; Dylan's old pal Sky Farley, now Gonzo COO, is lucky to survive her own shooting; and even Sunny's receptionist, Blake James, ends up imbibing a little too much Gonzo for his own good. The case is so complicated, in fact, that solving it will require an out-of-the-blue brainwave from Sunny, and even after she starts to put the pieces together, it's clear that some of them fit together more neatly than others.
Not up to Gaylin's first tour with Parker's franchise, but good enough to keep fans abuzz.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: ROBERT B. PARKER'S BUZZ KILL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A802865302/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6bf3f084. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison ROBERT B. PARKER'S BAD INFLUENCE Putnam (Fiction None) $29.00 6, 13 ISBN: 9780593540527
Boston PI Sunny Randall searches for the unknown person who's threatening a pair of Instagram influencers before the threats come true.
The Covid pandemic has taken its toll on the restaurant Sunny's buddy Spike owns, and she can't help being interested when self-styled "media concierge" Bethany Rose offers the services of red-hot influencer couple Blake James and Alena Jade to promote the place and bring in new customers. Of course, neither Spike nor Sunny can afford these services, but Bethany is willing to offer them gratis if Sunny will figure out who's been sending Blake a series of ominous Instagram posts warning, "YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW." No sooner has Sunny started asking who sneaked past Eddie Voltaire, the guard at Blake and Alena's pricey apartment building, to snap a photo of Blake sleeping than Eddie's body is found stabbed 13 times. Clearly the influencers and their manager are up against a seriously bad adversary. But Sunny's appeals to her mobbed-up ex-father-in-law lead only to dead ends, and the closer she looks into the backgrounds of her clients, the guiltier they look themselves. In fact, she reflects, they're remarkably closemouthed for people whose "entire careers were based on letting strangers in on their so-called personal lives." Taking over the franchise for the first time, Gaylin proves the equal of Sunny's creator in plotting and his clear superior in bringing his heroine to life. She doesn't sound all that much like Parker; she sounds better.
Gaylin brings Sunny to terms with contemporary social media even as she uncovers motives older than you can imagine.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: ROBERT B. PARKER'S BAD INFLUENCE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A747342465/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cf69be59. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence
Alison Gaylin
G. P. Putnam's Sons
c/o Penguin Group
www.penguin.com
9780593540527, $29.00, HC, 336pp
https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Parkers-Influence-Sunny-Randall/dp/0593540522
Synopsis: Sunny Randall's newest client, Blake, seems to have it all: he is an Instagram influencer, with all the perks the lifestyle entails--a beautiful girlfriend, wealth, and adoring fans.
But one of those fans has turned ugly, and Sunny is brought on board by Blake's manager, Bethany, to protect him and to uncover who is out to kill him. In doing so, she investigates a glamorous world rife with lies and schemes--and ties to a dangerous criminal scene.
When Bethany goes missing and the threats against Blake escalate, Sunny realizes that in order to solve this case, she has to find out exactly who Blake and Bethany are, behind the Instagram filters.
But while digging into their pasts, she is also forced to confront her own, as old friends (and ex-husbands) reappear. With a combination of old-school crime-solving skills and modern internet savvy, Sunny must stop at nothing to catch a killer.
Critique: Another superbly crafted suspense thriller of a read by the gifted novelist Alison Gaylin, "Robert P. Parker's Bad Influence" is a fun read that will of special interest to fans of Private Eye murder mysteries. While very highly recommended, especially for community library Contemporary Mystery/Suspense collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Robert P. Parker's Bad Influence" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Random House Audio, 9780593672303, $35.00, CD).
Editorial Note: Alison Gaylin (https://www.alisongaylin.com) is an author whose novels have won the Edgar and Shamus awards. Her work has been published in numerous countries and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Macavity, Anthony, ITW Thriller and Strand Book Award.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Robert B. Parker's Bad Influence." Internet Bookwatch, Aug. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A763617106/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=733c28d2. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison THE COLLECTIVE Morrow/HarperCollins (Fiction None) $27.99 11, 2 ISBN: 978-0-06-308315-8
Bereaved mothers seek solace in vigilantism.
