Acclaimed Author Heads South for Murder-Mystery Book Tour
'Nothing compares to being surrounded by lovers of crime fiction. I'm incredibly thrilled to bring my voice to two of the genre's most electrifying stages this fall.'— Aliah Wright, author of 'Now You Owe Me.'
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, August 15, 2025 / EINPresswire.com / -- Fresh from being lauded at New York's Thrillerfest in June, critically-acclaimed 'Now You Owe Me' author, Aliah Wright, heads south for major book conferences, Killer Nashville and Bouchercon in New Orleans.
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year finalist Aliah Wright, nominated for her debut thriller, 'Now You Owe Me,' will make two highly anticipated appearances at major literary events. Wright will take the stage at two panels at Killer Nashville, considered 'the premier forum for all genres incorporating mystery, thriller, suspense, action, or romance elements.' During the Aug. 21–24 conference, she'll draw on her decades of experience as a journalist, discussing 'The Importance of Research for Fiction/Non-Fiction' and 'What Journalists Do and Don't Do.'
In early September, Wright heads to New Orleans for Bouchercon, known as 'the world's largest mystery and crime fiction convention.' There, Wright will be on the 'It's Okay to Love Villains, Right?' panel.
'Any day I can talk about my career at The Associated Press or at Gannett | USA Today is a good one,' Wright said. 'I know for certain that those years fashioned the storyteller I am today.' Both occasions provide an extraordinary opportunity for fans, readers, and book professionals to engage with the woman behind one of the most spellbinding page-turners of the year.
'Now You Owe Me' (Red Hen Press; 2024) follows twins Ben and his sister, Corinthia, as they wind down their treacherous urge to kidnap and dispose of the blond-haired, blue-eyed female doppelgängers. Ben has spent years trying to tame the flame within—the one that compels him to hunt young blonde coeds. But it hasn't been easy, especially since his sister refuses to spare the young women he keeps bringing home. Racked with guilt, they vow to take just one last victim—too bad they chose the wrong one.
What ensues has left readers speechless and kept them up all night. As one reader wrote, '… I love it when I can't predict what will happen next because it's just that out there! Aliah Wright has written a gripping story that is dark and twisted with bits of humor, heart, and just the right amount of social commentary.'
In June, Wright was lauded in New York at Thrillerfest, the world's 'premier event for thriller fans, authors, and publishing professionals.' In addition to being named a finalist for a prestigious national award, 'Now You Owe Me' has been praised by readers and critics alike.
Library Journal published in its review of 'Now You Owe Me' that 'well-crafted characters will draw in readers, and an intricately woven plot will keep them in their seats.' The Journal also recommended the suspense novel for fans of New York Times best-selling authors Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and Karin Slaughter. FirstCLUE calls it a 'gripping tale…with a trail of destruction that leads to a startling twist.'
From BookTok and Instagram to Goodreads and Amazon, readers have been stunned by the twists and turns in Wright's riveting debut thriller. Wright hopes to inspire others who are writing in the thriller genre.
'I've been traveling coast to coast on a book tour for nearly two years,' Wright said, adding that promoting the book provides a two-fold joy.
'I will never tire of meeting readers who enjoyed the thriller I wrote in my kitchen in Virginia,' she laughed. 'And I can't wait for them to see what I'm cooking up next. For us writers, writing is such a solitary pursuit—we're all in our heads, eating, sleeping, and breathing life into these stories. I love meeting other authors and discussing their journeys. I've found my tribe with these fellow scribes, and that's a pretty incredible feeling.'
Event Details:
• Killer Nashville — Aug. 21–24, 2025 | Nashville, Tenn.
• Bouchercon — Sept. 3–7, 2025 | New Orleans, La.
To learn more about Aliah Wright, book her for appearances, or to inquire about film adaptation, please visit her website www.aliahwright.com.
