Today, we would like to welcome New York Times bestselling author Kate White for a guest blog post. Her upcoming book, The Fiancée, is a riveting psychological thriller about a captivating woman who joins a family and threatens to upend their picture-perfect lives.
Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of The Last House Guest and The Girl from Widow Hills said:
“A tense, simmering, fast-paced mystery, Kate White’s latest captivating thriller explores the secrets that lurk just under the surface of a picture-perfect façade. I raced through this story about a close-knit family’s annual gathering at an idyllic estate that quickly turns deadly. The Fiancée kept me guessing until the very end, never sure who to trust—or where the danger was hiding.”
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I’m so pleased to have the chance to tell you a little about myself and my new (fifteenth!) suspense novel, The Fiancée.
First, the book. It opens with Summer Redding heading to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Gabe, and young stepson for an annual get-together at her in-laws’ sprawling estate. Summer, a struggling actress, is looking forward to a break from hustling for work in Manhattan. On the agenda are leisurely gourmet meals, tennis matches, and plenty of poolside relaxation.
It turns out that Gabe’s brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from a few years before. Oddly, Hannah claims not to know her. Yet she charms the other family members, and after Nick announces that he’s proposed to Hannah, Summer decides to grin and bear it.
But the reunion is soon rocked by tragedy when a family member dies. Though the doctors attribute the loss to natural causes, a grieving Summer fears that the cunning-seeming Hannah is involved, even as Gabe dismisses her suspicions. Before long Summer begins to fear that the first death might only be the beginning.
The Fiancée is for anyone who enjoys suspense, and since it’s a “locked-room” mystery, it’s an especially good fit for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley. What I love about locked-room mysteries is that the reader can be pretty darn sure that the killer is right there on the property with the protagonist, perhaps even sitting at the same dinner table. Kind of terrifying, right?
As a librarian I hope you’ll also get a kick out of the fact that two key turning points involve a book!
Now a little about me. I’m the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, who left about nine years ago to write fulltime while I still had the chance. It was tough to say goodbye to the Cosmo beauty closet, but I adore my new life as an author.
I was inspired to be an author in part by my mom (a librarian!!!) and also the endless hours I spent as a book-ish kid in libraries. Some lessons those library hours taught me about creativity:
- You don’t necessarily need a whole room of your own to work in, but you must find a private nook or cranny.
- Shhhh. Quiet really is important.
- But it doesn’t have to be utterly quiet. Sometimes hushed footsteps and murmuring can act as a nice white noise. Now that I do have a home office, I create my own white noise with moody instrumental music on my Amazon Echo!
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Thank you, Kate!
Be sure to watch the replay of our Door to Door featuring Kate here:
The Fiancée goes on sale June 29, 2021. There will also be a Library Hardcover edition!
Download an egalley on Edelweiss+
Download an egalley on NetGalley
-Lainey