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Author News & Interviews

Interview: Kaira Rouda, author of The Favorite Daughter

May 23, 2019

The perfect home. The perfect family. The perfect lie. That’s the intriguing tagline of Kaira Rouda’s latest domestic thriller, THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER, which is set in an upscale Southern California community. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Rebecca Munro, Rouda introduces us to the book’s main character, Jane Harris, who is determined to refocus on her family after the loss of her oldest daughter the previous year. She explains what attracts her to write about narcissists and why she’s a big fan of unreliable narrators, her decision to “break the fourth wall” in this novel, and how she has used technology (which, she points out, “is completely overtaking our lives”) to her advantage as she’s plotting out her chilling, page-turning stories.

Interview: Sarah Blake, author of The Guest Book

May 8, 2019

Moving through three generations and back and forth in time, THE GUEST BOOK is Sarah Blake's triumphant new novel that tells the story of a family and a country that buries its past in quiet, until the present calls forth a reckoning. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Amy Haddock, Blake explains her inspiration for writing the book --- her first since 2010’s THE POSTMISTRESS --- how she went about crafting the complex characters of her sweeping family saga, the America that she hopes readers see in the pages of her story, and why she thinks it’s so difficult for some people to see the privilege that exists in their own lives and to speak up when fellow humans are being degraded.

Interview: Kim Michele Richardson, author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

May 8, 2019

A young outcast braves the hardships of Kentucky’s Great Depression and brings truly magical objects to her people --- books --- in THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK, Kim Michele Richardson's new novel inspired by the brave women of the Pack Horse Library Project. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Megan Elliott, Richardson talks about her inspiration for writing a book that features a pack horse librarian as the protagonist, the incredible amount of research she did for the novel (which began nearly five years ago), her remarkable ability to write in dialect without coming off as inauthentic or clichéd, and what she hopes readers will take away from her latest work of historical fiction.

Author Talk: Jeffrey Siger, author of The Mykonos Mob: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery

Apr 11, 2019

When corruption lies deep beneath the surface, how can the truth come to light? This question lies at the heart of THE MYKONOS MOB, Jeffrey Siger’s 10th police procedural featuring Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis and his Special Crimes unit. In this interview, Siger explains why he chose Greece as the setting for his mysteries, gives a shout-out to the authors who have most influenced his style of writing and approach to dialogue (while also naming the two literary legends to whom his work is most often compared), and reveals the hot-button issue that may become the foundation of the next installment in the series.

Interview: Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lost Roses

Apr 9, 2019

Martha Hall Kelly’s runaway bestseller, LILAC GIRLS, introduced real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. LOST ROSES, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Rebecca Munro, Kelly talks about her decision to write a prequel; the most interesting fact she learned about pre-WWII Russia; her references to the fashion and etiquette of 1914, which she sprinkles throughout the story; and her current project --- the final book in the trilogy, which will be based on Caroline's great-grandmother, Jane Eliza, and will take place during the Civil War.