The Last Ferry Out: Andrea Bartz on Paradise, Expats, and Fighting Back

The Last Ferry Out: Andrea Bartz on Paradise, Expats, and Fighting Back

Andrea Bartz joins us to talk about The Last Ferry Out, a thriller set on a Mexican island where the expats are charming, the secrets are lethal, and the ferry to the mainland runs once a week — if you're lucky. We get into why solo travel through Mexico doubled as research and why it's the kind of homework most authors only dream about and what makes a tight-knit expat community the perfect pressure cooker for a thriller. We also talk about why readers — and Andrea herself — keep reaching for stories that scare them even when the real world is already doing plenty of that. And we'd be remiss not to discuss the landmark case that's had the publishing world talking for months now: Bartz v. Anthropic, the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history, and what it means for every writer working today. Download and listen today — because paradise is only paradise until someone doesn't make it to the ferry.

Someone's Watching: Jamie Day on Beach Thriller

The duo behind the pen name Jamie Day joins us to talk about Beach Thriller, a novel that somehow fits a crumbling beach house, a cold case, a psychic, a runaway teen, and a shadowy Watcher into one gloriously unhinged summer read. We get into the perks and very real perils of co-authoring across genres, what happens in the writing room when two authors want to take the story in completely different directions, and what it actually takes to merge gothic coastal atmosphere with propulsive thriller pacing without losing either. Plus, Daniel and Kathleen reveal their favorite place to plot a murder — and honestly, we're a little jealous. Download and listen today — because the best beach reads are the ones that won't let you leave your chair.

Every May 1st, He Comes for Them: Alex Finlay on The Anniversary

Alex Finlay joins us to talk about The Anniversary, a novel that opens with a quote from Ted Bundy and somehow is also a love story. We get into the singular challenge of writing a serial killer thriller with genuine heart at its center, and how Finlay built an entire decade of two lives out of a single repeating date — one day a year, ten years running — and why that structure is both a brilliant constraint and a challenge for the writer inside it. Plus, Alex makes a compelling case for why Paris belongs on every bucket list. Download and listen today — because May 1st started as a date on a calendar. Then it became the day everyone in a small Midwestern town learned to be afraid.

She Remembers a Life That Wasn't Hers: Lauren Oliver on The Girl in the Lake

Lauren Oliver joins us to talk about The Girl in the Lake, a novel that asks one of the most unsettling questions in suspense: what if the key witness to a decades-old disappearance is a six-year-old who wasn't even born when it happened? We dig into Lauren's fascination with places where the things we can't define and understand intersect with the psychological, what it means to write characters trapped inside systems — institutions, grief, memory — that they can't fully see or escape, and how she built a story that straddles psychological suspense and something far harder to explain. Plus, Lauren gets into why reincarnation and consciousness aren't just plot devices here — they're the whole question. Download and listen today — because sometimes creepy kids have secrets to share.

Wide Awake at 3am: Allison Winn Scotch on The Insomniacs

Allison Winn Scotch joins us to talk about The Insomniacs — and the genre pivot that ten novels of commercial fiction finally led her to. We get into why she crossed over to the dark side of suspense, how she landed on a story about four strangers who can't sleep, and what it means to write characters who are each standing at the edge of their own lives — one injury, one empty nest, one disappearance away from becoming someone else entirely. Plus, Allison gets personal about what actually keeps her up at 3am, and we promise it's more relatable than you'd expect from someone this accomplished. Download and listen today — because some of the most honest conversations happen after midnight, with people you never planned to know.