by Liz Crowe
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Welcome to Connelly Court. A secluded, old money neighborhood, harboring a web of desires and deceit behind pristine facades and manicured lawns, where the lives of a group of neighbors, bound by their shared secrets and unconventional lifestyle, are about to unravel.
Michael and Amelia Ross move into their dream home, and get drawn into the seductive allure. But their house once belonged to a family whose lives were seemingly ruined by their participation, which leads Amelia to question everything about her new-found friends. Suspicions run rampant as the close-knit group turns on each other. Lies, betrayals, and hidden agendas are revealed, ripping apart the fabric that once bound the group together.
“Cul-de-Sac” is a dark tale of marriage, friendship, desire, and betrayal, where nothing is as it seems, and the truth may be more shocking than anyone could have imagined. Discover the twisted secrets of Connelly Court in this chilling domestic suspense novel that will leave you questioning just how well you truly know—or should know—your neighbors.
Author Interview:
Do you write every day?
If I’m deep into a project, I do. I used to let myself get drawn in too deep so that other aspects of my life suffered. I’m better about that now, and when I’ve gotten other work done I’ll look at the clock and say “now, write for an hour” or two or whatever so I know it’s healthy to take breaks. There is so much to being an indie author, you really have to give yourself the grace to spend some days on promotions or other tasks and not berate your inner muse too hard!
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
From my romance-heavy backlist I was told a lot that my characters were so “real,” and sometimes even “too real,” and I always took that as a compliment. For this book I hoped to show five different couples on five different journeys who happened to collide in a certain way and who all learned different lessons from the experience. And the reviews I’m getting are gratifying when it comes to the realism of my characters and their reactions to certain situations. Oh, and I’m super stoked that pretty much no one guessed the ending of this book!
There are many domestic suspense books out there….What makes yours different?
Oh wow, that’s a hard truth, isn’t it?!
I think that Cul-de-Sac blends a ton of what I learned from my last decade plus as a romance author about human relationships, along with my desire to throw serious, real-life roadblock at characters and show how they work themselves out of them (or not, as the case may be). I adore writing romances because relationships are what drive stories for me but what’s different about this, as a “domestic suspense” is that there are a whole BUNCH of relationships all intertwined and one of the characters involved ends up dead—so everyone is either finger pointing or soul-searching until the true reason is revealed. It’s a character study, with a murder at its core. And a real twist for an ending!
Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?
I had a blast with all of these characters. There are five different couples all with different sets of motivations and drivers. I made every attempt to get deep into every single character’s POV at least once to show how or why they might be the reason that one of them died—and not by suicide as it’s explained away at first. Because I could create more than one, I really was able to show different types of marriages/origin stories and their different paths that brought them to the complicated relationship they all share.
Tell us about your longest friendship.
My longest running friendship is with a woman who was one of my college roommates. She still lives back in Louisville (one of my favorite places in the world), with her family, retired from working at our alma mater, the University of Louisville, and now is an educational business consultant. We travel together, and text each other our NYT puzzle results pretty much every day. She visited us in Turkey and when we lived in England. She’s a total inspiration to me, for a lot of reasons and I treasure our friendship.
What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?
I’d also call this the dumbest thing I ever did and that was to abandon my perfectly good career as a real estate agent to help some men open a successful brewery. It was a success, and I am happy to take credit for a lot of that success but it was a mistake to trust them and I regret it. I have mined the heck out of my experience as a woman in the (still very much a) man’s “world” of beer for stories, and I have made some friends I will keep forever thanks to it. It took a lot of guts for me to do it, but it’s one of those things that keeps me up nights because of how gullible I was for trusting them.
Author Bio:
Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville living in South Carolina. She’s spent her time as a three-continent expat trailing spouse, mom of three, real estate agent, brewery owner and bar manager, and is currently a digital marketing and fundraising consultant, in addition to being an award-winning author.
The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.
Her favorite things to do when she’s not scrolling social media for cute animal videos is walk her dogs, cuddle her cats, and watch her favorite sports teams while scrolling social media for cute animal videos.
Website: https://lizcrowe.com/
Facebook: @lizcroweauthor
Instagram: @lizcroweauthor
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