Blade by Wendy Walker
Blade is best-selling author Wendy Walker’s seventh compelling psychological thriller and the most personal. Published in time for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, it has dredged up cathartic memories of her own teenage dreams of competing for medals in ladies’ figure skating. She has spoken recently in interviews of her own intensive training and buried traumatic experiences. Here art imitates life to a limited degree but sans violent murder. Like the fictional Ana Robbins, Wendy was 13 years old when she left home to train competitively with Carlo Fassi, former champion skater and coach of four Olympic gold medalists at Broadmoor Arena, an elite international skating facility, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A Childhood Shaped by Discipline and Sacrifice
She was among the youngest athletes living year-round in a dormitory with competitors and champions from around the world. Ambitious and driven, she rose pre-dawn to lace up her skates at 5 am for hours on the ice. When she began training, the ability to execute precise compulsory figures counted for half the score in competitions and was an area in which she excelled. Soon, however, winning performances became those that emphasized difficult jumps that were nearly impossible for her to land cleanly.
Wendy Walker quit skating at 16, focused on academic studies, completed high school, and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and Georgetown University Law School. Following a successful career as a lawyer and while raising her three sons, she began writing psychological thrillers. An impressive six of her seven novels have been optioned for feature films to date.
In Blade, protagonist Ana Robbins has dreamed of Olympic glory since early childhood. Her parents made sacrifices to send her to the fictional The Palace, an acclaimed skating facility in Echo in the mountains of Colorado. Becoming accustomed to skating at an altitude of 6,000 feet provides an advantage to competitors by developing a stronger lung capacity. Ana’s parents want her to have every advantage and additionally to shield her from witnessing her mother’s diminished health as she battles terminal cancer. Head coach Dawn Sumner and assistant coach Emile Dresier demand perfection and utilize a performance psychology method Dawn developed called Fear Training. The emphasis in this facility was on jumps: their level of difficulty and placement in a program. Ana was thirteen when she arrived and the only one of four girls nicknamed “the orphans,” living year-round in Avery Hall dormitory, overseen by a housemother more interested in soap operas than safeguarding her vulnerable charges. It was difficult to become close friends with girls who would be competing for the same spots in regional, national and world competitions, with the Olympic team being the ultimate goal. Only one girl will achieve a gold medal in any tournament. With only three places on the awards podium, excellence is not a guarantee of success, and young hearts are in peril of being broken.
The Cost of Ambition
After three harrowing years replete with loneliness and despair, Ana had experienced enough substantial trauma and damage to her psyche before realizing she was never going to be an elite skater and abandoned competitive skating. With determination to equal her previous endeavor, she focused on education and at 30 years of age is a sought-after, successful defense attorney known for her work with minors, particularly in capital crime cases. Reluctantly, she has returned to the palace to defend Grace Montgomery, who is accused of brutally murdering Coach Emile by slashing his jugular with the blades of her skate. The evidence against her is strong, perhaps insurmountable, and the young girl may be charged with first-degree murder. Ana Robbins has to face her own fears in confronting Coach Sumner and the sports psychologist while investigating the crime and preparing to defend a possible court case. While a blizzard rages outside, Grace is reluctant to speak, and hidden secrets are about to be revealed.
Blade is an exciting, dramatic, thought-provoking thriller. Wendy Walker guides outsiders through the world of international training and competition to vicariously experience what it takes to create a champion and how fickle, unpredictable and soul-crushing competitions can be for skaters who demonstrate effortless grace and athleticism.
About Wendy Walker:
Wendy Walker is the author of the psychological suspense novels All Is Not Forgotten, Emma in the Night, The Night Before, Don’t Look for Me, What Remains, and the Audible Originals Hold Your Breath, American Girl, Mad Love, and The Room Next Door. Her work has been translated into twenty-three languages, topping bestseller lists both in the United States and abroad, and featured by the Today show, the Reese Witherspoon Book Club, and the Book of the Month Club. Six of her titles have also been optioned for television and film.
Wendy holds degrees from Brown University and Georgetown University Law School. Prior to her writing career, Wendy trained for competitive figure skating, worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, and practiced both corporate and family law. She resides in Connecticut, where she raised her three sons.
