The Family Plot
Page 28
A grateful tip of the hat to the late Frances Glessner Lee, whose “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths” inspired Tate’s crime scene dioramas. I first learned about Lee in Rachel Monroe’s excellent book, Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession, which also informed many of the ideas about true crime that I explored in this novel.
Much gratitude to Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, the hosts of the podcast My Favorite Murder, without which I would have never found my way to writing this book. Georgia and Karen continually create a safe space for weirdos like me who have a fascination with murder, and they never lose sight of the fact that it’s the victims, not the killers, that deserve to be remembered.
Thank you to the incredible writers who have supported me over the last couple years, whether it be through blurbing my books, helping me brainstorm, or just offering me a space in which to scream and/or rejoice. Special thanks to Amina Akhtar, Andrea Bartz, Samantha Downing, Meghan Evans, Layne Fargo, Wendy Heard, Christina McDonald, Mindy Mejia, Megan Miranda, Maureen O’Brien, Daniela Petrova, and Wendy Walker.
Thank you to my friends for your continual support and enthusiasm; for group texts that make me laugh and keep me sane; for perfectly timed Taylor Swift gifs; for promoting my books to your book clubs; and, to two of you in particular, for choosing my book as the “one book you’ll read all year.”
Thank you to my very supportive family (aunts! uncles! cousins!), and thanks in particular to my brother-in-law, Greg, who always has thoughtful words to say about my stories; my sister, Kate, who uses her adorable dogs to help spread the word about my books; and to my parents, who, three books in, continue to be my most excited cheerleaders.
Finally, thank you to my dog, Maisy, for all the cuteness and cuddles (which are essential to my writing process), and to my husband, Marc, who is the most helpful and hilarious human on earth, and who ultimately inspired this book. He first suggested The Family Plot as a title for a different novel I was working on, one that stubbornly refused to be named. “No, that doesn’t work at all,” I told him, “but that is a great title.” Then I scrapped that other novel and wrote this one instead.
More from the Author
Behind the Red Door
The Winter Sister
about the author
Megan Collins is the author of Behind the Red Door and The Winter Sister. She is the managing editor of 3Elements Review and taught creative writing for many years at both the high school and college level. She lives in Connecticut, where she obsesses over dogs, true crime, miniatures, and cake.
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ALSO BY MEGAN COLLINS
The Winter Sister
Behind the Red Door
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Megan Collins Hatfield
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Collins, Megan, 1984– author.
Title: The family plot : a novel / Megan Collins.
Description: First Atria Books hardcover edition. | New York, NY : Atria Books, 2021.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020054067 (print) | LCCN 2020054068 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982163846 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982163853 (paperback) | ISBN 9781982163860 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Family secrets—Fiction. | Murder—Fiction. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3603.O454463 F36 2021 (print) | LCC PS3603.O454463 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054067
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054068
ISBN 978-1-9821-6384-6
ISBN 978-1-9821-6386-0 (ebook)