How would you describe your family or your childhood?
SAM: Pretty normal, if by normal you mean dragged around by a mom who was married six times after your dad killed himself.
WILLIAM: Misty. I was reared on an isolated mountaintop with my older sister Pen by our neurosurgeon father after our mother passed, and it was often snowing or fogged in, the view opaque and obscured.
THE RABBIT: Kind of like The Hunger Games without the Games part. Mostly locked in the closet.
What was your greatest talent?
SAM: Procrastination!
WILLIAM: I believe you mean what IS my greatest talent, my dear. There. Fixed it for you. I would humbly say a superlative facility with words.
THE RABBIT: Persistence, by which I mean stalking William and his hos.
Significant other?
SAM: I was married for ten years to a wonderful man named Hank who’s an addict in recovery–neither the addiction or the recovery left much room for me, so we called it quits. Now…William? Hard to tell with him, but I hope so!
WILLIAM: Ah, I strive, I strive. I am a hopeless romantic, but somehow matrimony, the goal that every common man has achieved, has eluded me. I do have the great fortune, or perhaps curse, of having women get uncommonly attached to me, but I have not found Mrs. Write yet–if you'll permit the pun. Although I have some hopes for Simone–that’s Sam to you. We’ll see how she behaves.
THE RABBIT: Are you f-cking kidding?
Biggest challenge in relationships?
SAM: Being codependent! I’m the girl who you’re yelling at in the movie, “DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!” and I’m opening the door even though I know better. Because I can see the red flags but I ignore them if there are other amazing things in the relationship–like getting Dickmatized by great sex, you should forgive the expression.
WILLIAM: finding The One, the woman who respects my creative prowess and dedication to my oeuvre and will not undermine or disappoint me.
THE RABBIT: Finding one
Where do you live?
SAM: In Boston’s Back Bay, but…maybe with William?
WILLIAM: On an island in very rural Maine, extraordinarily difficult to access, out of reach of my superfans, although occasionally they do make the pilgrimage and drape their thongs and other unmentionables on the iron spikes of my gate.
THE RABBIT: in a sh-thole studio in Augusta, Maine, which gives me easiest access to William Island, inasmuch as there is easy access
Do you have any enemies?
SAM: The Rabbit! This poor deranged woman who has been stalking William for years. Although…he also has other women stalking him. But she’s the most persistent.
WILLIAM: The Rabbit, the pathetic creature who has been obsessed with me for years. The police have been useless, so I tolerate her…but I am just waiting to catch her in my house.
THE RABBIT: At the moment, Sam Vetiver
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
SAM: I love my Boston home but I’m very lonely there, and William has painted such a gorgeous picture of life at his place in Maine, so….
WILLIAM: I revere my home on my island and the peace and solitude of it, but I also love being on the road introducing my work to the readers, the readers, the readers.
THE RABBIT: What place. Wherever William and Sam Vetiver go, I go.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
SAM: No
WILLIAM: No
THE RABBIT: No
What do you do for a living?
SAM: I’m a novelist!
WILLIAM: This is perhaps not quite the right question, since I do not merely make my living as an author, it is my entire raison d’etre. I was not myself until I became William Corwyn, New York Times and internationally bestselling author.
THE RABBIT: I’m a bookseller. I love my store! And books. And readers.
Greatest disappointment?
SAM: That I haven’t yet found my life partner. And also, although I’m a little ashamed to admit this, the sales of my books in recent years have not been what I’ve hoped.
WILLIAM: That I have not yet found Mrs. Write. As I said, I aspire and persist.
THE RABBIT: That I haven’t yet been able to drive Sam Vetiver away from William, but I’ll keep trying. Whatever it takes.
Greatest source of joy?
SAM: Writing when it’s going well! And connecting with readers.
WILLIAM: The writing, of course, when the Muse is feeling generous. And connecting with readers.
THE RABBIT: Sometimes I get a day off from tailing William and then I get to have a burrito and beer in my sh-thole studio. Also books.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
SAM: Have sex with William? HAHAHAHA (No but really)
WILLIAM: I cannot explicitly say in this company, but it involves the casual pursuit of the opposite sex.
THE RABBIT: Stalk William and his hos
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
SAM: Codependency. I’m trying to live for myself first and not take on the lives of the men I fall for, but it hasn’t quite stuck yet.
WILLIAM: ???
THE RABBIT: Failing with all of William’s other hos. And not yet getting rid of Sam Vetiver. But I’ll keep trying.
What keeps you awake at night?
SAM: Loneliness. Confusion about William. Worry about money. And book sales.
WILLIAM: Amorous company.
THE RABBIT: William and his hos
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
SAM: Being on contract for a novel I absolutely hate and needing to find a new brilliant idea within four months. Also wondering where William’s at with us.
WILLIAM: Balancing my tour for my latest bestseller, ALL THE LAMBENT SOULS, with the imperative to write the next blockbuster. And, annoyingly, wondering whether I can trust Simone.
THE RABBIT: William and his hos and Sam Vetiver, the super ho-i-est of them all
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
SAM: My life partner! And a new bestseller.
WILLIAM: My lifelong romantic consort.
THE RABBIT: I need to get rid of Sam Vetiver
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
SAM: I guess…William is in the way? I really believe he might be The One, but he’s a little noncommittal. Also egotistical and arrogant and very sensitive. But still. We have so many other rare commonalities and the best chemistry ever, and I love him, so…I’m hopeful.
WILLIAM: I suppose it is Simone herself who stands in the way of our having a successful romantic connection. She can be disrespectful, disobedient, untrustworthy, and I fear she will disappoint me like all the others. Yet she is fetching and I do have feelings for her that are unusually persistent, so we shall see.
THE RABBIT: SAM VETIVER IS IN THE WAY OF EVERYTHING G-DDAMMIT BUT I WILL PUT A STOP TO THAT OR DIE TRYING!
For every woman who’s ever fallen for a bad man comes a hilarious and eviscerating tale of love, loss, and deadlines from New York Times bestselling author Jenna Blum.
Known for such brilliant historical novels as Those Who Save Us and The Lost Family, A Mighty Blaze co-founder and New York Times bestselling author Jenna Blum now offers a contemporary, suspenseful novel about love, loss, and revenge in the world of books.
Simone “Sam” Vetiver is a mid-career novelist finishing a lukewarm publicity tour while facing a deadline for a new book on which she’s totally blocked. Recently divorced, Sam is worrying where her life is going when she receives glowing fan mail from stratospherically successful author William Corwyn, renowned for his female-centric novels. When William and Sam meet and his literary sympathy is as intense as their chemistry, both writers think they’ve found The One.
But as in their own novels, things between Sam and William are not what they seem. William has multiple stalkers, including a scarily persistent one named The Rabbit. He lives on a remote Maine island, where his writer life resembles The Shining. And when writers turn up dead, including from The Darlings support group William runs, Sam has to ask: Is it The Rabbit—William’s #1 Stalker? Another woman scorned? Can William be everything he seems?
Narrated by Sam, William, and The Rabbit, Murder Your Darlings is a wickedly witty look at today’s literary landscape and down-the-rabbit-hole tale of how far people will go for love.
Women's Fiction Psychological | Thriller [ HarperCollins, On Sale: January 13, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780063448087 / eISBN: 9780063448117 ]
JENNA BLUM is the author of the New York Times bestseller Those Who Save Us (Harcourt, 2004) and The Stormchasers (Dutton). Jenna attended Kenyon College and Boston University, where she taught writing for five years and was the fiction editor for AGNI literary magazine. Currently, Jenna runs master novel workshops for Grub Street Writers in Boston, where she lives
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