By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Author William Landay returned for his second appearance at the Westwood Public Library on Wednesday, May 31st. Landay discussed, to a room full of fans, his most recent novel, ‘All That Is Mine, I Carry With Me.’
This mystery/thriller novel is based around a missing woman case. Landay further described, “It’s about a suburban mom who ends up going missing in 1975. It’s about the weight of her absence and the mystery of how she disappeared from her children over the next forty years or so. … But really it’s about an experience of growing up and learning our parents all over again and separating from our parents.”
Not only did Landay discuss the book itself, but also the process it took to create a second book after ‘Defending Jacob.’ While some were shocked there was no ‘Defending Jacob 2,’ Landay noted that that would be too easy, and with this second book, he wanted to always challenge himself and raise the bar.
In regards to this, he mentioned, “I wanted to be worthy of that trust that the reader puts in you when they pick up your book. And that is to write the very best book that you have and to challenge yourself and to deliver for the reader. It’s a very intimate thing to read a book and to let a writer’s sentences and thoughts come into your head. And it’s a very big time commitment. And I feel that that is something that I strive to be worthy of.”
Throughout his entire talk, Landay made it abundantly clear that he tries his very best to understand what the common reader truly wants when reading. From the beginning to the end of a novel, he knows what readers look for and how they want to engage and think about what is going on throughout. He additionally stated, “Readers want to be surprised and yet they don’t want to be cheated or manipulated or misled. You have to play fair.”
Landay is the author of three previous novels, including ‘Defending Jacob,’ ‘The Strangler,’ and ‘Mission Flats.’ A former district attorney who started writing novels around the age of 30, he now resides in Boston with his family.
