Slay Like Tay

(A work in progress)

Renata Claxton is a middle-aged widowed mom with way too much time on her hands. Having cashed in on her lurid life story, and with her daughter now at college, she spends her days surveying her neighborhood from the lofted observatory of her McMansion, meanwhile monitoring her 19-year-old daughter’s iPhone activity.

Renata knows what people think about her: Get a life, lady. But maybe they should cut her some slack. For how many of them lost their spouse in a tragic accident? And—the real kicker—how many were held hostage in a legit cult back in the 1990s? A show of hands. When people get too nosy, she tells them to go buy her tell-all book, Wren Faire.

All snark aside, it’s no joke, hardcore hypochondria. It sure doesn’t help having Brainbug, her pesky OCD voice, always messing with her head.

And to make matters worse, why has her daughter, Camilla, become such an adrenaline junky lately? Speeding 113 mph on I94 in some frat boy’s Camaro (thank you kindly, Life360). Wreaking havoc on the streets of Chicago by milking her striking resemblance to Taylor Swift (much obliged, Instagram).

It’s enough to make any parent hypervigilant. But when the neighborhood’s beloved mail carrier suddenly dies—right after giving a Renata a cryptic warning about Camilla—Renata doubles down on the surveillance big time.

Though she’d pretty much prepared herself for run-of-the-mill cyber sludge on Camilla’s tech, what Renata hadn’t expected is to stumble upon a grisly underground network—and her daughter’s secret life.

This sequel to Wren Faire is a propulsive contemporary thriller. With its multidimensional narration and twisty plot, Slay Like Tay is Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train meets Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, with cinematic echoes of Rear Window.