What is Mara Williams reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Mara Williams, author of The Truth Is in the Detours: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean. Sarah is the queen of historical romance, but in this book, she takes on a contemporary story about a dysfunctional billionaire family. After the patriarch’s death, they’re forced to spend a week on the family’s private island and undertake a twisted inheritance game. It’s messy, sharp, and full of all the high-drama and high-stakes I’ve come to expect of a MacLean novel. Her historicals take on issues of class, feminism, and power, and this contemporary one is no different. In this book, she shrewdly, subliminally draws parallels between the historical aristocracy and our current economy of the one percent. Plus, it’s...[read on]

About The Truth Is in the Detours, from the publisher:

In this sharp-witted and poignant novel, two former friends with a complicated history are thrown together on an unexpected road trip, where old lies unravel and new truths emerge with every mile marker.

Ophelia Dahl has just buried her beloved father when she finds among his personal effects a blindsiding document. The mother Ophelia thought died thirty years ago isn’t dead after all―she abandoned her. But how could she, and where is she now? With some neighborly help, Ophelia’s going to find out.

Beau Augustin is an acclaimed author and Ophelia’s childhood bestie turned teenage nemesis, still chafing after all these years. As luck would have it, Beau’s current project―family deceptions―is set to take him across the West Coast. Ophelia has a brilliant idea: Beau’s book. Her life. Win-win. In a Subaru filled with baggage, they hit the road.

Despite detours, dead ends, and old grudges, Ophelia is desperate to unravel a lifetime of lies. And Beau’s research is a little more personal than he’s letting on. Mile by mile, they’re getting closer to their truths―and to each other―than they ever thought possible.

Visit Mara Williams's website.

Q&A with Mara Williams.

The Page 69 Test: The Truth Is in the Detours.

My Book, The Movie: The Truth Is in the Detours.

Writers Read: Mara Williams.

--Marshal Zeringue