Helllooo! So I have been lucky enough to be invited to take part in the book blog tour for Kate White’s The Wrong Man by performing a lovely little Q&A about this great thriller released last year by Canelo .
A moment of pleasure leads to a deadly game of cat and mouse in this slick and suspenseful thriller.
Kit Finn meets handsome sculptor Matt Healy on a business trip and the two share a night of passion. They arrange a second date, but when Kit arrives at Matt’s apartment she is greeted by a stranger claiming he is the real Matt and that his identity was stolen.
Realising she has been duped Kit decides to put the encounter behind her. Shortly after, the police ask her to identify a man killed in a hit and run, carrying only her business card, and she is shocked to find the dead man is the person she knows as the genuine Matt Healy.
Kit fears she has become unintentionally embroiled in a sinister web of deceit. With no real evidence to take to police, Kit resolves to unravel the mystery herself. But can she do so before more lives, including her own, are put in danger?
For fans of psychological suspense and compulsive mysteries, don’t miss this tense and page-turning novel.
Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve works of fiction: seven Bailey Weggins mysteries and five stand-alone psychological thrillers, including most recently, The Secrets You Keep. For fourteen years she was the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and though she loved the job (and the Cosmo beauty closet!), she decided to leave in late 2013 to concentrate on being a full-time author and speaker
Hi! I really enjoyed The Wrong Man, how did you come up with the idea for the story?
Thanks so much for saying that. I usually start a book with a germ of an idea, a tantalzingitem I’ve read somehwhere or simply come up with in my own head, and then I play the “What if....?” game with it, seeing if that germ will take me someplace scary, twisty, and mysterious. That was the case with this book. I was stopping by someone’s apartment in New York City one day and before he swung open the door, I found myself wondering what it would be like if the person who appeared on the other side of the threshold wasn’t the person I was expecting but had the same name. How creepy and unsettling that would be.
And then I was off and running with that concept.
The characters are so detailed, who was the easiest to write? I never find anyoneeasy to write, much to my despair, though I’m certainly drawn to some characters more than others . You have to think about each character so much, even about aspects of his or her back story that you might not even end up putting in the final pages.
In the end, if you’ve done your work, the characters can feel so real to you. I really liked writing about Kit Finn, the protagonnist in The Wrong Man, because she faces challenges many women encounter. She’s uncertain about the kind of risks she needs to take in life. And uncertain about what type of man she should be drawn to. Of course, ultimately she ends up in the kind of danger most women fortunately never face, and she has to try to navigate her way out using all her nerve and ability.
She not perfect, but she’s also not a trainwreck either. Frankly, I’m a little tired of that type of female character in books. There have been so many of them in thrillers lately.
Where do you enjoy writing? I love writing in small spaces, where it’s very,very quiet. Beware the death stare I will subject you to if you’re making noise!!! My husband and I live during the winter months in a little beach town in Uruguay, and he was surprised when I told him he could have the office with the view of the ocean. That kind of setting would offer too much distraction for me. My office has a view of only tree tops. And though there are lots of large parakeets jabbering all day long, it’s just white noise to me by this point.
A The story begins in The Florida Keys, have you been there personally? I had heard about the amazing Florida Keys and researched it a lot online, but I finally decided I needed to actually to travel there to make sure I got the setting right in the book. I stayed at this small, enchanting, Carribean-style hotel called Casa Morada,with lush jungle-like grounds. I was in heaven. But I swear I managed to find the time to research when I was there.
Who are your favourite thriller authors?I’m a big fan of Americans like Karin Slaughter, Michael Connelly, and Linda Fairstein. I also adore so many British thriller writers. Currently I’m absolutelyhooked on British author Susie Steiner, who’s only published two books: Missing, Presumed and Persons Unknown. Please, Susie, write faster!
How long did it take to write The Wrong Man?. Just a year but that’s only because I’m under contract to produce one book a year.
What’s your least favourite part of writing a book? The last two chapters. I have them mapped out in my head, but I’m alway so eager to get to the finish line that it can be excrutiating. I love starting a book. When you have this delicious idea and you can’t wait for it all to unfold.
Do you have plans for your next novel? I just turned in my eighth Bailey Weggins mystery and am now at work on a new stand-alone psychological thriller. I love the plot and it’s making me a little giddy.
Your work includes both stand alone novels and a series. Which do you prefer to write? Do you think that your writing style differs between them? I thoroughly relish doing both because it offers nice variety in my work life. My BaileyWeggins mysteries have quite a bit of humor. Bailey is totally irreverent. My psychologicall thrillers are darker, though there’s some humor in The Wrong Manthanks to this one charcter, Baby Meadow.
Lastly, what advice would you give aspiring writers? I say this a lot but I feel it’s worth repeating. Know roughly where you’re going. Some writers don’t plot things out, but I think in the early years, it’s very helpful. That way you don’t find yourself boxed into a corner.
Give your protagonist a big, seemingly unsurmountable challenge to overcome. Jessica Knoll, the author of The Luckiest Girl Alive, which has sold over a million copies, used to work for me when I ran Cosmopolitan magazine in the U.S. and it was clear from the beginning that she would be an awesome fiction writer. She told me recently that the best advice I gave her was to “go big or go home,” and she’s sure done that with her books. But don’t make the twists ridiculous. I just read a book this past weekend with twists so preposetrous I was tempted to ask for my money back.
Finally—though there’s tons more I could say--don’t try to write too much in a day. It can be defeating to set super big goals in the beginning. Aim for a certain number pages and adher to that. If you feel stuck, it often means you haven’t done enough thinking or research for that section.
Hope you enjoyed reading the Q&A, it’s the first I’ve ever done!
Abi x
