Tag: #standalone

Book Description

Accidents happen, no matter how careful or well-intentioned you are. Psychiatrist Eve Thayer frequently reassures her patients of that fact. There are even times when accidents have good consequences—like when Eve met her now-husband, Nathan, at his collision shop after another car ran her off the road.
 
After a whirlwind courtship, Nathan and Eve have settled into domestic life. They have a lovely home on a quiet street, a beautiful baby girl, and even the perfect babysitter to care for her. And yet, something isn’t quite right.
 
The stress in Eva’s life is mounting, both professionally and personally. Though the clinic where she works has been remodeled since its notorious days as an institution for the criminally insane, she feels increasingly uneasy there. And in her own neighborhood, a break-in at a nearby empty house hasn’t helped, either.
 
Detective Rita Myers hasn’t yet figured out whether Eve is a target or a suspect, but every disturbing discovery in this usually peaceful neighborhood seems to revolve around her. Only as a deadly ice storm crashes through does it become clear just how far from perfect Eve and Nathan’s lives really are. And as the cracks in the surface come to light, so do the sinister secrets that lie beneath.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Watch Your Back by Terri Parlato intertwines suspense, romance, retribution, and redemption in a compelling measure. It realistically shows how young couples handle stress and trying to make ends meet, which can affect their relationship. The main characters’ professions and personal lives play a significant role in the unfolding of the plot.

The two main characters, Nathan Liddle and Eve Thayer, have settled into domestic life after a whirlwind romance. Shortly thereafter they become the parents of a baby girl, Rosewyn. Due to the stresses of her job, they do not have much time together for their marriage with Nathan spending a lot of time taking care of the baby. As a psychiatrist, Eve Thayer has been tapped to lead the medical staff at a new psychiatric center in the Boston suburb of Graybridge, leaving her little time to help her husband with their infant daughter. He decides to seek companionship elsewhere by having an extramarital affair.  The cracks in their relationship become huge after their baby girl is kidnapped from the babysitter’s home and their secrets are revealed. There is a multitude of suspects including Eve, her best friend Rachel, some of Eve’s psychiatric patients, and the babysitter. The detective on the case, Rita Myers, must unravel the secrets and find out who is responsible.

The narrative is told in multiple points of view of Eve, Nathan, and Rita. This helps to make the plot fast paced and intense as well as weaving together the family’s turmoil, the detective’s ability to connect the clues, and the hunt for the culprit.

This plot will have readers guessing all the way through.  The prologue starts the story out with a bang, and it does not let up from there. The author writes very multidimensional characters, and the effective red herrings add to the twisty plotline.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Terri Parlato: I often start out with writing the characters.  I thought of my children and the young adults who seem to be working very hard with long hours.  They have a hard time balancing home, career, and family. This gave me the idea for Eve and Nathan.  Because I write thrillers, I had terrible things happen beyond the difficulties of life. The villain is out for vengeance.

EC: How would you describe Eve?

TP: She is a psychiatrist who feels overwhelmed.  She is steely, workaholic, quiet, introspective, and wants to control her emotions and keeps them in check.  Growing up she did not get a lot of warmth and nurturing, especially with her father cheating.

EC: How would you describe Nathan?

TP: Protective, attentive, down to earth, personable, and puts his child ahead of his own desires.

EC:  Do you think the relationship between Eve and Nathan has gone downhill?

TP: After Eve finds out Nathan cheated on her she becomes very distant, and he takes to drinking and smoking.  He feels very guilty, and she withdraws, becoming angry. Nathan was seeking companionship because he felt so ignored by Eve.  I wanted readers to think about this moral dilemma.  Both had a responsibility to talk it out but neither did, but because of having parents MIA, communicating was harder for them. Being from the social media generation they were not good communicators.

EC:  What kind of parents are they to their young daughter, especially after the child went missing?

TP: Nathan is very indulgent.  For Eve, she loves her daughter but is not sure how to be a mother. She struggles with ‘Am I doing this correctly?’  Then when the child goes missing both worry that the kidnapper has evil intentions. Once the child went missing it magnified the type of parents they had become.  Plus, having a child kidnapped is one of the worst things a parent can go through. It brings out their doubts as a parent and tests them to their limits.

EC: What about Eve’s best friend Rachel?

TP: I wanted her to exemplify how the relationship shifted between Rachel who was single and Eve who is now married. Eve is not as dependent on her. Relationships are difficult and tricky. They used to have good old times as single women.

EC: Was Rita, the police detective, also in other books?

TP: She is in all three books set in this fictional town. Rita is the common thread with her own narrative arc.  She is growing as a character and has her own demons that shows from book 1 to this book, 3. In this novel, Rita’s drawing plays a role in solving the crime.  The first book explained why she draws.  In elementary school, the teacher had her draw something to distract her.  This really worked and helped her to handle her life.  Being the youngest of nine children she lost her brother to leukemia and an older brother to the Vietnam War.  Drawing taught her to deal with her feelings. Now it works with her profession because as a detective she can see clues visually.  It is a coping mechanism that turned into a tool for her detective work.

EC: Is Rita a lot like Eve?

TP: Yes.  Both are lonely, workaholics, and tenacious. I wanted Eve to be a different female lead than in the first two books.  She parallels Rita’s personality in that both have demons and are not sure how to handle them.

EC: Next book?
TP: It will be out March 2026 and is a domestic thriller.  Rita will not be in it.  There will be family drama with a villain who will be causing havoc as well as a murder.

THANK YOU!!

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