Wish You Were Gone

June 1, 2021

When Emma Walsh's husband, James, died after smashing his way through the back wall of their garage in his big-bucks sports car, he left behind a reputation as a stellar family man and business owner. Unfortunately, that reputation hid the alcoholic rages and blackouts that kept Emma and her teenage children cowering, and other secrets James shrouded now will out in dangerous ways. New York Times best-selling children's/YA author Scott enters the adult arena with a 75,000-copy first printing.

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October 4, 2021
YA author Scott (the Cheerleader trilogy) makes her adult debut with a stylish thriller fueled by family deceptions. Emma Walsh is finally ready to tell her angry, alcoholic husband, James, she wants a divorce after years of hiding his flaws from the world. When James neither arrives at the Manhattan restaurant chosen for the conversation nor answers her texts, she returns home to suburban New Jersey. Five hours later, his car crashes into their garage with James unconscious inside it. The police deem his subsequent death accidental, but Emma has questions. Most urgently, where is his ubiquitous cellphone, and who is the woman who answers when Emma calls his number? Emma’s two closest friends offer to help her find out amid their own personal difficulties, including the wife of James’s partner in a lucrative sports PR firm, a former NFL linebacker who has developed sports-related brain damage. As Emma uncovers James’s hidden life, she finds that her two teenage children have secrets of their own. Scott’s complex story lines come together in an explosive climax. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Liane Moriarty will welcome this new arrival on the domestic thriller scene. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

October 1, 2021
James Walsh is dead. Apparently he was driving drunk, and he plowed into his own house. His wife, Emma, is shocked, but, if she's completely honest with herself, she's also a little relieved. An alcoholic, James terrorized his family, loving and considerate one moment, explosive and violent the next. Truth is, Emma was about to file for divorce. Now she doesn't have to. This is a delicious thriller. Alternating between the points of view of Emma and some of her close friends, occasionally dipping into the past to show us what was going on before James died, the story keeps us constantly on our toes. Was James' death an accident? Who might have killed him, and why? Was James having an affair? If so, with whom? And who might have known about it? Scott, who also writes under the pseudonym Kate Brian, is mostly known for YA fiction, but this book is definitely for grown-ups. It's a fine suspense story with some excellent surprises.

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