Exclusive: Author Darby Kane dishes on addictive new mystery novel What the Wife Knew
New York, New York - Author Darby Kane has woven a twisted tale of blackmail and deceit in her new mystery, What the Wife Knew, and she sat down with TAG24 NEWS to spill the secrets behind this month's buzziest thriller.
"I'd never attended a funeral before, but I needed to be in the room for this one, mostly to make sure the jacka** in the casket stayed dead."
And so begins Darby Kane's latest murder mystery, setting the stage for a trope-defying tale that will have readers on the edge of their seats.
The novel, which hits bookstores on December 10, follows a woman named Addison, who has just married the renowned Dr. Richmond Dougherty.
But their fairytale marriage is built on anything but love – Addison has vowed to get the ultimate revenge on Richmond for the dark secrets of his past, and someone has beaten her to the punch.
When Richmond is found dead, all eyes turn to Addison, but how can she prove she wasn't the one to murder the husband she had planned to kill?
Speaking to TAG24, Kane explained that she set out to explore the influence of "toxic" family dynamics through the character of Addison.
"I've been writing thrillers for a couple of years, and this is the first one I ever wrote in first person," Kane explained. "I really wanted to write about someone who comes from a toxic family situation – like over the top toxic family situation – and has tried kind of for years to get out of it but can't."
As dramatic as Addison's murderous plan to "ruin" Richmond is, Kane wanted to make sure the character was grounded in motivations that everyday readers could still relate to (albeit likely not with the same conclusion.)
"She's not evil. Addison is just basically a person who feels like she's stuck, and she's doing the best that she can," Kane said.
Leveling up the traditional whodunit story
But Addison isn't the only complicated character Kane was excited to dive into in the novel, as Richmond's "hero" facade provided another layer of complexity to the plot.
"I was like, wouldn't it be amazing to write somebody who everybody thinks he's a hero, but in reality, there's just nothing underneath, and that is who Richmond Dougherty is," Kane told TAG24.
As the truth behind Richmond's past unravels, What the Wife Knew follows Addison's thoughts quite closely, giving the novel a distinctly feminine perspective that's uncommon in the mystery genre.
"All of the thrillers that I've written, they tend to be female-focused, and by that, I mean it's not like, there's a male cop, a male serial killer, and a female victim – but you barely talk to her," Kane said. "James Patterson writes that book... we'll let James Patterson write that."
On the heels of global sensations like Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, female authors have come to hold a notable presence in the thriller genre, thus imbuing the tales with a new tone.
"There are so many female thriller writers, and I love that because the perspective is different, and kind of what they emphasize in the book is different," Kane said. "So for me, it changed [the genre] in a way that I find the people who are the lead in the thrillers now are people I can relate to."
"Not because I want to kill people," she joked, "but because they are a 30-year-old woman, and I was a 30-year-old woman."
Twisting readers' expectations
With such a twisted premise, it should come as no surprise that readers can expect to be caught off guard by the many plot twists What the Wife Knew has in store.
"I love the idea of writing a thriller because I don't have to make the promise right that everything is going to be great at the end," she teased.
No matter how many mysteries you've read, we promise you won't see this ending coming!
Cover photo: Collage: Courtesy of Mary Interdonati