New Crime Novel by New York Times Best-Selling Author is Set in New Hampshire

This year, I’m trying to stick to my resolution to do something that’s grown uncommon for many writers: read.

As luck would have it, one of the most anticipated suspense novels (my kind of novel) is set right here in New Hampshire, and recently earned a prestigious spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

I Have Some Questions For You was written by Rebecca Makkai, whose New England roots can be traced back to earning her Masters at Middlebury College in Vermont (just down the road from Bob Newhart’s famous sitcom inn, where you can stay in real life).

The novel focuses on a well-known podcaster and film professor returning from Los Angeles to teach at her one-time boarding school (during the protagonist’s senior year, her roommate was murdered, and the final verdict and conviction have remained hotly debated).

What’s unique about the novel is that it explores a mystery similar to those which fascinate us in real life, while acknowledging the strange (unsettling?) trend of true crime obsession.

Within the story, online forums such as YouTube and Reddit are mentioned. The fictional case is even mentioned as being featured on a famous episode of Dateline.

Makkai is best known for the novels The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower.

The Great Believers received an American Library Association Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. It was also named one of the Ten Best Books of 2018 by the New York Times.

It seems like New Hampshire is on a lot of authors' radars, as a romance novelist recently posted an amazingly detailed list of things she noticed about the state.