AUTHOR MATT WITTEN
LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. >> A new thriller novel set in Lake Luzerne is scheduled to be released this September, as buzz builds locally about author Matt Witten’s newest story The Necklace.
A former Saratoga Springs resident, Witten is also the author of Breakfast at Madeline’s and other Jacob Burns mystery novels.
Now he lives in Los Angeles, where he writes for TV shows like Law & Order, House, Pretty Little Liars, and CSI: Miami — but continues to spend his summers in upstate New York.
The Necklace, which has been optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a fast-paced thriller starring an unlikely heroine: Susan Lentigo, a small-town waitress fighting to prove that the man who’s about to be executed for killing her daughter is actually innocent — and the real killer is still free. As the clock ticks down, she takes on the FBI in a heart-pounding crusade for justice.
Witten will appear for a reading and book signing at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 11 at the Rockwell Falls Public Library in Lake Luzerne.
Additionally, Witten will be featured in a virtual Book Talk by the Saratoga Springs Public Library at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 12. He will also be at the Ballston Spa Public Library at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14 for a reading and book signing.
Another book signing will he beld at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 20 at Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs.
More information about The Necklace and a full list of Witten’s upcoming local appearances is available online at mattwittenwriter.com.
Before embarking on the local book tour, Witten shared about his experience writing The Necklace in a recent Q&A with the Saratogian.
Q: What inspired you to write The Necklace?
A: Nine years ago, I read an article in the Glens Falls PostStar about a woman from a small town in upstate New York who was holding a fundraising event at a local bar. She needed money to travel to the upcoming execution of the man who had murdered her young daughter twenty-two years before.
Everything about this story stuck with me: not only the tragic death, but also the woman’s dire circumstances and her quest to find justice and closure two decades later.
For years I wanted to write a novel about this, but I didn’t know what the story would be. Then one day I was having coffee with a writer friend, John Henry Davis, and he suggested: “What if the guy who’s being executed maybe didn’t do it?”
And that’s how The Necklace was born.
After I wrote the novel, I discovered something amazing. There is a woman in Idaho named Carol Dodge who devoted her life to proving that Christopher Tapp, the man imprisoned for raping and killing her daughter Angie many years earlier, was innocent. Thanks to Carol’s relentless efforts, Tapp was finally set free and the real killer, Brian Leigh Dripps, was arrested.
Talk about life imitating art!
Q: Why did you choose Lake Luzerne as the setting for this novel?
A: I’ve spent a lot of time in Lake Luzerne over the 35 years. The Necklace is not only the story of an incredibly courageous woman, it’s a story about life in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The area has struggled in this new century, with factories and mills shutting down and tourism not quite filling the economic gap. And yet people continue to cobble livings together, raise their families, and work for a better future. Susan, the diner waitress who’s the heroine of The Necklace, is a composite of several women I’ve known in the Lake Luzerne area.
Q: What is your connection with the Saratoga region?
A: My wife Nancy Seid and I lived in Saratoga for 10 years and raised our sons Zack and Jacob there. I wrote Breakfast at Madeline’s and three other mystery novels set in Saratoga. I also cofounded the Creative Bloc, a group of local writers who corented a space on Broadway.
Then I moved to Los Angeles to write for television, but we’ve still kept coming back to Lake Luzerne every summer. Madeline’s on Broadway in Saratoga was my favorite coffee shop in the world. That’s gone now of course, but I do love Uncommon Grounds. From June to September, I go there once a week to write for a few hours. So if you go into Uncommon Grounds and see a guy with a laptop muttering to himself in a corner, that’s probably me, saying my dialogue out loud and making sure it sounds right.
Q: Where can people purchase The Necklace?
A: Anywhere! The Necklace comes out on September 7, but you can already preorder now from Amazon, IndieBound, or anywhere else. Also, Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs is getting books in early, and they’ll have them by August 20. I’ll be signing books at Northshire that day at 6:00 p.m.
Also, I’ll be doing readings and signings at Hoss’s Country Corner in Long Lake, the Lake Luzerne Library, the Ballston Spa Library, and elsewhere.
Q: Do you have any future projects in the works?
A: My next novel is Clickbait, a twisty crime story about an idealistic young journalist who starts a podcast about a sensational cold case murder. Eventually she will need to decide: how far will she go, and what innocent people is she willing to betray along the way, in order to catch the killer?