Karin Slaughter, author of The Kept Woman, interviews Kate White

Karin Slaughter: Gone Girl reignited the 'domestic thriller' genre. Stories about husbands and wives have been around since Adam left Judith for Eve, but it feels like current novels are more realistic, and—much to my delight—nastier. Were you thinking about this literary phenomenon when you wrote about a married couple, or were you thinking about your own marriage? In other words, should your husband be worried?

Kate White: Haha, no, not my own marriage. My husband is safe for now! And though I know there seem to be more domestic thrillers now, I wasn’t so much interested in riding a trend as I was exploring a topic I hadn’t addressed before. I’ve written eleven mysteries and thrillers, and all the protagonists have been single or divorced. It was exciting to finally write about a married woman. In The Secrets You Keep, the main character, Bryn Harper, has been in a commuter relationship with her husband for two years and when they finally move into a house together, her husband suddenly seems evasive and secretive. Weird stuff shows up in the house, and a woman who caters a dinner party for them is murdered. Bryn may be in danger herself and it’s essential that she figure out what’s going on. I got chills writing it at times because I wondered what it would be like to actually have that happen in a marriage.

KS: I think the cover for The Secrets You Keep is really cool and sexy. Did you have any input in the design or were the designers just taking cues from the story?

KW: They took cues from the story. In Secrets, Bryn is still recovering from a devastating car accident that ended in a fire, and she keeps dreaming about fire and begins to wonder if the dreams are trying to reveal something that’s locked in her unconsciousness. Thus the smoke on the cover. By the way, I LOVE the cover of your new book, The Kept Woman. Very cool and sexy, too. And the book itself is totally electrifying.

KS: Psychological thrillers, which tend to get their darkness from internal struggles rather than external sources, have taken off in the last decade. Readers seem very invested in the “why” rather than the “what.” What two novels would you cite as examples of that evolution taking place in the thriller world?

KW: One of my favorite recent thrillers is Lou Berney’s The Long and Faraway Gone, and to me that’s very much about the “why.” This may sound crazy, but there are some fabulous contemporary literary novels that may be influencing this, too. I was mesmerized by Julian Barnes’ A Sense of an Ending. There’s a mystery at the heart of the beautifully written story, and you read the whole book asking, “Why, why, why?” I should confess, however, that I love writing whodunits and Secrets is definitely one, as well as a psychological thriller.

KS: You’re publishing two novels this year. Why do you have so much time on your hands? Don’t you have a real job? Can you tell me about the other novel?

KW: I walked away from a fabulous job I relished running Cosmopolitan magazine, but I relished even more the idea of writing full-time. I’ve never regretted my decision to leave. So though I’m busy, it’s not the crushing busy I was at Cosmo when I was also writing novels. As for the second book this year, it’s a Bailey Weggins mystery, the seventh, and it’s my favorite Bailey I’ve written. I love the twist at the heart of it.