Cover Reveal and Mini Q&A: HE STARTED IT by Samantha Downing
Available April 28, 2020
Raise your hand if you loved Samantha Downing’s inventive, clever, personality-filled debut novel My Lovely Wife - I know I sure did, and I’m so honored to team up with her US publisher, Berkley, to reveal the cover for her sophomore novel: HE STARTED IT, releasing April 28, 2020. There’s nothing I love more than discovering an author with a voice and style uniquely her own, and that’s exactly how I would define Samantha Downing’s work. In My Lovely Wife, Downing centered a story of suspense around a married couple whose date nights involved serial murder; now, in HE STARTED IT, she turns her eye towards sibling relationships and a cross-country road trip fueled by secrets and revenge.
I couldn’t be more excited to give CBTB readers this sneak peek into Samantha Downing’s newest release! In today’s blog post, you can check out the book’s gorgeous cover, learn more about its plot, catch a mini Q&A with the author herself, and pre-order the book, should you wish to do so!
Many thanks to the team at Berkley for facilitating this cover reveal and Q&A! Note: this blog post contains Amazon Affiliate links.
HE STARTED IT by Samantha Downing
Coming April 28, 2020
About the Book:
From the twisted mind behind mega hit My Lovely Wife comes the story of a family—not unlike your own—just with a few more violent tendencies thrown in....
Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.
But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.
It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.
But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.
Mini Q&A: Samantha Downing
HE STARTED IT
Crime by the Book: I could not be more excited for your new book! In your own words, what is He Started It about?
Samantha Downing: Ultimately, He Started It is about how much your family shapes who you become. Three generations of the Morgan family appear in this book, and I really wanted to show how family dynamics, especially between siblings, never really change. Behaviors learned early stay with you and are passed down through the generations. And like My Lovely Wife, these behaviors are taken to the extreme.
CBTB: If you had to describe He Started It in three adjectives, what would those adjectives be?
SD: Unruly, ferocious, and salty.
CBTB: Both He Started It and your debut novel, My Lovely Wife, focus on seemingly ordinary families with some truly twisted secrets. What do you think makes families such compelling launching points for psychological suspense novels?
SD: I think everyone has secrets, they only vary in degree, so at some level people can relate to those who have them or hide them. What I like to do is take something familiar—like an ordinary suburb or a seemingly ordinary family—and twist them into something almost inconceivable. It gets you wondering how well you know the people around you. To me, it’s both scary and fascinating to think that someone who is so close to you may not be who you think they are or who they present themselves to be.
CBTB: What can you tell us about the experience writing He Started It? Was the process easier or more challenging than writing your debut?
SD: It was far more challenging. First, I had no idea My Lovely Wife would be published when I wrote it, so there were no time constraints and no thoughts about what people would think about it. I had no idea anyone would read the book! Reaction to it was the last thing on my mind.
At the time, I was writing as a hobby and had the freedom to write anything I wanted or nothing at all. For He Started It, I had deadlines. I also knew the book would be published and people would read it. Mentally, that adjustment has been very difficult. I stopped and started a number of manuscripts before finally writing He Started It.
CBTB: What are you most excited about as you look towards the publication of He Started It?
SD: Writing the next book! That’s what I have to concentrate on, putting my head down and getting back to work. Once a book goes out into the world, it doesn’t belong to the writer anymore. It belongs to the readers and all you can do is hope they enjoy it. In the meantime, I’m focused on becoming a better writer.
Book Details:
HE STARTED IT By Samantha Downing | Berkley | Available April 28, 2020
Pre-Order Now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.