Wendy Webb

Wendy Webb's novels include The Vanishing, The Fate of Mercy Alban, and The Tale of Halcyon Crane.

Her new novel is The End of Temperance Dare.

Recently I asked Webb about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’ve recently finished two beautifully-written, spooky, suspenseful mysteries, the kind of books that completely transport me into the story, grab me from the very first page and don’t let go until the last. I’ve been a fan of both of these writers for years and now I’m proud to call them friends.

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman is the story of Jess and Clare Martin, who move from Brooklyn to a quaint small town in the Hudson River valley to take a job as the caretaker for Riven House, a crumbling estate owned by their old college writing professor. But it’s not too long after they settle in that Clare begins to suspect that something is just not right there. She hears a baby crying in the middle of the night and sees strange figures in the fog outside — or does she? Jess is unconvinced. But Clare does some digging and finds out that Riven House had a dark and troubled past, that just might catch up with her in the present.

The Secret Language of Stones by M.J. Rose is the beautiful and haunting story of Opaline, a jeweler in Paris in 1918 who makes mourning jewelry for the mothers, wives and lovers for fallen soldiers. But Opaline isn’t just any jeweler and these aren’t ordinary talismans. She has inherited a gift from her mother Sandrine, a witch who practices the dark arts. A personal item of the soldier combined with certain gemstones unlocks a door to the other side that she would rather not open, and she begins to receive messages from beyond the grave. It’s a story of seduction and magic, wrapped in a love so powerful it extends from one world to the next.

I’m currently in the middle of The Trespasser, the latest by Tana French, who sets all of her crime procedurals in the same Irish precinct, but with different detectives and wildly different stories. In The Trespasser, homicide detectives Antoinette and Steve are investigating what, on the surface, seems to be a garden-variety domestic. A woman is found dead in her home, which was all decked out for what seems to be a date — dinner on the stove, a fire in the fireplace, wine at the ready. But as the partners dig into the case, they start to think it’s anything but ordinary, made even more strange because some of the other detectives on the squad are pressuring them to just arrest the victim’s boyfriend and be done with it. Antoinette and Steve begin to wonder why, and find more than they bargain for.

Learn more about the book and author at Wendy Webb's website.

My Book, The Movie: The End of Temperance Dare.

--Marshal Zeringue