What is the title of your latest release?
THE TRIBES
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
THE TRIBES follows a young woman who drops out of college during the 1990s to join a fringe religious commune, then stands accused of killing her child. Years later, her estranged parents hire a lawyer to represent her.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I live in New England and so that’s a natural setting, in the write what you know sense. I also needed a state with fairly relaxed homeschooling rules in order to make the plot work.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Abby (the lawyer) and I would probably be instant friends, but honestly, I am not so sure about Heather!
What are three words that describe your hero?
Misunderstood, lonely, seeking
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that absolutely nobody “joins a cult.” High control groups are very good at identifying potential recruits and they all, regardless of their specific mission or dogma, work from the same playbook. They choose their victims carefully and reel them in slowly. High control groups are very similar to domestic abusers in their tactics, most notably in their use of love bombing and isolation of the target. These groups, like domestic abusers, control the victim’s time, finances, intake of information, and physical location. Degrees of control may vary, but the basics do not.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I write an overly long first draft and then put it away for a month or so before revising and rewriting.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Too hard to choose! Cheese. Fresh peaches. Chocolate. Sushi. Not together!
Describe your writing space/office!
I have a “day job” and a home office with a window that looks out on trees. It’s very nice to have a window and a door.
Who is an author you admire?
Too many to name! Meg Wolitzer comes to mind as someone who writes incredibly compelling stories and characters and who has been tackling big feminist issues for years with the perfect touch. She’s subtle and profound at the same time.
Is there a book that changed your life?
THE HANDMAID’S TALE. I read it as a high school senior and it blew my mind. It still does. Rights slip away from people slowly then all at once. It’s terrifying both on the micro level, in what happens to Offred, and the macro level, in how the United States becomes Gilead.
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.
THE TRIBES had an unusual journey to print. Jane Dystel sold the audio rights to Audible back in 2019/2020. Lara Blackman was the editor on that. Fast forward, nearly six years later, Jane called out of the blue and said that Lara had moved to Dutton and that she and the team there wanted to bring The Tribes to print. Lara has been a huge champion of this project and it would not be in stores today but for her enthusiasm.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I like the novels we can loosely call “book club fiction,” and that’s what I try to write. I like a plot that moves, with a story that tackles big questions with no easy answers.
What’s your favorite movie?
Of all time? Probably have to go with Casablanca.
What is your favorite season?
Please, please no hate, but it’s winter. Let it snow!
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Dinner with friends, and bonus if my kiddo can make it.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The Diplomat, Widow’s Bay, and I truly love Ted Lasso.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian
What do you do when you have free time?
I get outdoors as much as humanly possible. I like being in the woods and in the mountains. I’m blessed with tremendously good friendships and when work isn’t bonkers, I like to entertain.
What can readers expect from you next?
Another lawyer story that tackles another morally ambiguous situation with a flawed but hopefully sympathetic defendant/protagonist.
THE TRIBES by Mari Howes
A dark and daring debut thriller exploring power, control and resilience against all odds, The Tribes tells the story of a cult member accused of a shocking crime and the lawyer who chooses to defend her.
One quiet night in a rural Vermont town, a panicked woman calls 9‑1‑1 on a gas station payphone to report that a newborn baby has died. Local police respond to the call and charge Heather Garner, a college drop‑out and member of fringe religious community The Messiah’s Tribes, with the murder of her infant son. Heather’s future is in the hands of her family: but they haven’t seen or heard from her in almost 20 years.
Lawyer Abby Harris’s friends and colleagues are puzzled by her choice to take on the case, especially given she’s pregnant with her first child. But Abby is convinced that there’s more to Heather’s story than meets the eye. The investigation leads her to understand that the community Heather belonged to may not be a peaceful, eccentric bunch of hippies, but a well‑organized, exploitative criminal enterprise.
Engrossing and suspenseful, The Tribes reveals the mystery of Heather’s past piece by terrifying piece, until a jury must decide: Is Heather a victim, like her child, or is the dead‑eyed woman a willing participant in the cult’s agenda?
Thriller [ Dutton, On Sale: November 3, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9798217436620 / eISBN: 9798217436637 ]
Buy THE TRIBES: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Audible | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Mari Howes
Mari Howes is a lawyer, consultant, and graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Rhode Island. She lives in New England with her family, and is working on her next novel.
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