What is the title of your latest release?
THE WATER LIES
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When a body surfaces in the canals of Venice Beach, California, two mothers, the mother of the drowned woman and another of a very young boy who might know what happened to her, are certain it’s no accident. They team up to uncover truth, relying only on each other, their intuition, and the creeping sense of danger that grows with every shocking revelation.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Because the novel centers on a drowning, I knew it needed to be set along the water. That can mean a lot of things – the ocean, a pond, a fountain, etc. – and I explored many options before settling on the canals. The other locales didn’t seem specific enough for Tessa, the mother of the boy who recognized the drowned woman, to think the death had something to do with her son. It needed to be literally outside their doorstep. I also knew that I wanted the location to feel unique and cinematic. Once I thought of the canals, there was no turning back. While there have been a few movies featuring the canals, I couldn’t find any novels set there. That told me I’d landed on a pretty special setting. Often, with writing, you make a choice intuitively and then later realize why it’s essential to the story. The setting of the canals organically gave the novel a voyeuristic quality that works really well with the paranoia of the plot.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
I think so! Barb, the older mother of the woman who dies, is an amalgamation of my mom, mother-in-law, and their friends. I love hanging out with them, so I would enjoy Barb’s company too, even if she might try to mother me in ways I wouldn’t want her to. As for Tessa, I could talk to her all day about her jewelry designing.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Barb – caring, regretful, determined
Tessa – creative, empathetic, anxious
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
This was my first thriller, so I learned a lot! It was the first time I spoke to police officers in my research, and they both told me about the challenges of investigating a case when there’s no evidence and of helping grieving families who want answers that don’t exist. I also learned a lot about fertility. I’ll focus on a writerly lesson though: since this was the first time I wrote a book with a killer in it, I didn’t realize that the murderer often isn’t whom you expect it to be. This is exciting because, if you are wrong about the killer in your own novel, your readers likely will be wrong too. With the new book I’m working on, I’m letting the killer expose themselves to me in due time.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I’d like to say that I wait until I’m done because I think that’s the best course of action. If you edit while you go, you end up revising things that ultimately get cut. And there’s the temptation to keep revising the first chapter and never finish. So, I’m mindful of forward momentum. That said, when I sit down to write, I like to read the last few paragraphs of what I drafted the previous day, so I’ll end up doing light edits as I review. I can’t help myself. And, when I realize that something needs to change earlier on in the draft for something later to land, I’ll go back into earlier sections. I try to leave notes for myself rather than make the revisions.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I have so many! I love sushi. And noodles. Big fan of noodles in all forms. My biggest indulgence though is chocolate. I’m a purist. Give me a bar of dark chocolate over cake or cookies any day.
Describe your writing space/office!
I write in what my son calls “the back house,” which is a semi-converted garage. It’s my lair. I also have a peloton in there, so I use the space as a gym. Otherwise, it’s a pretty simple room. When we moved in, it had a cement floor that was painted gray. I put in laminate floors and a couch, as well as my writing desk and bookshelves. My kids are obsessed with it, but they leave a mess everywhere they go, so I try to keep them out of the back house as much as possible. For me, it’s so useful to have a space separate from my house. It’s a very short walk through the backyard, but it makes every visit to my office intentional and allows me to envision it as a world away from my home.
Who is an author you admire?
If I start naming, we’ll be here all day. So beyond all the amazing writers I know and countless influences, I’ll say that lately I’ve really been admiring Lisa Jewell. She’s so prolific and all her books are excellent. Plus, the storylines feel really different. She is an excellent model of how to keep a career going.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Honestly, there are several books that made me want to become a writer, but the book that really changed my life was my debut, THE BOOKSHOP OF YESTERDAYS. While it’s true that you’re the same writer before you publish as you are after, there’s no denying how different it feels to have a book out in the world. I’ve made so many friends since becoming a writer – authors and readers alike. And I’ve learned so much about storytelling, as well as the dedication it takes to be a working writer.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
This is my first work of domestic suspense, so it really feels like a new chapter in my career. I’ll tell you about that call. We went out with the book just before the summer, and my agent warned me that it takes longer in the summer because people are out on vacation. Intellectually, I prepared myself for a wait, but that didn’t stop the silence from being torturous. The rejections always come first, and I told my agent that unless the editor had something helpful to say for revisions, I didn’t want to know. So it ended up being a lot of silence at first. Then, all of a sudden, it just happened. I was in Colorado with my family. My husband and I were in the rec room in the condo complex when my agent called. I remember sneaking outside to sit by the hot tub, and she said there was an editor who couldn’t put the book down. From there, everything happened within days. Publishing is often like that, radio silence and then everything all at once.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I think it’s important to read across genres, but I do love psychological suspense. It’s why I decided to try my hand at a thriller. I was a reader of the genre first, and I was so awed by the plotting in my favorite thrillers that I wanted to see if I could do it too.
What’s your favorite movie?
While I haven’t seen it in years, my answer will forever be Reality Bites.
What is your favorite season?
Most people don’t think there are seasons in Southern California, but there are. I like the winters here, honestly. Probably a strange choice, but the summers are so, so hot and they stretch out into fall. Winter here is like fall on the east coast, which was always my favorite season growing up.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Dinner with friends.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’m watching All Her Fault and Pluribus right now. Both are excellent. I’m also reading The Three Lives of Cate Kay, which I’m really enjoying.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love all types of Asian food. Sushi is my favorite, but I also love, love, love Szechuan. And Middle Eastern. My husband likes to make fun of me because whenever I’m stressed, I make hummus.
What do you do when you have free time?
Between writing, teaching, and kids, free time feels like a thing of the past. But I do love to be outside as much as possible and have cultivated a similar enthusiasm in my kids. We bike most weekends. And we love to hike. I find physical activity a balm for almost anything that’s nagging me, particularly when it comes to writing.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on a book that’s tentatively titled, THE CHAPERONES, slated to come out at the end of 2026. I think this is the first time I’m writing about it! It’s about an elementary school camping trip to the Chanel Islands off the coast to Ventura, CA, the most remote park in the National Parks Service, where things quickly go awry.
THE WATER LIES by Amy Meyerson
Internationally bestselling author Amy Meyerson takes readers on a harrowing journey where two mothers—one of a woman who drowned and the other of a toddler who might know what happened to her—are the only ones searching for the truth.
Heavily pregnant with her second child, Tessa Irons has enough on her mind without her toddler throwing tantrums at the local coffee shop. The boy is inconsolable, shouting “Gigi!” to a woman Tessa’s never seen before—and never will again. The next morning, the woman’s body is dredged up from the canal outside the Ironses’ posh Venice Beach home, and Tessa’s gut tells her it’s no coincidence.
Barb Geller refuses to believe that her daughter’s death was just some drunken accident. She heads to California for answers, where she crosses paths with Tessa. Together they hunt for the truth, certain they’ll find a connection between their children.
But the police don’t believe them. Tessa’s husband dismisses her worries as pregnancy jitters, and even though people are always watching along the Canals, no one saw a thing. Tessa and Barb only have each other, their intuition, and the creeping sense of danger that grows with every shocking revelation.
Thriller Domestic [ Thomas & Mercer, On Sale: January 1, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662531972 / eISBN: 9781662531392 ]
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About Amy Meyerson
Amy Meyerson teaches in the writing department at the University of Southern California, where she completed her graduate work in creative writing. She has been published in Reed Magazine, The Manhattanville Review, The Bloomsbury Review, The Fanzine and Obit Magazine, and was a finalist in Open City’s RRofihe Trophy Short Story Contest and in Summer Literary Seminars’s Unified Literary Contest. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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