Remember me
Murder Your Darlings
Jenna Blum
Harper Publishers
January 2026
Murder Your Darlings by Jenna Blum has the author venturing into the thriller genre. Formerly known for her historical novels, she still maintains some semblance by making her female lead, Simone “Sam” Vetiver, a historical novelist. This suspenseful novel had love, grief, and revenge.
Readers meet Sam who is finishing up a book tour while searching for some ideas for her next plot. She then receives a fan letter from best-selling author William Corwyn who shares the same publisher. She is appreciative of his offer to help her write the next novel but refuses. Instead, she decides to give up everything for the right man. And it appears William is that man. They start out as friends, but it moves quickly to a steamy relationship. Yet, something does not appear as it seems. Although William at first seems like a dream come true, as time goes by the relationship becomes less promising and sentimental.
To add to their woes William has an obsessive stalker who he dubbed the Rabbit. She appears to have Sam in her cross hairs. Through some investigation Sam is wondering if her loneliness led to trusting the wrong people.
Readers take the journey with Sam as she tries to navigate her different emotions and wonders who really has a dangerous obsession. Told in the perspective of the three characters: Sam, William, and the Rabbit, people begin to realize things are not as they seem, wondering who the good guys are and who are the bad guys.
The plot is riveting and will have readers not wanting to put the book down.
Elise Cooper: Is it true you interviewed Holocaust survivors?
Jenna Blum: Yes, for many years for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, I interviewed about sixty survivors starting at the age of 23. Because I was so young they asked I interview couples, survivors who met each other in the concentration camps, displacement camps, overseas, or when they got to this country. What really struck me is that they did not talk about it much with each other, keeping that part of their life under wraps. I am grateful to be a part of the project. The skills that I got from this would lend itself well to interview survivors of any trauma. I learned how to extract dramatic stories with the least amount of damage possible. In fact, I would be honored to interview Israeli survivors of October 7th.
EC: Turning to your current book why a thriller?
JB: This is my first thriller. I am known for historical fiction. I had this story about murderous writers in my head, pushing the ideas for the historical novel away.
EC: Was there a difference between writing thrillers and historical novels?
JB: It was a such a joy to write a thriller because I did not have to do any historical research. In writing thrillers, I felt like I was putting together a puzzle. All I had to do is unpack my life since I have been a career writer since I was sixteen. I married my own experience with the publishing world and a mid-life women writer at the crossroads. It was so much fun to write.
EC: Being a writer did you worry about writing about writers?
JB: Yes, I thought am a cheating and cannibalizing my life. Then I read this plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and called her. I asked her if she got any pushback when she started writing thrillers. She told me to write it, and this is the result. Sam’s life is exactly mine. She is so me in terms of her writing experience and existence, including putting my apartment in the novel.
EC: How would you describe Sam?
JB: She is sweet and hopeful. In the beginning of the book, she is despondent because her career has not gone as she hoped. She is trying hard to be optimistic. Sam is a survivor of a traumatic background, so she does not trust her own instincts, which makes her wildly co-dependent. She is vulnerable, desperate, and is looking to do something different. I think Sam is also charming, reserved, paranoid, funny, and tenacious. She is nuts in the way a lot of writers are nuts, spending most of her time with imaginary characters.
EC: How would you describe William?
JB: I think he is hilarious. He is a malignant narcissist. The only research I did for the book is looking up what is a malignant narcissist. I find narcissist characters have a view of themselves that is ironclad and is not the way the rest of the world sees them. It makes William amusing and frightening to watch. He is a terrible cad. He is chauvinistic, charming, unreasonable, egotistical, moody, arrogant, ambitious, lonely, and a bully.
EC: What is the role of the “Darlings?”
JB: William sees himself as the “giver.” It is a support group for other writers. He helps people by bringing them together in the community. People can see through them what writer’s obstacles are like. This shows him as having an altruistic and philanthropic side. I am hoping this helps to build a nuance portrait of him.
EC: What about the relationship between Sam and William?
JB: He manipulates her so much and she allows that to happen. Readers might want to say to her, ‘snap out of it.’ She is totally co-dependent. I am also in recovery for co-dependency. I am hoping through Sam’s actions readers who are co-dependent do not feel alone and see there are ways around it. Other readers might want to shake her and to say to her, ‘can you not see this guy is terrible for you.’ Through Sam I wanted to shine a light on this issue. The relationship is 100% dysfunctional, following a traditional narcissism cycle of love bonding, disappointment, the person being dumped, and then that person being pulled back in. Narcissistic and co-dependent people often complement each other.
EC: Why name the stalker Rabbit?
JB: William uses that name because the person has a terrible over-bite and does not have very many lovers. This is a moment when his misogyny is completely on display, being so judgmental. My favorite line is when the Rabbit reveals her real name.
EC: What do you want to say about the Rabbit?
JB: I love the Rabbit. I had the most fun writing her and William. She is gritty, determined, loves books (her saving grace), she has determination, and speaks truth to power.
EC: Next book?
JB: I want to stay in the thriller lane with three ideas rolling around in my head. I realized that when I wrote historical novels I always wrote about sex, death, and catastrophic events.
THANK YOU!!
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