Five years ago, Matt and Camille Gardener's 15-year-old daughter, Emily, attended a frat party at nearby Brayburn College in upstate New York. There, 17-year-old Harris Blanchard plied Emily with booze, led her into the woods, raped her, and left her to fend for herself in the bitter January cold. Emily was suffering from exposure by the time she was found, and she died three days later. Harris' trial ended in acquittal, and Matt and Camille split. Matt made a fresh start in Colorado, but Camille still lives in the home she once shared with her family, mired in anger and grief. After Camille causes a scene at an awards banquet honoring Harris, who is now a Brayburn senior, she receives an invitation to join a Facebook group for mothers "robbed of their children by the actions of others." Her interactions there trigger another invitation--this one to a secret, anonymous dark web collective comprising mourning mothers with no desire to move on. Initially, Camille assumes the forum is just a safe space to express violent revenge fantasies, and she even posts one of her own. Then she gets a private message from the site's administrator: "Did you mean it?" Escalating stakes and a tight, twisty plot fuel this timely domestic thriller, which unfolds through a visceral first-person-present narration. Camille's pain and fury are so palpable they're contagious, and while the too-neat and somewhat rushed conclusion undermines the story's impact, Gaylin delivers a thought-provoking page-turner that grips and gratifies.
An all-too-plausible tale of Highsmith-ian vengeance.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: THE COLLECTIVE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673650060/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ad516f96. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
The Collective
Alison Gaylin. Morrow, $27.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-308315-8
Camille Gardener, the grief-stricken narrator of this gripping psychological thriller from Edgar winner Gaylin (If I Die Tonight), knows who raped her only child, Emily, at a Brayburn College frat party in upstate New York and left her to die in the woods one winter night. Five years after Emily's accused killer, Harris Blanchard, was acquitted at trial, Camille attends a ceremony at Manhattan's Brayburn Club, where Blanchard's receiving a humanitarian award. Enraged that Blanchard will never suffer any consequences for his crime, Camille barely notices the two women observing her, until one passes her a card with one word on it: Niobe. When Camille seeks out Niobe (also known as the Collective), she enters the darkest corners of the internet, where mothers intent on punishing their children's killers share their rage. At first, Camille eagerly participates in the real-world activities, like buying a hunting knife, assigned to her by the Collective, anxious to do unto killers as they had done to their victims. The tension rises when Camille puts her own life in peril by breaking one of the Collective's rules. A breathtaking twist will catch readers by surprise. This tale of justice without mercy is a page-turner. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gel/man Schneider Literary. (NOP.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"The Collective." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 35, 30 Aug. 2021, p. 39. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A675461571/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=813ef0e8. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Never Look Back. By Alison Gaylin. July 2019. 368p. Morrow, $26.99 (9780062884350); paper, $16.99 (9780062844545); e-book, $11.99 (9780062844552).
This eleventh novel of psychological suspense from best-selling author Gaylin will delight fans with a theme of family ties and dark secrets, similar to her previous book, Edgar finalist If I Die Tonight (2018), and with another cast of intensely defined characters. In 1976, teenage murderers April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy took 12 lives before perishing in a fire, an appropriate end for a Bonnie and Clyde-like duo described as "two dry sticks rubbing together, insistently enough to create a lethal flame." Forty years later, Quentin Garrison, a young true-crime podcast producer, undertakes a project he plans to call Closure, which will examine the impact of Cooper and LeRoy's crimes on the victims' survivors, of which he is, indirectly, one. When investigating the possibility that April is still alive in the person of Renee Diamond, he encounters Renee's daughter, Robin, whose perfect childhood makes it seem unlikely that her mother was a serial killer. But who is Nicola/Nikki/Co-Co Crane? An addictive and complex tale related through the experiences of April, Quentin, and Robin, with multiple startling conclusions. --Jane Murphy
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Murphy, Jane. "Never Look Back." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 17, 1 May 2019, pp. 33+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587366669/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3c3c8a03. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison NEVER LOOK BACK Morrow/HarperCollins (Adult Fiction) $16.99 7, 2 ISBN: 978-0-06-284454-5
A young man seeking catharsis probes old wounds and unleashes fresh pain in this expertly crafted stand-alone from Edgar finalist Gaylin (If I Die Tonight, 2018, etc.).
