February ’22 News

I Loved Hearing from You about The Second Husband!

One of my favorite parts of Uruguay, where I live in the winter, are the seemingly endless, rolling green hills.

Thank you for all your positive comments about the just-revealed cover of my upcoming suspense novel, The Second Husband (coming June 28). I’m so glad you like it as much as I do.

The ominous, mysterious cover does a great job, I think, of reflecting the book, with all its tension and twists. The Second Husband is the story of Emma Hawke, a thirty-something woman who has been trying to build a new life with a widower named Tom after losing her first husband in what appears to have been a random street crime. Tom is kind, handsome, driven, and successful, and Emma is finally able to feel safe again, both in their relationship and in the home they’ve made together on the Connecticut shore.

Then one day a homicide detective shows up at Emma and Tom’s door asking questions. Though Emma had been cleared of her first husband’s murder, it appears that law enforcement is taking another look at her and the case. Emma desperately wonders what the police have found and whether the renewed investigation will ruin her chances for a happy life.

I don’t want to play favorites with the sixteen novels I’ve written, but (just between us) The Second Husband is one I’m especially proud of. It’s a domestic suspense but also a thriller, as well as an intriguing whodunit.

To pre-order (and how it would make my day if you did!), just click on your favorite book retailer below.

Are You Ready for More Books from Me?

I’m really thrilled to share that I just signed a new two-book deal with Harper Collins, and I am already halfway through the first suspense novel in the contract, which will be published in 2023. Writing a book a year can be challenging at times, especially when I’m in the mood to just read or take a long walk, but overall it’s been incredibly rewarding to be a full-time author, and I’m very grateful for the chance to keep doing it.

I’m also fortunate to have readers like you, who are not only amazingly supportive but who generously share thoughts, favorite books, favorite movies, and even recipes with me. Thank you!!!

What I’m Reading/Watching

Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter
By Ruth Rendell

Sometimes when I’ve read two or three absurd, almost ridiculous thrillers or mysteries in a row, which happened recently (and I assume you’ve been there, too, on occasion), I like to go back and re-visit a great suspense novel I devoured in the past. This is one of those books. It’s part of the late Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series, a police procedural involving a small-town British detective. In some way it’s a quiet book with no big scares, but the characters are riveting, and it builds to a stunning but believable twist that really knocked my socks off. If you’re in the mood for a page-turner without a lot of blood and guts, I think you’ll totally enjoy this.

Ozark
Netflix

When I was the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, I had the pleasure one day of sitting at lunch with the lovely and very talented actress Laura Linney. As you probably know, she’s played a lot of good girls in movies over the years, so it’s been delicious for me to see her as the clever, calculating, and increasingly ruthless Wendy Byrde in “Ozark,” opposite the amazing Jason Bateman. I’ve found season four, the final one, to be excellent so far (the final episodes are coming later this year apparently). As in previous seasons, there have been some shocking moments, and I’ve actually jumped in my seat more than once. FAIR WARNING: This is a series that needs to be watched with the lights on.

What I’m Cooking/Eating

This winter I seem to be eating a lot of figs in salads and I’m loving it. I’m in Uruguay right now, where my husband and I live from mid-December until the end of March, and since it’s summer here, there are plenty of great fresh figs available at the local farmer’s market. One fig dish I make over and over comes from the incredible South American chef, Francis Mallmann, whose cookbooks—Seven Fires and Mallmann on Fire—are two of my favorites. You mix torn figs with torn buffalo mozzarella, thyme, and extra-virgin olive oil. It sounds almost too simple to be good, doesn’t it, but the contrasting flavors add up to something remarkable.

Recently we went to lunch at the amazing Bodega Garzon here in Uruguay, where Mallmann oversees the menu, and I had a totally different, yet excellent fig-based salad, which also included arugula, goat cheese and candied pecans.

The dressing was very subtle, and they were nice enough at the restaurant to tell me that it was made with extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, some honey and mustard and then apparently they added a splash of lemon juice and olive oil on the salad at the end. It would probably be great, too, with a dressing of just olive oil and white wine vinegar.