Debut Novel in the Works - “The Pretenders”
Thriller RomCom
A notorious jewelry heist duo poses as a rich, newly engaged couple shopping for their wedding venue as a cover for scouting out various mansions, estates, and museums to burglarize. They may have scouted their last venue, however, when they cross paths with a vengeful serial killer whose day job is wedding planning.
Fun Facts:
I’m simultaneously working on writing the short story and novel version of this story.
The idea for this story and its characters came from listening to the Foo Fighters while driving through Millionaire Row in Memphis. The Annesdale Manor sat elegantly atop a hill that overlooked Poplar Avenue, and I longed to see inside the stately Victorian mansion. I began to wonder if I could get free tours of really nice mansions if a friend and I pretended to be a newly engaged couple hunting for a wedding venue.
Then, various plot elements started jumping out at me from different lyrics in the Foo Fighters songs, most obviously the song “The Pretender.” But what gave the story its spin into the thriller genre was a thought I’ve had many times while attending a wedding reception:
Sometimes, during the first dance at a wedding reception, there’s a sweet moment when the bride and groom seem to be whispering to one another. What are they saying? Are they reciting poetry? Are they planning the rest of their life together? Are they discussing the excitement of what comes after driving away in a car painted by the bridal party and dragging tin cans? Are they placing bets on whether or not they’ll actually taste the catering in between interruptions of congratulations?
OR…is the bride whispering through frightful tears, “Step on my foot one more time, and the wedding planner might actually kill us with the knife from our cake – even in front of all these people.”