Quentin Garrison is an accomplished true-crime podcaster, but it's not until his troubled mother, Kate, fatally overdoses that he tackles the case that destroyed his family. In 1976, teenagers Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper murdered 12 people in Southern California--Kate's little sister included--before dying in a fire. Kate's mother committed suicide, and her father withdrew, neglecting Kate, who in turn neglected Quentin. Quentin intends for Closure to examine the killings' ripple effects, but after an interview with his estranged grandfather ends in a fight, he resolves to find a different angle. When a source alleges that April is alive and living in New York as Renee Bloom, Quentin is dubious, but efforts to debunk the claim only uncover more supporting evidence, so he flies east to investigate. Renee's daughter, online film columnist Robin Diamond, is preoccupied with Twitter trolls and marital strife when Quentin calls to inquire about her mom's connection to April Cooper. Robin initially dismisses Quentin but, upon reflection, realizes she knows nothing of Renee's past. Before she can ask, a violent home invasion hospitalizes her parents and leaves Robin wondering whom she can trust. Artfully strewn red herrings and a kaleidoscopic narrative heighten tension while sowing seeds of distrust concerning the characters' honesty and intentions. Letters from April to her future daughter written mid-crime spree punctuate chapters from Quentin's and Robin's perspectives, humanizing her and Gabriel in contrast with sensationalized accounts from Hollywood and the media.
A mind-bending mystery, an insightful exploration of parent-child relationships, and a cautionary tale about bitterness and blame.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: NEVER LOOK BACK." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583840653/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=508a0f6a. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Never Look Back
Alison Gaylin
William Morrow & Company
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
195 Broadway New York, New York 10007
www.harpercollins.com
9780062884350, $26.99, HC, 368pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: For thirteen days in 1976, teenage murderers April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy terrorized Southern California's Inland Empire, killing a dozen victims before perishing themselves in a fire ... or did they? More than 40 years later, twenty-something podcast producer Quentin Garrison blames his troubled upbringing on the murders. And after a shocking message from a source, he has reason to believe April Cooper may still be alive.
Meanwhile, New York City film columnist Robin Diamond is coping with rising doubts about her husband and terrifying threats from internet trolls. But that's nothing compared to the outrageous phone call she gets from Quentin--and a brutal home invasion that makes her question everything she ever believed in. Is Robin's beloved mother a mass murderer? Is there anyone she can trust?
Critique: Told through the eyes of those destroyed by the Inland Empire Killings (including Robin, Quentin, and a fifteen-year-old April Cooper) in her novel "Never Look Back", author Alison Gaylin deftly asks her readers a question--How well do we really know our parents, our partners and ourselves? Showcasing a genuine flair for originality and a distinctively engaging narrative storytelling style as an author, Alison Gaylin's "Never Look Back" is highly recommended, especially for community library Contemporary General Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Never Look Back is also available in a paperback edition (9780062844545, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Gaylin, Alison. "Never Look Back." Reviewer's Bookwatch, July 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597961921/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1b8a4076. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison IF I DIE TONIGHT Morrow/HarperCollins (Adult Fiction) $16.99 3, 6 ISBN: 978-0-06-264111-3
After a hit-and-run kills a high school student, the court of public opinion convicts a lonely outcast.
