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Lisa Unger Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Lisa Unger
Photo: Tanya Sharkey

Lisa Unger

Lisa Unger Biography

Lisa Unger is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twenty novels, including Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, Last Girl Ghosted, and Confessions on the 7:45 — now in development at Netflix, starring Jessica Alba. With books published in thirty-two languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is regarded as a master of suspense.

Unger's critically acclaimed novels have been featured on "Best Book" lists from the Today Show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, People, Amazon, Goodreads, L.A. Times, The Boston Globe, Sun Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times and many others. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Strand Critics, Audie, Hammett, Macavity, ITW Thriller, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Her short fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. Lisa is the current co-President of the International Thriller Writers organization. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.

Lisa Unger's website

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Interview

Lisa Unger talks about her first book, Beautiful Lies, a thriller in which a woman discovers she is not who she thinks she is.

What elements of the story come from your own experience living in New York City?

For me and for most fiction writers, I think, it is true to say that everything and nothing in my work is autobiographical. As much as the plot, the events, and the characters are purely from my imagination, of course all of these things are an amalgamation of my experiences, relationships, observations, literary influences, etc.

In the case of Beautiful Lies, however, much of the setting has been mined from my own history. The apartment where Ridley lives is an exact recall of my first New York City apartment in the East Village. She stands where I stood many a morning trying to hail a cab when she first spots Justin Wheeler. Places like Five Roses and Veniero's are real places in that neighborhood and places that I have loved. The streets she walks, the subways and taxis are all from my direct experience. I have had a love affair with the city most of my life. But it wasn't until after I'd left there, that all the beauty of it came back to me. I know that place better than I know any other. For me it lives and breathes; I can hear it and smell it and feel its rhythm when I write about it.

Is Ridley like you (or...

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Books by this Author

Books by Lisa Unger at BookBrowse
Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six jacket Last Girl Ghosted jacket Confessions on the 7:45 jacket The Stranger Inside jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Lisa Unger but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Julie Clark

    Julie Clark

    Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight. It has earned starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and the New York Times has called it "thoroughly absorbing". It's ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Beautiful Lies

    Try:
    The Last Flight
    by Julie Clark

  • Harlan Coben

    Harlan Coben

    Harlan Coben was born and raised in New Jersey.  After graduating from Amherst College as political science major, he worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Beautiful Lies

    Try:
    The Innocent
    by Harlan Coben

We recommend 6 similar authors

View all 6 Read-Alikes

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