We chat with author Leah Konen about Keep Your Friends Close, which is a page-turning thriller described as Strangers on a Train meets The Family Next Door.
Hi, Leah! Welcome back! How has the past 12 months been since we last spoke?
Pretty busy, actually! I had another baby and wrote another book. It seems that I’m always somehow combining baby due dates with publishing due dates, but happy to say that both experiences have gone really well 😀
Your latest novel, Keep Your Friends Close, is out February 20th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
- Frenemies
- Motherhood
- Con-artist
- Jewel-heist
- Murder
What can readers expect?
Keep Your Friends Close is my most fun thriller yet (at least I think so!). It introduces you to Mary and Willa, playground mom-friends-turned-frenemies who must rely on each other when Mary’s toxic soon-to-be-ex-husband turns up dead and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder investigation.
Where did the inspiration for Keep Your Friends Close come from?
In 2021, my family and I moved back to Brooklyn after spending most of lockdown upstate. I found myself navigating the Park Slope parenting scene with an eighteen-month-old, and I found the dynamics fascinating. Luckily, I met a host of wonderful people (and so far none of them have turned out to be con artists), but I got to thinking: What if I could spin my own take on Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, only instead of two guys on a train, we started with two moms at a Brooklyn playground?
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Willa (or is it Annie?) is up there with the most fun characters I’ve ever written. She doesn’t play by the rules at all and cheats, lies and steals to make her own way. But underneath all that, she does have her own moral compass (even if it lives in very gray area) and she has a lot of strong feelings especially about the mental load of parenting that almost exclusively falls to women. It was so fun to take such a wild and enigmatic character and use her to explore an issue that hits close to home for so many parents.
What interests you about writing within the thriller genre?
Whether it’s racism explored through films like Get Out and books like The Other Black Girl or expectations of womanhood as unpacked by Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, some of society’s most serious and important issues are able to explored in a very true and engaging way through these wild, wily, and even murderous plots. There can be a lot of honesty in exploring nightmares, dark fantasies, and the twists and turns of a complex suspense setup. It’s a space I feel very lucky to have a voice in.
You’ve now had books published over the last 10 years. What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as an author and when it comes to the publishing world?
Just. Keep. Writing. The publishing business is an extremely difficult one to navigate (p.s. we should pay writers a living wage!), and there are so many ups and downs. The only way I’ve been able to surf the ebbs and flows is to continue telling stories that fascinate me and always looking ahead to the next project.
What’s next for you?
A snowy, winter-set thriller at an old motel that has been so incredibly fun to write. Cover and title reveal coming very soon, but I’ll give you a hint: It’s inspired by The Shining but with an all-women cast.
Lastly, are there any 2024 book releases that you’re looking forward to?
2024 is a Tana French year, so that automatically means it’s a great year for mystery lovers. I can’t wait to get my hands on The Hunter. And in another genre, Lindsay Hameroff has a delightfully sweet and hilarious rom-com set in the restaurant world of NYC, Till There Was You—I was lucky to read an early version and it’s absolutely delicious.
