I’m delighted to welcome author Laury A. Egan to What Cathy Read Next today. Laury’s latest novel Fair Haven was published on 12th April 2025 by Spectrum Books and is available to purchase as an ebook and in paperback from Amazon. Read on as I chat with Laury about the book and her writing journey.
About the Book
A picturesque riverside town. A safe, serene, friendly place. And then, one sunny summer afternoon in 1994, Sally Ann Shaffer is electrocuted in her hot tub.
Who did it? One of her many lovers? Her husband? A thief? A jealous colleague at her tennis club? Fair Haven is suddenly embroiled in suspicion, interpersonal conflict, blackmail, financial fraud, and murder.
Find Fair Haven on Goodreads
Q & A with Laury A. Egan, author of Fair Haven
You’ve now written fifteen novels in a variety of genres, ranging from psychological suspense to romance, as well as numerous short stories and poetry, but where did your writing journey begin?
I began writing at age seven, sitting in a bathtub. I called for my mother to bring paper and pencil and then wrote out four stanzas of poetry. Needless to say, my mother was astonished. I wrote my first novel at twelve, short stories and poetry in high school, and then mostly stopped until later in life when I had more time and less concern about income. Patricia Highsmith was an inspiration for writing psychological suspense, which is still my favorite genre, although I also enjoy literary work, such as my partially linked novellas, The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers and The Swimmer (magical realism). Fair Haven fits in the murder mystery category.
You describe Fair Haven as being similar in style to the British TV crime drama series Midsomer Murders. What are the elements of the story that make you say that?
The murder of Sally Ann Shaffer happens in the very short prologue. Criminal acts occur afterword, but unlike many American crime novels or thrillers, this novel is more about relationships and intrigue in a small town, much as Midsomer Murders focuses on characters amid bucolic settings. The cast is diverse, each with a connection to the murdered woman, and each person could be the killer—again, very like the series.
Fair Haven has a large cast of characters. What challenges did this bring?
Challenges? You should see my notes! Descriptions of how each person looks, their back story, connection to other characters, and to Sally Ann Shaffer. Keeping their intricate timelines in order and maintaining the possibility that they could have killed Shaffer. Wow!
Fair Haven is described as ‘a picturesque riverside town’. How important to the story is the book’s setting?
First, although I live near Fair Haven and attended Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, I loved the wry irony of the town’s name for a murder mystery. I wanted to contrast this quiet, somewhat wealthy village with the sensational and shocking death of one of its residents but also to reveal the secrets that underpinned the story, which include fraud, deceit, theft, and affairs of many kinds.
The book is set in 1994. Why did you choose that particular time period?
Because cell phones weren’t used (although some characters own Motorola car phones and the police have their phones). In addition, the internet wasn’t active, thus making online research and email correspondence impossible. Avoiding these two technological crutches we now take for granted allowed me more freedom to keep characters in the dark—always good for a mystery!
What are your favourite and least favourite parts of the writing process?
I tend to go over a manuscript 30 or more times before submission and then more times after I receive the publisher’s edits. Toward the end of this process, my patience wears thin, though I grit my teeth and do it because I hate seeing mistakes in my work. The absolute worst parts of having a book published is doing promotion. The best parts? The joy of meeting my characters and learning who they are, how they think and feel…like newly met friends. I also love being immersed in a setting, which is often a major inspiration for a novel.
What are you working on next?
In mid-May, a collection, Contrary: Stories and a Play, will be published. Most of the 21 stories have appeared in journals, but the play is my first and is unpublished. It’s a two-act drama about a photographer disabled after a plane crash and her therapist, who tries to help. On 18th October 2025, a revised edition of my first book, Jenny Kidd, set in Venice, will be issued by Spectrum Books. This is an exotic (and erotic) psychological suspense (in the mode of Patricia Highsmith). A masked ball at a palazzo, a countess and her brother. Another case of a location inspiring a book!
Finally, how do you celebrate publication days?
I may pop open a bottle of prosecco with some friends. I’m really pleased to celebrate Fair Haven, which actually was begun in 1985 when I bought my first computer. This under-the-mattress manuscript would never have seen the light of day except that my wonderful publisher, Andrew May of Spectrum/Enigma Books in London, cleared four other projects off my desk, leaving me to resurrect this novel, which required huge amounts of work. This “first” novel is a special joy to see appear after all this time.
About the Author
Laury A. Egan is the author of fifteen novels: Fair Haven, Jack & I, The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers, The Psychologist’s Shadow, The Firefly, Once Upon an Island, Wave in D Minor, Turnabout, Doublecrossed, The Swimmer, The Ungodly Hour, A Bittersweet Tale, Fabulous! An Opera Buffa, The Outcast Oracle and Jenny Kidd; and two collections, Fog and Other Stories and Contrary: Stories and a Play. Four poetry volumes have been published: Snow, Shadows, a Stranger, Beneath the Lion’s Paw, The Sea & Beyond and Presence & Absence.
Ninety of her stories and poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. She is a reviewer for The New York Journal of Books, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, and a 2024 recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Award in prose.
Connect with Laury
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