Joe Hart is the Edgar Award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of seventeen novels that include The River Is Dark, Obscura, The Last Girl, and Or Else. His work has been translated into eight languages and has been optioned for film. He lives with his family in Minnesota.

Q: What inspired you to write I Become Her?

Joe: I was thinking about the barriers and challenges women face in society that men typically don’t, and my main character, Imogen, began taking shape. She had a very deep inner strength, but the insecurities she’d dealt with all her life were holding her back from being who she really wanted to be. I knew she was going to go through a crucible and come out very different, and I wanted to follow her on that journey.

Q: You’ve written many books, including this one, from the female perspective. How did you get yourself into the mind of a woman?

Joe: No matter the gender, I always see the person first. What they’ve been through, what they want, what their secrets are, who they’re going to be by the end of the story, and go from there. I’m also very conscious that I’m a male writing female main characters, and I want to make sure I don’t make any avoidable missteps, so I typically get as many women to beta-read and tell me what I’m doing right and wrong.

Q: You explore many heavy topics in this book, all of which are very timely. What sort of research did you do?

Joe: A lot of the book comes from observation; really diving into how marriage and relationships have changed even in the last thirty years is deeply interesting. How gender roles have shifted and how some biases have remained the same. For many of the issues that Imogen runs up against, whether it’s relationship-wise, familial, or in her career, many of the systemic barriers women face on a day-to-day basis are all too common and recognizable.

Q: The characters in I Become Her have quite the dark side, but you keep questions about their capacities for violence open. What was it like examining people’s darker qualities while still leaving room for interpretation from the readers on how far your characters will go?

Joe: I think almost everyone has the capacity for incredible kindness as well as violence, given the right or wrong circumstances, and that’s part of the relatability of the characters. We wonder what we’d do if we were forced to make a horrible decision—the lengths we’d be willing to go. It’s interesting seeing how readers connect with certain characters and their actions.

Q: There’s plenty of mystery and suspense in I Become Her, all the way through to the shocking ending! Did you outline what was going to happen, or did the ending come as a surprise to you, too?

Joe: I knew the ending before I started writing, so that was great to have an endpoint to work toward. I did outline most of the book, but left enough room to surprise myself along the way, which I think is key.

Q: Without spoiling anything, were there any scenes that were particularly difficult to write? Do you have a favorite?

Joe: Digging into some of Imogen’s inner darkness was uncomfortable at times, but it made her all the more interesting to understand. I think one of my favorite parts is a dinner scene between Imogen, Lev, Charlie (Imogen’s brother), and Beth (Imogen’s sister-in-law). It’s a quiet scene that sets up more intrigue for Imogen, but Beth has one of my favorite lines in the whole book, which ends the chapter.

Q: What’s next for you? Anything you can tell us?

Joe: I’m close to finishing a novel right now that’s a little different than anything else I’ve written. It has shades of a psychological thriller with a mystery at its heart, but really it’s about rebuilding a life after it’s been destroyed by trauma and the role memory has in that process.