CR 032: Alison Gaylin on Conspiracy Theorists, Witch Hunts, and Her Scariest Book Yet

The bestselling author discusses her latest thriller, “We Are Watching.”

Alison Gaylin, photo by Michael Gaylin

Despite being only four weeks in, this year has been an anxiety-fueled, chaotic nightmare full of conspiracies, lies, and paranoia. Which makes Alison Gaylin’s latest page-turning thriller, We Are Watching, utterly apropos. (In fact, in its review, Kirkus referred to it as “timely, terrifying, and all too plausible.”)

The book tells the story of Meg Russo, who returns to work three months after the death of her husband, only to find that she and her daughter are being targeted by a group of violent conspiracy theorists. Gaylin says she was driven to write the novel because she finds “large groups of people believing something very firmly [to be] very frightening. ... I think one of the scariest things around today are large groups of people who are firmly entrenched in one belief or another.”

Over the course of her career, Gaylin has published numerous bestselling novels, received an Edgar Award (for If I Die Tonight) and a Shamus Award (for And She…