Mary Kubica loves a good twist.
Of course, her novels are full of them, almost always organically dropped in as she deftly writes her way through the mystery that needs to be solved. But for latest thriller, She’s Not Sorry, Kubica says the twist came to her … first.
“In this case, it was really the inspiration for the book,” she says in an interview with BookTrib. “It was a totally different experience because I had that end point in mind, but I didn’t know the characters or the setting yet — I was just backtracking from the twist.”
The result is Kubica’s twistiest novel yet — and that’s saying something.
Her debut, The Good Girl, came out in 2014, riding the domestic thriller wave made popular by Gillian Flynn’s groundbreaking Gone Girl. The success of Kubica’s first book encouraged her to keep writing. Today, she’s the award-winning author of nine bestselling novels of suspense, and with each she continues to hone her craft.
In She’s Not Sorry, ICU Nurse Megan Michaels is assigned a patient who jumped off a bridge and is now in a coma. Throughout her career, Megan has been good at compartmentalization, ensuring she keeps a healthy emotional distance from her patients. But something about Caitlin, and her family, is different. Megan finds herself drawn in. Soon, it becomes evident that Caitlin didn’t jump after all. She was pushed. And now Megan may have just put herself, and her daughter, in serious danger.
“For me, it was important to make Megan super relatable,” Kubica says. “The life of an ICU nurse is not what you see in Hollywood. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on nurses, especially in the last four years and a number have left the profession. A lot of my readers are nurses and there was no question I needed to get it right.”
Kubica certainly depicts the profession with the same authenticity that breathes life into the book’s Chicago setting. This is home for Kubica, but in She’s Not Sorry, she delves into a darker side of the city. While there is certainly plenty of drama happening in the hospital, outside, a man is prowling the streets, attacking women. That adds another layer of suspense.
“I love Chicago,” she says. “I set a lot of books there, but for this one, the setting was so ripe for atmosphere. For a reader, you’re immersed in the city, which has these quiet pockets where you can really feel isolated.”
The tactic works, helping to ratchet up the tension and keep the reader focused on the secondary plot, while also trying to unravel the mystery of who is trying to kill Caitlyn and why. The answer will shock you.
“With most of my books, there’s a satisfaction of knowing where the story is going and having that aha moment with the twist,” Kubica says. “But it was interesting doing it the other way around — as the writer, I realized I can still have that excitement even when I know the end first. Reader feedback has been excellent.”
Kubica isn’t sure her next book — a thriller set in the woods of Wisconsin — will follow the “twist” structure of She’s Not Sorry, but one thing is certain: there will be twists. A lot of them.
About Mary Kubica:
Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many suspense novels, including The Good Girl, Pretty Baby, Don’t You Cry, Every Last Lie, When The Lights Go Out, The Other Mrs., Local Woman Missing and Just The Nicest Couple.
A former high school history teacher, Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children.
Photo Credit: Sarah Jastre
