Megan Abbott

You know, it was famous for all the heads of the auto industry during its heyday, you know, in the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, they all lived in girls point just outside of the city.

When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, the auto industry was in this dramatic decline.

And so I never knew it during its heyday.

And you never realize that the world and the place you grew up with is specific until later.

And then you realize it is because this was all around me, the sense of people losing their, in many ways, their caste.

They were just used to a life of country clubs and comfort and horses and

boats and that's all sort of gone away.

When I, you know, originally the story was sort of inspired by a real life case in Connecticut about a woman who got involved in one of these investment clubs.

And when I was sort of reconceiving it as about these sisters, I thought, oh, I should set it in Grosse Pointe because this is a place where...

Money was a constant source of discussion in my household.

It was the kind of place where no one owned a foreign car and everybody's family was connected in one way or another, except for mine.

with the auto industry.

Do you think that sense of being an outsider gives you a vantage point?

Because I would imagine that growing around it, like growing up around it, would give you a huge competitive advantage when talking about it.

Or not talking about it, but writing about it.

Yeah, no, I think that is true.

I think most writers are most comfortable on the outside, you know, are a little bit of a voyeur in us mostly.

We're observers.

But in this case, yes, truly on the outside, because that aspiration.

I mean, inside to the extent that, you know, I had some of the, you know, good schools, safe community, etc.