Authors Interviewing Characters: Rachel Howzell Hall

“Rachel Howzell Hall does it again. What Never Happened blends blade-sharp writing and indelible characters with a suspenseful story that pulls you in and won’t let go, as a seeming paradise grows dark with storms, suspicion, and murder. I couldn’t put it down.” ―Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

WHAT NEVER HAPPENED

It’s murder in paradise as a woman uncovers a host of secrets off the rocky California coast in a gripping novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall.

Colette “Coco” Weber has relocated to her Catalina Island home, where, twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a deadly home invasion. All Coco wants is to see her aunt Gwen, get as far away from her ex as possible, and get back to her craft―writing obituaries. Thankfully, her college best friend, Maddy, owns the local paper and has a job sure to keep Coco busy, considering the number of elderly folks who are dying on the island.

But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar…and not natural. Then Coco receives a sinister threat in the mail: her own obituary.

As Coco begins to draw connections between a serial killer’s crimes and her own family tragedy, she fears that the secrets on Catalina Island might be too deep to survive. Because whoever is watching her is hell-bent on finally putting her past to rest.

Rachel Howzell Hall  interviews Coco Weber 

RH: You okay?

Coco: [looking around anxiously, then laughs]. No, not really. I mean… Sure? Guess I really don’t know how to answer that question. I’m new here, to Avalon, and yet… I’m not.

RH: That’s because you’ve lived here before, right?

Coco: Kinda? My family bought a house here about twenty-five years ago. Up on that hill over there. See that white house? It’s kinda shaggy-looking now. Back then, though, it was gorgeous and those big windows looked out to the Pacific Ocean. I appreciate it now. Now that my family… You know. 

Back then? I absolutely hated living here, even though we didn’t even make it an entire week. But I was just fifteen, sixteen years old and so to leave my entire life behind for a house? On an island twenty-six miles across the ocean? Dad insisted. Mom eventually got on board. My brother Langston and me… They’d might as well said, “Kids, we’re moving to Norway.”

RH: Yet this place is a part of LA County.

Coco: Yeah. Close and yet so far away. Avalon is the place every kid in L.A. County comes to on field trips or outdoor education. Hiking, water sports… Bison here. I thought that would be the most dangerous mammal on the island.

RH: And they aren’t?

Coco: [laughing] Humans are the most… [looking around anxiously]. Listen, someone is pissed that I’ve moved back to Avalon. That I’ve moved back into my house instead of selling it.

RH: It’s a buyer’s market, so… Yeah. You could get a million and some change for that house. It’s a jewel of a house.

Coco: Exactly. I’ve waited all this time to come back here and reclaim my home and this person… or people… I don’t know. I feel like they’re watching me. When I walk from work, when I go to the grocery store. Right now, sitting here and talking with you, my skin feels hot because whoever it is, they’re watching and waiting for you to leave so that they can…

RH: So that they can… what?

Coco: Do to me what they did to my parents and brother twenty-five years ago. Shit. Maybe this was a bad idea.

RH: Which this? Talking to me or…?

Coco: Talking to you. Coming back to Catalina. Helping my Aunt Gwen out. Working at the paper. Thinking that I can figure out what happened and be at peace for once. I just… I don’t know. All I want is to be at peace. To get to the other side of this, to exhale. And no one believes me. Because this is paradise, you see? People are smiling and they’re so lovely and the ocean is right there, and the bison roam, and the fresh sand dabs and saltwater taffy and yet… I’m so fucking scared.

RH: That no one will see past the illusion?

Coco: That no one cares that… that… I’m sorry. Your readers… This isn’t a piece about my despair, right? You wanted to know about my job. [laughter] I write for dead people. 

BUY WHAT NEVER HAPPENED HERE

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Rachel Howzell Hall is the New York Times bestselling author of We Lie Here; These Toxic Things; And Now She’s Gone; and They All Fall Down; and, with James Patterson, The Good Sister, which was included in Patterson’s collection The Family Lawyer. A Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist as well as an Anthony, International Thriller Writers, and Lefty Award nominee, Rachel is also the author of Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors in the Detective Elouise Norton series.

A past member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America, Rachel has been a featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast; she has also served as a mentor in Pitch Wars and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Rachel lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. For more information, visit www.rachelhowzell.com.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing