Jennifer Fawcett
When I was a kid, I wanted to be Princess Leia. That led me to acting, which led to playwriting, which has ultimately brought me to writing fiction. (I still write plays, too.)
I grew up in rural Eastern Ontario and spent many years in Canada making theatre before coming to the United States. I have an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and was a founding member of Working Group Theatre. My work has been produced in regional theaters across the US and in the UK. My play Apples in Winter won the National New Play Network Smith Prize and the Susan Glaspell Award and is published by Original Works. Other plays include Atlas of Mud (Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting Award), Out of Bounds (NEFA National Theatre Award with Working Group), and Birth Witches (nominated for the ATCA/Steinburg New Play Award).
My first book, Beneath the Stairs, was inspired by a haunted house I went into as a kid. Keep This for Me is inspired by a true story and is based on a play I wrote (with a different title) many years ago. I like to live with stories for a long time.
I’ve lived in Toronto and Iowa and now live in the Hudson Valley with my husband and son.
Books
About Keep This for Me
The acclaimed author of the “chilling, mesmerizing debut” (Rachel Harrison, author of The Return) Beneath the Stairs returns with a gripping, atmospheric suspense novel about a woman investigating a serial killer’s connection to her mother’s disappearance—for fans of I Have Some Questions for You and Notes on an Execution.
One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again.
That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.
When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats itself: another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time the primary suspect is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.
With Jennifer Fawcett’s signature “suspenseful and immersive” (Library Journal) prose, Keep This for Me is a fresh, spellbinding exploration of what we unwillingly inherit from our parent
Praise
"Keep This for Me is a masterpiece—a stunning exploration of the darkest aspects of human nature and the emotional reverberations of violent acts. Fawcett deftly examines themes of family, motherhood, and childhood trauma, all through gorgeous prose and an enthralling mystery. You’ve never read a novel quite like this before." —Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat and The Last Session
“In her latest novel, Jennifer Fawcett has found the secret sauce: breakneck plotting and prose as lush and haunting as the lakeside setting. Keep This for Me is a gripping exploration of inherited violence—asking whether darkness is passed down or chosen–and anchors itself in the flawed humanity of heartbreakingly real characters. Raw and lyrical, this visceral ride through the wreckage one generation leaves for the next will captivate fans of Rebecca Makkai." —Sarah Crouch, USA Today bestselling author of Middletide
"Keep This for Me is a suspenseful and hauntingly beautiful mystery about a woman’s search for closure and the enduring ripple effects of violence. Like the lake at its center, this book’s reflective surface hides fathoms below: churning currents of loss, trauma, and cold-blooded murder colliding to drag you down into its dark depths. It grabs you on page one and doesn’t let go." —Luke Dumas, USA Today bestselling author of A History of Fear and The Paleontologist
Product Details
Keep This From Me
By Jennifer Fawcett
ISBN: 978-1668050644
Published by Atria Books, Release Date: October 7, 2025