Bonnie Kistler
Shell Games
A dazzling thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind––and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.
DOSSIER: There are some great authors out there like John Grisham, Meg Gardiner, and Scott Turow who are recovering lawyers. How did being a trial lawyer help prepare you to write the kind of thrillers you’ve written? Was there an elective at law school for how to be a fiction writer for when you’ve had enough 18-hour days of grueling trial prep?
GUEST: There was no such elective at my law school! But here’s the thing about litigators: we’re natural storytellers. We pick and choose among the available facts, polish them up, plot them out, and weave them together–– all with the aim of presenting a compelling and persuasive narrative. This is what novelists do, too, but with the clear advantage that we can make up our facts! And since much of litigation takes place outside the courtroom, in written submissions, we learn how to use words to their greatest effect.
One of the biggest challenges litigators face is holding the attention of the judge or jury. I think that’s why I write thrillers: I’m hyperaware of the need to grab the reader’s interest early and sustain it for the rest of the book.
Ripped from the headlines
DOSSIER: The idea for your latest book, SHELL GAMES, came from a dream you had, but you’re not touting yourself as some kind of metaphysical muse, right? That sort of thing doesn’t happen for you normally, does it?
GUEST: Not at all. I write realistic fiction, and I’m typically inspired by something going on in the world at the moment. That’s why most of my novels have been described as “ripped from the headlines.”
But SHELL GAMES broke me out of that mold. It’s still realistic, and still involves real-life issues, but the germ of the idea literally came to me in a dream. I dreamt that I was a bride on her wedding night, and my new husband confessed to me that he’d committed a notorious unsolved crime. I ran screaming to the police station where I blurted out what I’d just learned. But behind me came my bridegroom who sadly informed the police that I was having another one of my “episodes.” It turned out that he couldn’t have committed that crime, and I realized in horror that he was trying to convince the police, and ultimately me, that I was insane.
I woke up relieved that the man in my dream wasn’t my real-life husband. But I was also wildly excited. Ooh, I thought––what a great idea for a book!
She might eavesdrop on you
DOSSIER: When and where do you like to write and what environment works best? Is there music, silence … a Florida beach or a North Carolina mountain view?
GUEST: I’m too easily distracted to write anywhere but in total isolation. In the stereotypical coffeeshop, I’d be eavesdropping on conversations and studying people’s traits and not writing a word.
My office in North Carolina has a lovely mountain view, but I deliberately face my desk the other way. My office in Florida has a lovely view of palm trees and a lagoon, but again I face my desk the other way. In both cases, it’s only space that I’m staring off into.
I need silence, too. Definitely no music, and if my husband happens to be in the next room, I nicely ask him not to breathe so loud.
Good or lucky?
DOSSIER: Was there a moment while you were trying to figure out how to make SHELL GAMES work where you considered it might not come together the way you wanted? How long did that process take and how did it go for you?
GUEST: In fact, there was such a moment. There’s a side character who interacts early and often with my protagonist, and I knew I wanted him somehow to advance the novel’s idea of gaslighting, but it wasn’t until scarily late in the game that the solution came to me. Then a whole raft of plot points suddenly came together, so seamlessly that I almost wondered if I’d subconsciously known the solution all along. Or I was incredibly lucky.
New book in development
DOSSIER: Do you have any breaking news or special announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier?
GUEST: One of my earlier novels, THE CAGE, is currently in development, as they say in Hollywood. If all the stars align, the adaptation will be aired as a limited series on one of streaming platforms.
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