A Small Affair by Flora Collins

Thank you to MIRA Books for inviting on the book tour for Flora Collin’s newest book, A Small Affair. This book publishes on December 27^th. You may know Flora Collin’s from her debut novel, Nanny Dearest, which received rave reviews. A Small Affair is a dual timeline, multiple POV book that will keep you guessing until the very end.

About the Book:

A twisting novel of psychological suspense about a young woman whose life is torn apart when her wealthy ex-lover is found dead, along with his wife.

Vera is ruthlessly ambitious, beautiful by her own account, and knows how to get exactly what she wants--no matter who stands in the way. When she starts a relationship with a wealthy older man who tells her he’s separated from his wife, she thinks litte of it. After only a few dates, she ends things, but that’s only the beginning. Days later, the man and his wife are found dead in their home, leaving behind a note saying Vera’s rejection had driven him to the horrible act of violence.

Vera is immediately blamed for the couple’s deaths, demonized by the press, fired from her job, and when stalkers and paparazzi begin to haunt her apartment, she flees to her mother’s house upstate. A year later, emerging from a cocoon of self-pity, she tries to re-enter the world, to get her job back—or any job—but the specter of scandal still clings to her. Then she’s invited to a memorial for the wife of the man she had an affair with. As she learns more about the family, and about the couple and their friends, she begins to suspect there was much more to the story than a simple affair gone wrong. In a quest for redemption, Vera soon begins uncovering layers of lies and close-kept secrets held by an inner-circle of filthy rich tech millionaires who will go to any lengths to protect their reputations

 

Q&A with Flora Collins

Why, out of all genres have you chosen to write thrillers?

I've always loved spookier stories! You could say they were my literary foundation; I was reading R.L. Stine at age 8 and Stephen King by age 10. As someone who suffers from a lot of anxiety, I find that reading thrillers helps take me out of my head more than other genres because I'm always trying to find out what happens next. There's also a schadenfreude aspect to it; no matter what I'm stressing over, it's never as bad as the plotlines that occur in thrillers. 

On a deeper level, I really enjoy abnormal psychology. I think thrillers are a good forum in which to explore the darker side of human nature! 

How do you come up with the idea for your novel?

Almost anything can spark an idea: a feeling, a news story, a documentary or TV show! Usually I'll have the concept for a novel in my head for a while (in A SMALL AFFAIR's case, I was intrigued by the perspective of a young woman embroiled in the crimes of a married man), then see how it fits together on the page. 

Have you ever actually scared yourself by what you've written?

Sometimes when I look back at short stories I wrote in high school I'm like, 'How did I think of this at 16?' Even back then, I was writing about children finding dead bodies, creepy mall santas, nefarious psychologists, you name it. And I'm a fairly well-adjusted person from a safe home with loving parents! 

What's the scariest experience you've ever had? ...wrote about?

I've never written about this, but the most beginning-of-a-horror-movie experience I've had happened a few years ago: It was midnight and I was with 2 friends on a pitch black road in the middle of nowhere and suddenly our car seemingly broke down. None of us was getting cell service and there was no human in sight. Finally, after about thirty minutes, we flagged down a man who agreed to help us and he actually got the car started again! And happened to not be a serial killer! 

 

About the Author:

Flora Collins was born and raised in New York City and has never left, except for a four-year stint at Vassar College. When she's not writing, she can be found watching reality shows that were canceled after one season or attempting to eat soft-serve ice cream in bed (sometimes simultaneously). Nanny Dearest was her first novel.

Keep in touch on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/flococo16

Instagram: @floracollins_author