All By Ourselves--With A Terrific Book!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  You’re home, right? Or being really careful? We love you, and are so happy to see you all here every day. Let us know you’re okay, right? And where you are?

And now, I am so pleased to introduce you to someone who is going to be one of your new favorite authors. (Full disclosure: I love this author!)   

The brilliant and authentic and incredibly talented Tessa Wegert, whose debut novel (what a hero she is!) came out in February. A debut author, who should be jet-setting around the country, appearing before adoring throngs and working her way up the charts.

But now, it’s now. But! Here we are, and how lovely to be able to introduce you to Tessa Wegert. This is a FABULOUS book.  And she is quite amazing. And, now that we are al more alone than we have ever been—well, yeah.  It’s a theme.

Isolation

By Tessa Wegert

In the midst of this horrible coronavirus outbreak, and at a time when people are practicing social distancing and quarantined in their homes, isolation is on everyone's mind. And since I'm reading more than usual these days (books really do provide both entertainment and much-needed distraction), I got to thinking about the role that isolation plays in so many mysteries and thrillers.

From Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None to Stephen King's The Shining, isolation features in countless novels. You'll often find it woven into plots to create suspense by distancing characters from civilization. There's something unnerving about a story set in a remote location, where protagonists not only face villains head-on, but all alone. When they're isolated from society, help isn't as easy to come by, and characters have to work that much harder to overcome challenges, protect others, and stay alive.

Isolation also creates opportunities to burden our characters with additional phobias, fears, and internal struggles that can trip them up during their hero journey and ultimately increase conflict. Whether a character's confined to a highway rest stop in a blizzard, like in No Exit by Taylor Adams, or stuck on a private island during a nor'easter, as in my debut mystery Death in the Family, suspicion and a sense of foreboding keep readers on tenterhooks. 

I remember the sense of vulnerability I got when reading Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key, which is set in a smart home in the Scottish Highlands. Left to care for young children in a strange and far-flung place, Ware's character Rowan Caine was fully exposed – and that position came back to haunt her. 

Geographic separation isn't the only type of isolation that factors in thrillers. There's emotional isolation, too. When a character finds themselves deep in the woods or on a private island, for example, they're removed from the comforts of society both physically and emotionally. Cabin fever isn't limited to real life, and it can be just as psychologically crippling in fiction.

Of course, emotional isolation can also exist when a character's living in a bustling city; just take a look at Joe Goldberg from the Caroline Kepnes thriller You. Abused by his father and neglected by his mother, Joe experiences a sense of isolation that ultimately leads him to become an obsessive stalker and serial killer who systematically removes loved ones from his target's life to isolate her. 

As we try to make the best of our current situation, it can't hurt for writers to think about the value of this literary theme, and pass the time by reading books that incorporate isolation. You'll find a few more of my favorites below.

Which books featuring isolation do you love? Here are mine.  Share your picks Jungle Reds, and stay healthy! 

The Lost Man, by Jane Harper

Broken Harbor, by Tana French

Entry Island, by Peter May

The Hunting Party, by Lucy Foley

The Homecoming, by Andrew Pyper

Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie

Scrublands, by Chris Hammer

HANK: SO many wonderful—and scary-- books. Rachel Howzell Hall’s wonderful THEY ALL FALL DOWN.  THE STAND, of course.  LORD OF THE FLIES.  And Then There Were None. What else, Reds and readers? And have you ever been stuck in a storm? And a copy of  DEATH IN THE FAMILY to one lucky winner!

Tessa Wegert is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Adweek, and The Economist. She grew up in Quebec and now lives with her family in Connecticut. Tessa writes mysteries set in Upstate New York while studying martial arts and dance. DEATH IN THE FAMILY is her first novel.

DEATH IN THE FAMILY

Thirteen months ago, former NYPD detective Shana Merchant barely survived being abducted by a serial killer. Hoping to leave grisly murder cases behind, she's taken a job in her fiancé's sleepy hometown in the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York. But as a nor'easter bears down on the region, Shana and fellow investigator Tim Wellington receive a call about a man missing from a private island. His family is crawling with dark secrets, and Shana's convinced one of them is a killer. As the pressure to solve the case mounts, so do the odds that they'll strike again.