"What could these teens do to one another to lead to such violence? That was my guiding question."

New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman on starting a book with a bang, reframing marketing efforts, and her dark new YA thriller, THE MEADOWBROOK MURDERS

Check out the collection of past Words With (Author) Friends, wherein I g-chat with an author and you get to read over my shoulder, and order Jess’s fast-paced whodunnit, out now.

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Me: Hi hello!

Jess: HI!! (sorry I didn't get a notification for some reason, but I see it now!)

Okay yay, no worries!

How are you doing? Big, big congrats on THE MEADOWBROOK MURDERS!

I'm good! and THANK YOU! I'm back from my first-ever book tour and feel like I can finally get back to real work, even though I know promoting the book IS real work

how're you?!

I'm fine! Trying to survive the winter, haha. I want to hear all about how your first-ever book tour came about, but first, can you share a little about your new YA thriller?

yes! The Meadowbrook Murders is a boarding school murder mystery that follows Amy, a popular soccer player who wakes up one morning and finds her best friend Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend dead in their dorm room. It doesn't take long for everyone at the tight-knit school to think Amy may have had something to do with their deaths. Meanwhile, the editor of the school paper Liz is desperate to figure out what happened since she's a dogged journalist eager to prove her bonafides. Starting out as enemies, Liz and Amy develop a close bond as they uncover secrets about Sarah and their classmates, and eventually solve the murders.

So fun! Where'd the idea come from?

Like so many people, I was horrified by the 2022 University of Idaho killings, where four co-eds were stabbed to death in their off-campus house. It was a brutal case that ended in a manhunt, but the police revealed that two students survived the night and were not attacked in that home. I kept thinking about what life must have been like for them in the immediate aftermath, especially when people in the community openly questioned them (though they definitely had nothing to do with it). I'm also always drawn to stories that feature insular communities like small towns, and sleepaway camps. They make for claustrophobic atmospheres. The idea of something like that happening on a college campus (or in my case, a boarding school) is terrifying and makes for a compelling setting.

Truly terrifying. Once you had the idea, how'd you go about shaping your plot around it?