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Ashley Winstead is the author of This Book Will Bury Me, which is available now.
Ashley holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature from Southern Methodist University and a B.A. in English and Art History from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Houston, TX, where she drinks red wine, works on public policy, and dreams up adult and young adult novels. She is the author of the thrillers In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, The Last Housewife, and Midnight is the Darkest Hour, as well as the romance novels Fool Me Once and The Boyfriend Candidate. You can find her at ashleywinstead.com
This Book Will Bury Me combines the most beloved aspects of Ashley Winstead’s previous hit novels: a morally ambiguous narrator; a quirky and loveable cast of characters; an earth-shattering twist ending; and poignant commentary on the true crime community. It’s a brave and compelling exploration of the dark heart of humanity, perfect for readers of All Good People Here and Bright Young Women.
Let’s get to know Ashley as she talks favorite novels, writing endings, her TBR and more!
What are some of your favorite novels?
Three books that have stuck with me through the years are The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brontë, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I guess this means I’m drawn to tragedy, forbidden love, mystery subplots, and books with sweeping landscapes, both in terms of time and geography. In retrospect, I can see why I was voted “Most Romantic” as a high school senior. At the time, I was baffled. Cheers to growing some self-awareness!
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
I knew at a very young age that I loved writing—really, as soon as creative writing was introduced in school, so maybe around age seven or eight? But it wasn’t until my late teens, while considering colleges, that I began to think seriously about becoming an author. I went to undergrad and concentrated in creative writing, then got rejected from all the MFA programs I applied to my senior year, nursed my wounded heart and didn’t write for a decade, and eventually found my way back. If there’s anyone reading this who feels despondent about their own purpose, I hope you’ll keep the faith. Sometimes the path to what you’re meant to do is bumpy and circuitous.
What drew you to the thriller genre?
I didn’t mean to write my first thriller—I was frustrated with edits on a fantasy novel and decided to write something else to give myself a break. I channeled all of my frustration and fear and dark feelings into that new book, and the plot poured out of me—seven friends, now six after a murder, betrayal, forbidden love, true faces hidden behind masks, peacoats, clock towers, and fallen leaves at college. Around the halfway mark, I looked at what I was writing and realized it was probably a thriller. I remain drawn to the genre for the same reason that had me stumbling into it: thrillers are a great space into which you can channel your darkness.
Do you plan out your endings ahead of time, or does it evolve as you work on the story?
Both. I never start drafting a new book without plotting it out entirely, including the ending. That gives me a direction to aim for, which helps me move the plot along swiftly versus aimlessly. But I also allow myself the fluidity to evolve as I’m writing. Sometimes your best ideas come during the drafting process, as you get to know your characters and sink into their voices and habits. I’ve tweaked every single one of my novels’ endings that way—little lightbulb moments when you realize there’s an even better way to close the story. I live for those moments of vision.
What can readers expect from This Book Will Bury Me?
This Book Will Bury Me is written as a fictional memoir from the perspective of Jane Sharp, a twenty-something amateur sleuth who became embroiled in one of the most high-profile, controversial, and potentially unsolved murder cases in US history. She’s writing her tell-all a year after the climactic events that made her infamous, and she’s writing with an agenda that isn’t revealed until the end, so the tone of the book is by turns sly, bitter, wise, self-deprecating, and achingly earnest. I was inspired to write this after becoming fascinated by the behavior of amateur sleuths, particularly in the wake of cases like the Gabby Petito, Moscow, Idaho, and Abraham Shakespeare murders, all of which serve as inspiration for the cases in the book.
I always find myself drawn to controversial topics, and despite the fact that being obsessed with true crime is rather de rigueur these days (here it’s been parodied by SNL), amateur sleuthing remains controversial. When internet sleuths help solve cases, they’re applauded as outside-the-box heroes, public intellectuals, the will of the many put to good use. And they’re increasingly called upon by the loved ones of victims to help solve their cases, especially when there’s a loss of faith in traditional policing. We celebrate the fact that sleuths aren’t bound by professional codes and can go to places the police sometimes cannot.
But when amateur sleuths step outside the lines—when we decide they’ve become too consumed by their work, or involved the friends and family of victims in unethical ways, or gotten in the way of the police, or pointed their fingers at possible suspects too soon—the very thing they would otherwise be celebrated for, the fact that they’re untrained and lack codes, causes enormous backlash. Needless to say, sleuthing is charged territory, a bit of the new wild west. This is especially true in the cases I mentioned above that served as inspiration for the book, each of which I consider new milestones in the evolution of modern sleuthing.
When does a crime become a public story that strangers are allowed to feel connected to, or even ownership over? Why are so many people drawn to something as macabre as murder? Why do so many people feel qualified to help solve cases for which they have no formal training? And what makes some people feel like consuming true crime media is morally acceptable, while sleuthing itself is not? These are just some of the questions I try to explore by putting readers in the minds of a found family of sleuths, people who are very good at what they do but drawn to it for quite different reasons, and with some shocking results.
Readers should expect a fast-pace, mixed media (chat transcripts, footnotes, fan fiction excerpts, and more), lots of twists, a touch of romance, and a story that grapples with grief and a desire for legacy as two of the most profound forces that shape our lives, and may even shape our desire to sleuth in surprising ways.
What are you currently reading and what is on your TBR (to be read) list?
Like a lot of authors, my TBR is usually full of great books I’ve agreed to blurb. But books I’ve added to my list for pure pleasure include The Favorites by Layne Fargo, Cross My Heart by Megan Collins, and The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. I’ve heard great things about each and am itching to get to them!
