Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Elizabeth Urso promises us atmospheric settings, haunted people, and unsolved crimes, and her debut novel, Hail Mary, delivers! If you’re in the mood for suspense, you’ll want to know more! So Elizabeth, what can you tell us about the book?

Elizabeth: I like to think of it as Six Feet Under by way of Rebecca. It follows Mary Foreman, who returns to her hometown to help her estranged family during a scandal-plagued election. But when the opening of a decades-old time capsule at her alma mater (a Catholic school for girls where she now teaches) draws her into a criminal investigation tied to her family’s funeral empire, she must fight to prove her innocence. Not only of recent crimes, but past ones, too. For this is the North Shore of Lake Huron, and the past is always present where the dead don’t die.

Zilla: Words do more than convey meaning—they’re a way to express feeling. How do you select the right words?

Elizabeth: Selecting the right words is one of my favourite parts of the writing process. It’s likely why I love editing so much – the right words rarely strike me the first time around. I love the specificity of it all. Tone. Cadence. Pulling at heart strings. Delivering a gut punch. It’s an iterative process, but it’s how you make your writing sing.

Zilla: Do you have any lines you’re particularly proud of? What about them are you proud of?

Elizabeth: There’s a passage in Hail Mary’s prologue that reads: “At the base of the stairs, they stood frozen. Transfixed. Three tenors trying to find their vocal cords; wondering if their grandfather still had his, or if you’d eaten those smooth bands of muscle, too.” It’s a cooler way to say that three brothers found their little sister having cannibalized their grandfather. At least, I like to think so!

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Elizabeth: It’s silly, but I’d say, “Thank you.” Mary helped me navigate the grief of coming home in the wake of my father’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis and his untimely death. She also helped me find the sense of humor I’d lost. The other point-of-view character in Hail Mary (no spoilers!) gave me somewhere to put an anger that I had no idea what to do with. Collectively, they gave me space to think about inheritance and namesake and what it means to keep living. Writing is cool. It’s fun, but it’s also cathartic.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Elizabeth: Readers will soon return to the North Shore of Lake Huron! My sophomore novel, Confession, follows fourteen-year-old Charlotte Taylor, a precocious, amateur sleuth who eavesdrops on confessions in a haunted church. But when she overhears something in confession that leads her to believe a man accused of murder is innocent, she begins her own search for the truth—one far more sinister than she could’ve imagined. An excerpt will be featured in the back of Hail Mary.

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Elizabeth: The Night Beats community can follow me on Instagram. If I’m up to anything cool, it will be on my Link Tree. Order links can also be found there.