So excited to chat with Gloria Chao about her adult mystery series! I have been a fan of Gloria’s YA projects, so this new adult series is such a joy! And I’ve loved each of them! Keep reading this author interview with Gloria Chao for more about The Mortal Enemy Murder Club.
Summary
Kathryn Hu is not getting into the business of solving murders. Yes, she and her friends Olivia and Elle figured out who killed their cheating ex-boyfriend. But now Kat can get back to her usual, murder-free existence.
Then she gets an unexpected plea for help. Mandy Thorne has ruined countless lives through her revenge podcast. She also did her best to frame the girls. Now, she claims, someone is trying to kill her. And the girls are the only ones who can save her.
But can the trio and Mandy put aside their mutual contempt long enough to prevent a murder and solve this case? Can they become…the Mortal Enemy Murder Club?
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Author Interview
What were you most excited to return to for book two especially after finishing book one?
I wrote The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club as a standalone, but I loved writing Kat, Olivia, and Elle so much that I wanted to reconvene the Murder Club but with a twist, forcing them to work with their worst enemy from the first book—the podcast host who tried to frame them for murder. And in The Mortal Enemy Murder Club, I was excited to bring back my favorites from the first book—the humor and shenanigans, the ride-or-die female friendship—as well as adding more romance, more twists and turns, more revenge, and more of Kat’s mom and the you-are-single gifts she sends Kat, including a life-size cardboard cutout of Glen Powell to put in the window Home Alone–style (and yes, these gifts might be inspired by real life).
Moving on and finding a way forward is a huge theme here as these characters are still recovering from the events of book one. What drew you to this idea of showing the characters still recovering and also processing what happened?
There is so much that happens in The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club: Kat, Olivia, and Elle discover their boyfriend is cheating on them; they band together to get revenge on him; and then they find his body and have to solve his murder before they go down for it. That book is pure adrenaline, and there isn’t much time to unpack what these girls have gone through. So in The Mortal Enemy Murder Club, I wanted to explore how this affected them. In their romantic lives, they’re scared to trust someone again—and perhaps rightly so. They believe they have the worst judgment in men, and Kat has trouble trusting herself. Meanwhile, the hot detective she’s currently dating is ready to introduce her to his parents, and she hasn’t even told hers about him. And of course, this leads to not only emotional growth but also some shenanigans, like her boyfriend learning that her parents don’t know about him when he accidentally opens the package of the Glen Powell cutout.
What new characters were you most excited to have readers get to know in this book?
I loved getting the opportunity to show readers why Mandy Thorne is the way that she is. As an award-winning podcast host, OnlyFans superstar, star of Bikini Babe Rebels 4, and infamous basket-case reality star, Mandy Thorne is the character we love to hate, and I created a lot of backstory for her in the first book that I didn’t get a chance to put on the page. So in The Mortal Enemy Murder Club, I wanted to show you a different side to her, including how she became who she is now. Of course, there’s still a lot of humor—like learning how she went on Traitors, dated an entire boy band, and accused all of them of being a Traitor except for the one who actually was a Traitor—but I also hope you at least understand why she made the decisions she made that led her to this moment in time.
Friendship is still a theme in this book, what do you love about this friendship group and what are some other books you love with great groups of friends?
Writing Kat, Olivia, Elle, and their banter is one of my favorite parts of this book, as well as how their love for one another determines their actions and growth. I love that they bring out the best in each other and support one another even in the most dire of circumstances. Kat is the heart of the group, Olivia the brains, and Elle the guts, and together, they can get through anything. I hope the reader feels like they are part of the Ex-Girlfriend and Mortal Enemy Murder Club, because they are.
Some books with great friend groups that I loved are the Truly Devious books by Maureen Johnson, Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, and all of Richard Osman’s books.
Podcasts are a big element in the book, do you listen to podcasts and which are your favorites?
I loved getting to write the podcast transcripts for Mandy Thorne’s Dish Served Hot and interspersing them between chapters in both books. It was such a fun way to give readers information in a different medium, and to let them in on some inside jokes, like how they see that Olivia and Elle’s podcast episode is a disaster, but Kat doesn’t know it yet and in her next chapter, she talks about how it’s okay she’s failing on her mission because she’s sure the girls are nailing their podcast recording.
Some of my favorite book-related podcasts are: The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, The Writer’s Journey, Westcoast Bookster, and The Well-Read Podcast. My husband and I are competitive curlers, so we listen to Inside Curling and Broom Brothers, and we get mad together when we don’t agree with their takes on the latest debates about brushing technology, rules, or cheating in the Olympics(!). I also listened to some reality TV podcasts like The Viall Files as research for my next book, tentatively titled Dumped, which is about a girl who is the lowly intern on a reality TV dating show with the most embarrassing duties—like dressing up as a clown or shoveling the horse poop from the horse-drawn carriage—and when she starts a forbidden romance with the lead, the producers find out and force her onto the show, only to portray her as the villain America loves to hate.
Did you draft or approach this sequel any differently than you did for book one?
The mystery for The Mortal Enemy Murder Club was much more complicated than The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, with more twists and turns as well as suspects, so I did a lot more outlining. The nice part was that the characters were already established, so it was easier to get started, and it felt like a reunion with old friends. On the other hand, I did want to make sure this story was fresh with new growth, so it took longer to figure out how I wanted the character arcs to look. So there are definitely both pros and cons to writing a sequel versus a standalone.
About the Author
Gloria Chao is a USA Today bestselling author and a screenwriter. Her novels include The Mortal Enemy Murder Club, The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, Ex Marks the Spot, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, Rent a Boyfriend, Our Wayward Fate, and American Panda. She graduated from MIT, then became a dentist before realizing she’d rather spend her days in fictional characters’ heads instead of real people’s mouths. When she’s not writing, you can find her on the curling ice, where she and her husband are world-ranked in mixed doubles. Visit her tea-and-book-filled world at GloriaChao.wordpress.com and find her on Instagram and X @GloriacChao.