“Plus,” she adds, “writing always feels better than not writing.” Sometimes, you have to make yourself do it anyway.” Of course, everyone needs and deserves a break sometimes, but Contos knows there are also times when you just need to sit down and put fingers to keyboard. Turns out, he was very wrong about that! (Sorry, Dad.) I love writing, but sometimes it absolutely feels like work. Contos says, “My dad always told me to find a career I loved because it would never feel like work. Her father’s tutelage covered more than the ins and outs of police work. So when the next idea came to me as very much a contemporary novel, I decided to lean into the elements that I’d always loved in storytelling, and my first mystery/thriller was born!” “I sort of stumbled into crime writing,” she says, “though the two adult fantasies I’d written prior to my debut always had a mystery element.

You might even say crime-or at least, crime-solving-is in her blood, thanks to her father, a Detroit police detective who still contributes to his daughter’s research with investigative knowledge and tours of the morgue.Įven so, she didn’t leap immediately into the crime genre. The police say there's nothing they can do, and Cass resigns herself to live in fear until she reconnects with three old friends-three girls ready to exact vengeance on those who wronged them.īut the deeper Cass digs, the more shocking the truth becomes, especially when she discovers that the person who ruined her life may be the only one who can save it.ITW Award Nominee Andrea Contos comes by her love of mysteries and thrillers naturally. Notes from the man she escaped, telling her that he's always there, always watching. The pink envelopes that appear in her car, her locker, her bedroom. It wasn't the kidnapping that ruined Cass Adams's life. We may be temporarily broken, but we will leave them forever charred.

We'll give them back the damage they left us with, burden them with the weight of our pain. Catching each other's sparks until the flames grew, spread, raged beyond our control. A complex and captivating thriller that kept me guessing at every turn.' -Elle Cosimano, author of Finlay Donovan is Killing It

'Andrea Contos takes readers on a triumphant and terrifying journey, from fear and solitude to solidarity and vengeance.

Out of the fire andrea contos