Maggie Smith
May 21, 2024
Puzzle Box Press, 320 pp
$4.99 Ebook
$18.95 Print
From
the author of the award-winning Truth and Other Lies comes a
gripping suspense novel about an ambitious prosecutor on the hunt for her
sadistic stalker . . . only to be framed for murder when he turns up
dead.
Desperate to protect her child, Rachel agrees but soon finds herself fleeing a bloody crime scene, fearful for her life. Suddenly she’s in the crosshairs of a dangerous and clever enemy, someone who’s manipulated her since Day One, someone who knows her long-buried secrets, someone who’s framing her for murder. Can she solve the puzzle of who wants to destroy her and beat them at their own game before she’s convicted of murder?
Fans of Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent, Julie Clark’s The Lies I Tell and Heather Chavez’ Before She Finds Me will embrace this taut tale of long-simmering revenge right up to its surprising and twisty climax.
A
Brief Interview with the Author
What do you love about your book? It’s a solid psychological suspense which is fast-paced and has lots of twists and turns but at the same time, the central characters of the mother and her daughter have a lot in common with literary/book club fiction. The two plot lines intersect in interesting ways and I like the character arc that my protagonist goes through.
Share something you learned while writing it. I write best when I have an outline (for me, it’s the Save the Cat Method). It saves me time and seems to result in a more cohesive story. Also, that I can’t write stick figures – I always find myself digging into their psyches. I’m an ex-psychologist and I guess my training always comes to the surface. Some suspense books I read have quite wooden, almost caricatures for their “cast” but that’s just not me. Also, that interesting coincidences will occur as you write that seem to be “magic” and greatly add to the story, yet are nothing you planned out ahead of time.
What do you hope readers will talk about? I hope readers will be delighted in the ending – that they will be surprised but also satisfied when they know the whole story. And I’d like them to think about both how much women are at risk for violence and how sometimes the criminal justice system lets us down.
What are you reading now? I read a lot in this suspense genre and the husband-and-wife team of Nicci French is one of my favorites. I just finished their newest one, set in Britain, called Has Anyone Seen Caroline Salter? And I would also recommend Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister. And I’m looking forward to reading Christi Clancy’s new book out early next year called The Snow Birds.
What's next for you? I’m working on my third novel tentatively called All In The Family. It’s the story of a family torn apart when the youngest daughter and her new husband are kidnapped on their honeymoon and held for ransom and her wealthy step-mother, who’s in the midst of divorcing the girl’s father, is put in an untenable situation.
About
the Author:
consulting company, Maggie Smith added novelist to her resume with the publication of her debut, Truth and Other Lies, a women’s fiction novel set in Chicago and released in March 2022 by Ten16 Press. It won NIEA’s Juror Grand Prize, the Star Award for Debut Fiction from Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Foreword INDIES Gold Metal for General Fiction, and was selected for the Women’s Book Association Great Group Reads. Her second novel, a psychological suspense called Blindspot, releases in May 2024.
In addition to her writing, Maggie hosts the weekly podcast Hear Us Roar (225+ episodes), blogs monthly for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and is Managing Editor for Chicago Writer’s Association Write City E-Zine. She resides in Milwaukee WI with her husband and her aging but still adorable sheltie. Find more at: https://maggiesmithwriter.com/
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