Aliah Wright
Wright Way Social Strategies
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The story of a chosen child and opposing forces in pursuit of her magic—this is an oldie but a goodie and certainly one that fits these times. Once you settle into a story that works, the next question is the tone, and our tone ended up reflecting everyone's character. Our tone reflects the absolute absurdity of human nature. DiCaprio: My character is not your typical heroic Terminator-type character that has any superpower, any special ability, but he's just relentless, you know? Anderson: Well, that goes back to— DiCaprio: The Bad News Bears. He's in The Bad News Bears of modern-day dad heroes. Anderson: That's right—he's got a lot of Walter Matthau from Bad News Bears. When I watched the Mission: Impossible films, they usually start out with a code that Tom Cruise has to give back and forth. I would daydream, What would happen if Ethan Hunt forgot that code word just once? Would the other end of the line say, 'It's okay. I know you're Ethan Hunt. Let's just get on with it.' 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I will always remember that as a great day, when you kept looking around, asking, 'Are we going to close this supermarket down?' Me saying, 'No, we're just going to shoot.' And then the cashier at the checkout, in the middle of your scene, takes out her phone and starts taking pictures of you. That made me laugh. I guess she got bored taking pictures after a while. DiCaprio: Do you like the idea of controlled chaos in what you do? Anderson: Yes. I don't think it's good all the time. You have to pick and choose when you think it'll be appropriate. There are certain moments when you're like, I want to feel the unknown entering. We shot a scene in Punch-Drunk Love of Adam Sandler on a telephone calling Emily Watson in a hotel room. He's standing in a street in Honolulu, and he calls her, and it's fantastic. But when we were standing there, I said, 'Well, it's good, but it's a little low energy, and I don't really know what else I would do to fix it.' As we were wrapping up for the day, someone said, 'You can't leave your truck here—tomorrow is this huge Japanese American Parade day.' And of course we say, 'Wait a minute, there's a parade going on? We could put the phone booth right there and shoot in the middle of a parade? Let's come back.' That was the kind of thing where there's something larger happening than your film. Sometimes you're going to fail. But there are other times where you can catch lightning in a bottle. Adam was supposed to get quite angry at his sister on one of these phone calls, and he was kind of getting there, but not really. These drummers are coming down the road making this tribal banging at the same time he's supposed to reach this peak. The music had to affect him. He fucking launches into this fantastic take of anger; he's lost his mind. DiCaprio: It's the 'I'm walking here!' moment, right? Anderson: That's right. We got quite lucky with some of that stuff on this film. We shot underneath a freeway underpass, forty feet from the border of Tijuana, while we were raiding the immigration camp. I couldn't tell the real immigrants who were sneaking across the border from the background artists that we'd hired. No one could. I'd watch them walk in the back of a scene and think, Is that a background cross or is that somebody really crossing? And it would be people that were really crossing the border. DiCaprio: Tell me about the line from Benicio's character. About freedom. Anderson: It's a Nina Simone line. An interviewer asks, 'What is freedom to you?' And she says, 'I'll tell you what freedom is. No fear. That's what it is.' That wasn't in the script, but the deeper we got into shooting, that kept reverberating in my mind. Don't be afraid. Keep going. It became perfect to throw it into Benicio's mouth. And as a philosophy, it certainly holds true for me. Freedom is no fear. Let's hope we can all get there. DiCaprio: What do you make of the state of the movie business today? Anderson: I'm just trying to rapidly live in reverse to hold on to any shred of the Olden Times that's left. This is called denial and nostalgia—wish me luck. I'm only half kidding. The irony is that the best part of life is the constant forward momentum. It only moves in one direction, so hop on and hold tight. Every 'sky is falling' panic has been screamed and screamed again. Best to remain calm, keep your head down, and dedicate yourself to the work at hand. The rest is just noise. I love our business, and I've seen it flourish and eat itself and then turn around and grow strong and then make the same mistakes it made years earlier. Through it all, it's still standing. Or in other words, 'You never got me down, Ray.' DiCaprio: Raging Bull. Anderson: This is not me talking; this is Esquire. 'You give so much to every role you play, once filming wraps, what do you do to come down from it?' DiCaprio: Sheesh. Anderson: How do you recover? What is what? What does a jet-setter like yourself do? DiCaprio: Ironic, because I'm on a yacht off Croatia right now. Anderson: I'd expect nothing less. I'll rephrase the question: Do you get the blues after filming? Because I sure do. How do you avoid it? DiCaprio: I think I'm good at it because I take a lot of time off between films. I do things more sparingly, which means you're anxious to get back to your real life once you've finished filming. Life goes on hold when you're filming. Everything stops and gets put on the back burner in your real life. I might be more concerned if I worked too much. To go from film to film, I would be scared about what do I have to come back to? I'm very fortunate for that. Anderson: That makes sense. Sometimes when a film starts, it's very hard to get used to how little structure there is. How far from normal it is. The lack of sleep, the circus lifestyle of it all. And then, when it's over, a hundred days later, it's very challenging to return to the structure of everyday life. DiCaprio: It's much more difficult for directors, in my mind. We get to go home and bounce back into our normal rhythm and in a much different way until promotion time. Anderson: Which leads me into the next question, which Esquire wants me to ask: 'What do you worry about? What keeps you up at night?' Besides saying dumb shit while you're promoting your movie. You know what, don't answer that. Photographed by Paul Thomas AndersonStyled by Warren Alfie BakerGrooming by Kara Yoshimoto Bua using Chanel Beauty for A-Frame AgencyTailoring by Suzy YunProduction by Jill Roy at 3Star ProductionsDirector of Photography: Pearl Minnie AndersonVideo Editor: Sam MillerEsquire Editor in Chief: Michael SebastianEsquire Senior Entertainment Director: Andrea CutlerEsquire Visual Director: James MorrisEsquire Design Director: Martin Hoops You Might Also Like Kid Cudi Is All Right 16 Best Shoe Organizers For Storing and Displaying Your Kicks
