Darby Kane: Stay Off Goodreads

Darby Kane is a former trial attorney and #1 international bestseller of domestic suspense. Her debut book, Pretty Little Wife, was featured in numerous venues, including Cosmopolitan, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, Popsugar, Refinery29, Goodreads, The Skimm, and Huffington Post. A native of Pennsylvania, Darby now lives in California and runs from the cold. When she’s not writing suspense, she can be found watching suspense, thrillers, and mysteries. You can find out more at DarbyKane.com, or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Darby Kane

Photo by Charissa McAfee

In this post, Darby discusses how her own interest in true crime led her to her new thriller novel, The Engagement Party, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Darby Kane
Literary agent: Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency
Book title: Expected release date: December 5, 2023The Engagement Party
Publisher: William Morrow
Release date: December 5, 2023
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: Pretty Little Wife, The Replacement Wife, The Last Invitation
Elevator pitch: An engagement party on an isolated island in Maine brings together a group of former college friends who survived the murder of one of their own on graduation weekend twelve years ago. Trapped with a storm on the way, lies and long buried secrets unravel as the death toll rises, forcing the group to find the killer before they become the next victims.

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What prompted you to write this book?

There are two questions I constantly think about both while writing and in life. First, are we defined by the worst thing we’ve ever done, despite what we did after or before? Second, what would happen if the worst thing we’d ever done got exposed? The reality is we all have secrets. Hopefully not a history of murder, but secrets can be damaging no matter the scale. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is a favorite read, and a “locked room” thriller struck me as a good vehicle to explore these questions.

The idea of putting people who know each other or have something in common together in an isolated environment, then plunging them into danger and forcing them to examine their secrets and lies, sounded intriguing. Raising the stakes by dealing with concepts of revenge, vigilante justice, and unresolved trauma was a great challenge. Setting all of this at an engagement party, an event that should be happy but is absolutely not here, was just plain fun.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The Engagement Party is the second in a two-book deal with William Morrow. The idea of a locked-room thriller had been kicking around in my head for years. I decided I was ready to write it and pitched it in early 2022.

The basic plot of the book didn’t change while writing but who the characters were and what motivated their actions shifted. In hindsight, ridiculous things I did and bad decisions I made in college could have resulted in dire circumstances. I think that’s true for all of us. Call it luck or whatever, but relatable and seemingly benign events could have easily and unexpectedly turned. I’m avoiding spoilers but that assessment allowed me to look at the murder at the center of the book in a different way.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The book deals with the impact, good and bad, of true-crime fans and self-professed experts in murder cases. I’m someone who watches a lot of true-crime documentaries and has seen every episode of “Dateline.” Writing the book forced me to think about how I look at those cases and consume media. What is “entertainment” to me is someone’s real-life trauma. I’m more careful about that distinction and more mindful about why I’m interested in a certain case than I was before I wrote the book.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I originally intended to break the plot into a then/now structure with flashbacks to the time of the murder back in college. When I sat down to write it, I decided there was a different way to introduce the woman who was killed and the frenzy around her death that would add to the suspense. That led to the chapters referenced as “book notes.” They matter and I wanted the reader to be thinking about how they fit in as the story progressed.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

There are two things. One is that unresolved trauma eventually will catch up with you. Do not wait until it reaches nightmare proportions to deal with it. Also, the book is dedicated to people who found out the hard way that terrible things can happen in beautiful places. That is a lesson we see over and over in true-crime cases. Often, a single decision could have prevented, or at least lessened, the danger. We all need to remember just how close we are to the edge.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

A writing career is a marathon not a sprint. It’s easy to look around and think you’re behind or not as talented as others. Block out that white noise. This is a tough gig. The only way through it is to surround yourself with people who celebrate your success, work hard even when you don’t want to, and be happy for other authors’ wins.

Also, stay off Goodreads. Trust me.

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