Lynne Constantine Talks Strong Women, Sequels, and Letting Characters Lead (and a Giveaway!)

with Danielle Girard

Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Lynne and Valerie are national and international bestselling authors with over one and a half million copies sold worldwide. Their books have been translated into 29 languages, are available in 34 countries, and are in development for both television and film. Their novels have been praised by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Their debut novel, The Last Mrs. Parrish, is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection.

I was a huge fan of The Last Mrs. Parrish with its jaw-dropping twists and turns and was so excited to hear that the power duo of Lynne and Valerie Constantine who make up Liv Constantine were doing a sequel. For more on the ladies behind today’s best crime fiction, you can listen to me talk to the sisters on my podcast, Killer Women, here.

The Next Mrs. Parrish is out now. Keep reading for a chance to win a signed copy!

The Next Mrs. Parrish also centers around one of Daphne’s daughters, Tallulah, now a teenager and her struggles to know her father despite her mother’s concerns. How does being a mother yourself, both you and Valerie, lend its power to the story?

As mothers we both have a visceral reaction to children in jeopardy. Knowing the lengths to which we would go to protect our own children was helpful in shaping Daphne’s character. In both books, her role as a mother is the singular most important factor in determining her actions. Her need to protect her children also becomes her Achilles heel as it is used to manipulate and control her. 

What you see is not always what you get. In real life as in fiction, we aren’t always what we seem from the outside. How did this reality inform The Next Mrs. Parrish?  And how does this mirror what you experience in real life?

From the outside, many of the characters’ lives look perfect. But they all struggle with the same issues that face everyone, and wealth does not make them immune to tragedy or trauma. It’s so easy to look at the picture someone presents on the outside and make assumptions. But we really never know what someone’s marriage is like, or their physical or mental health. 

Can you tell our readers the inspiration for the original Mrs. Parrish novel? When and how did you realize there was another Parrish story you wanted to share with the world?

Valerie and I were taking a walk and discussing situations in which someone had a mercenary interest in another and inserted themselves in the middle of someone else’s marriage for their own profit. We looked at each other and said – wouldn’t it be poetic justice if things didn’t turn out the way they expected. And that’s how the idea for The Last Mrs. Parrish was born. 

We never intended to write a sequel, but after writing the prequel, The First Shot, we fell in love with a new character – Daisy Ann. We thought about how she would fit into the story with Amber and Daphne and began to get excited about continuing all their stories. 

The three point of view characters of the novel are strong, independent women. There is much they have in common and yet their voices are each distinct. How did you create individual voices for them? And, since we’re talking about strong women, how do you two (Lynne and Valerie) divide the work? Do you write different points of view or scenes?

As you said, each woman is strong in her own right and they each have very different motivations and desires that drive them. The characters came alive to us, almost fully formed from the beginning, and we simply allowed them to lead the way. 

Valerie and I speak every morning when we’re in the midst of writing a new book. We decide on which scenes each will write, then go off and write individually. We then email the work to each other, edit in track changes, and return. Then we talk again to discuss what we’ve done. This goes on every day until we have the first draft. Then we each read through it and make notes, discuss again, and start all over again! By the time the book is finished, it’s not uncommon for one sentence to have been written half by Valerie and half by me. 

We're all about the thrills here at Thriller Thursday. What has thrilled you lately?

I recently finished I Am Pilgrim which I devoured in a week even though it is over 600 pages long! 

What are you reading?

Circe by Madeline Miller. 

Question of the Week. Answer in the comments for a chance to win a signed copy of The Next Mrs. Parrish!

Lynne’s Question: If someone gave you a gift card in the amount of $20,000 for any designer store, which store would you pick and what would you buy?