When Jackie Reed hears her 17-year-old son, Wade, sneaking out the night before the SATs, she knows she should stop him; instead, she pops a Xanax and returns to bed. At 4 a.m., Jackie's 13-year-old, Connor, wakes to find a rain-soaked Wade hiding something in his closet; he considers tattling but promises to keep quiet. These seemingly innocuous decisions come back to haunt Jackie and Connor the next morning. While Officer Pearl Maze was working the graveyard shift at the Havenkill, New York, police department, Amy Nathanson burst through the door claiming to have been carjacked. According to Amy, her screams summoned 17-year-old Liam Miller, whom the thief ran over during his escape. The cops canvass the neighborhood for witnesses, and the Reeds are stunned to realize that Wade matches the suspect's description. Evidence mounts against him, and the community ostracizes his family, but still Wade refuses to divulge his whereabouts at the time of the accident. The book opens with Wade's suicide note, then flashes back five days and unfolds from the perspectives of Jackie, Connor, Pearl, and Amy. This narrative shift maximizes suspense by forcing readers to guess at Wade's thoughts and actions, allowing Gaylin to insightfully explore the crime's ripple effects.
This anxiety-fueled stand-alone from Edgar nominee Gaylin (What Remains of Me, 2016, etc.) takes the gulf that naturally develops between teenagers and their families and stocks it with sharks.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Gaylin, Alison: IF I DIE TONIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A520735781/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3c0bdcc6. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
If I Die Tonight
Alison Gaylin. Morrow, $16.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-264109-0
A violent carjacking sends shock waves through sleepy Havenkill, N.Y., in this moving character-driven standalone from Edgar-finalist Gaylin (What Remains of Me). The incident leaves high school football star Liam Miller, who was run over while apparently trying to stop the thief, fighting for his life. Police officer Pearl Maze takes the initial report from badly shaken former pop star Amy Nathanson, a resident of nearby Woodstock, for whom the stolen vintage Jag is the only vestige of her '80s glory days as a one-hit wonder. Some of the details in Amy's account, such as having her window rolled down at a stop sign on a freezing cold night, strike Pearl as unlikely. As for the culprit, suspicion falls on high school pariah Wade Reed, who's rumored to be a Satanist, after finger-pointing from Liam's friends on social media. What really happened that night will take Pearl's considerable detective prowess--and courage--to figure out. Though the fast-paced plot takes a few implausible final twists, the novel's lasting impact comes from its indelible portrait of people in crisis. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents. (Mar.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"If I Die Tonight." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 47, 20 Nov. 2017, p. 73. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A517262084/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1fe93c59. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
Gaylin, Alison. If I Die Tonight. Morrow. Mar. 2018. 384p. ISBN 9780062641106. $26.99; pap. ISBN 9780062641090. $16.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062641113. THRILLER
In the small town of Havenkill, NY, aging rock star Aimee En pounds on the door of a police station, claiming that her car was stolen and a teenager who tried to stop the carjacking was run over by the thief. Meanwhile, divorced realtor Jackie Reed frets over the growing distance between her and sons Connor and Wade. As the tragedy consumes the small town, secrets compound, and Wade becomes the target of everyone's suspicions. Edgar Award nominee Gaylin (Hide Your Eyes; What Remains of Me) deftly pries into the challenges of parenthood, the hidden lives of teenagers, and the cruelties that hide behind the idyllic facade of small-town life while also maintaining unrelenting tension. The narrative is told from four perspectives, each with a distinct voice and emotional depth and all trying to understand what happened that fateful night. Though the plot and characters are skillfully managed, the story wraps up quickly after the big reveal and may be unsatisfying to readers who want all their loose threads to be fully fleshed out.
Verdict Gaylin's skillful balance of tension and intimacy will appeal to fans of psychological and domestic suspense, and the questions she raises about parents, children, and bullying have rich potential for book clubs. [See Prepub Alert, 9/22/17.]--Carol Munroe, Frank L. Weyenberg Lib., Mequon, WI
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Munroe, Carol, and Frank L. Weyenberg. "Gaylin, Alison. If I Die Tonight." Xpress Reviews, 9 Feb. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A528197463/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c432c5da. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.