I’d like to welcome today’s featured author, Samuel W. Gailey. His third novel, Come Away From Her, is a tense and twisty mystery set in rural Pennsylvania, where everyone has secrets and motives to hide. My favorite part? Both the body and the killer are identified at the very end of the book.
Read on for my interview with Samuel, in which we chat about small-town settings, plotting mysteries, and writing screenplays versus novels. And connect with Samuel on Instagram, Facebook, and his website. Grab Come Away From Her here.
Hi Samuel, thanks for joining! Come Away From Her follows Tess, a deaf woman whose arrival in Black Walnut, Pennsylvania, upsets the status quo of the small town. As a small-town native yourself, what do you love about this setting for a mystery? How does the setting of a small, close-knit community enhance or challenge a mystery-suspense story?
I grew up in a small community next to Black Walnut, and at that time, there were roughly 380 residents. Everybody knew everybody. We knew where everyone worked, what kind of truck you drove, and what folks liked to do on a Friday night. But we didn’t necessarily know what transpired behind closed doors. Folks were private, even secretive. And there was a sense of isolation, of being cut off from the rest of the world—especially in the 1980s when my story takes place. It was a pre-internet, pre-cell phone world. The residents were hardscrabble men and women who tended their farms or worked at the local slaughterhouse, hunted deer, rabbit, turkey, and pheasant to fill their freezers with meat for the winter, and generally found themselves leery of outsiders. Coupling all this with the harsh terrain and brutal winters, I felt this setting was ripe for a mystery/suspense novel.
My debut novel, Deep Winter, was set in the same region, and in both books, the presence of an outsider upsets the status quo of its residents. But ultimately, it’s the power and strength of the community that brings the characters together. I consider the community itself a character, too.
Your background is in film production, specifically screenwriting. How did that career prepare you for writing novels? Are there any skills from screenwriting that particularly helped you when plotting your books?
Screenwriting has certainly shaped my storytelling. Especially when it comes to pacing and showing conflict versus describing it. In every scene within a screenplay, there must be conflict. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a resolution, but every scene should convey something new about the characters and plot. That moves the story forward and keeps the viewer hooked, and wanting more.
Another technique that I apply to novel writing is ending each chapter with a cliffhanger.
What is especially exciting about this book is its story structure—while a body is revealed almost immediately, the reader doesn’t find out who is dead and who the killer is until the end of the book, uncovering all characters’ motives throughout the story. How did you approach writing this twisty story? Can you share how you planned the mystery/how you plotted the book?
I used a similar device in Deep Winter and my current work in progress. I think it sets the hook immediately and propels the reader to keep turning the page.
The unknowing of who was murdered, coupled with the mystery of who committed the crime, creates an organic element of suspense. And I believe that starting with the crime then flashing back fifteen days creates a compelling structure that capitalizes on our human nature to be curious and crave closure. In Come Away From Her, I wasn’t sure who committed the murder until the very end of the first draft. Every character had a motive and flaw. I even had myself guessing who was murdered and why.
Your other novels include The Guilt We Carry (2020) and Deep Winter (2014), both of which are praised for their suspenseful, sharp writing and characters. How did writing those novels compare or differ from Come Away From Her? Were there any new or unexpected challenges that you faced while writing the new book?
Whereas Deep Winter’s early drafts were very close to the final version in its story plot, structure, and character development, The Guilt We Carry and Come Away From Her underwent dramatic changes.
In Come Away From Her, I struggled with developing Tess’s character. After numerous drafts, I didn’t feel like I knew her voice. Once I removed her literal voice and made her deaf, she blossomed into a character with grit and tremendous inner strength. Silence and deafness, usually perceived as a flaw or weakness, became her power.
Lastly, what’s on the horizon for you? Do you have other books or writing projects in the works?
I just adapted The Guilt We Carry to pitch as a limited series, and I’m finishing up a novel set in the late 1700s centered on a German Mennonite family of settlers grappling with a murder committed by one of their own children. It’s Bad Seed meets The Revenant.
Thanks so much to Samuel for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.