Layne Fargo

Layne Fargo

Layne Fargo writes thrillers about angry women. She’s a Pitch Wars mentor, Vice President of the Chicagoland chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the co-creator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.


They Never Learn

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. But as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller’s best friend, Allison, is sexually assaulted at a party. Carly quickly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay…and turning her fantasies about revenge into reality.

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK  |  Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Bookshop.org

My review

Holy hell this book was fun! Set within the old-boys-club world of academia, They Never Learn is unsettling, smart and absolutely riveting. Full of feminist rage, hot lesbian sex, & sharp, edgy prose, you don’t want to miss this one!


Author’s Corner – Interview with Layne Fargo

Thank you so much for being on Author’s Corner! Can you tell us one funny, quirky thing about you, something most people might not know? An interesting hobby or funny habit, something so readers can get to know the person behind the author. 

Anyone who follows me on social media probably already knows this, but I am obsessed with Star Wars. My partner and I have more than once taken multiple days off work to marathon all the movies (yes, even the prequels), and I own more Kylo Ren merchandise than I should probably admit in a public forum.

What was the very first thing—ever—that you remember writing?

A storybook about the adventures of my parents’ mischievous cat, Tigger. My mom found a copy recently, and hilariously enough you can really see the seeds of my current work in it—Tigger is quite the unlikeable female character!

What are some of the jobs you had before becoming a writer, and how did they help you with what you do now?

My longest-term day job (which I finally quit earlier this year) was working for a global data corporation, first as a project manager and then as the company’s Knowledge Manager. I still use a lot of the organization and time management skills I picked up there—and occasionally, my aptitude for writing passive-aggressive business emails comes in handy in the publishing world as well. My favorite past job was working in an archive, cataloguing materials about the history of burlesque and striptease—I haven’t managed to work that into my publishing career yet, but I’m trying!

What are some of the book(s) that you’ve read and loved recently?

Some of my favorite recent thrillers (out now or coming soon) are: Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar, For the Best by Vanessa Lillie, The Lady Upstairs by Halley Sutton, and Bad Habits by Amy Gentry. I also read a lot of romance novels, to give my brain a break from all the murdery darkness. Some recent faves in that genre were The Roommate by Rosie Danan and Well Played by Jen DeLuca.

If you could be a character in a book for a day, who would you be?

Cathy in Wuthering Heights. One day with a guy like Heathcliff would be quite enough for me, but oh what a day it would be.

Just for fun, choose one answer for each:

  1. Laundry or Dishes? Dishes
  2. Movies or TV? TV—nothing better than a good binge-watch!
  3. iOS or Android? iOS
  4. Coffee or Tea? Coffee, the stronger the better
  5. Ninjas or Pirates? Pirates, cause they’re sexier
  6. Beach or Forest? Uh… neither? I’m not really an outdoorsy person, but I’ll say forest as long as I can observe said forest from the safety of a luxurious cabin

 

If you could invite five people (dead or alive) to a dinner party, who would they be and why?
Gillian Flynn, Shonda Rhimes, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Karyn Kusama, and Carrie Fisher—I want their writing and Hollywood secrets! (after I fangirl excessively over all of them, of course

Writing They Never Learn

Let’s talk about your book They Never Learn. Can you tell my readers a little about it? Where the idea for it came from?

They Never Learn is a feminist psychological thriller about a female serial killer who hunts rapists, abusers, and other bad men on the college campus where she teaches—until she loses control with her latest victim, and starts to fall for the woman investigating her crimes, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Where did you come up with the idea?

It all started with a tweet, actually! A friend of mine posted that she wished I would join forces with a YA author friend of ours to write a revenge thriller with both adult and teenage POV characters. It just so happened to be the week of the Kavanaugh hearings, and I had rage to spare—so I came up with this idea about a college professor who murders rapists, and a student at the same school who gets drawn into her own mission of vengeance, and I ran with it!

Describe They Never Learn in three words. 

Remorseless feminist revenge

What do you think readers will love about They Never Learn?

I hope it’s cathartic and satisfying for readers. Sure, most of us would never stab the men who hurt us or piss us off, but it’s fun to watch someone else do it. On a more serious note, I wanted to highlight all the different forms of abuse women go through—it’s not just violent assaults, it’s also all the subtle emotional violence, the gaslighting, the manipulation, etc. I hope women who’ve experienced these things (and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a woman who hasn’t, in some form or another) feel seen when they read the book.

Which actress would you cast to play Scarlett Clark?

I originally based her on Christina Hendricks, but I’ve had several people suggest that Kate Siegel (from Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House) should play Scarlett, and now I’m obsessed with that idea. She’d be perfect!

Let’s talk about that line between justice and vigilante. Scarlett kills men guilty of raping women, so on one hand we could say what she’s doing is justice, on the other it’s going the vigilante route. I love this sort of moral quandry! Does revenge make for rightful justice in Scarlett’s mind?

Scarlett has seen—as we all have—so many instances of people in power failing to pursue justice, so she feels like, why not take matters into my own hands and enjoy some good old-fashioned revenge? I wouldn’t call her a vigilante, though, and she definitely doesn’t think of herself that way. Scarlett is a sociopath, and she’s killing these men because she personally enjoys it. She knows murder is wrong, she just doesn’t care.

I love the feminist twists in your books! Is this intentional or something more organic?

A little bit of both! I’ve always been interested in women who challenge patriarchal conventions—in fact, I have a whole podcast about it (Unlikeable Female Characters, which I co-host with fellow crime writers Wendy Heard and Kristen Lepionka). As I develop my book ideas, and then throughout the revision process, I try to hone what my agent calls my “not-so-secret feminist agenda” to make sure those issues are coming to the forefront.

What’s next for Layne Fargo?

Are you working on a new book? Can you tell my readers a little about it, a blurb, potential release date, etc? Where did you get the idea?

I’m working on a couple of different manuscripts currently, one of which will hopefully become my third book, but nothing official to announce at this point. They Never Learn was recently optioned for television, with me attached to write the pilot, so I’m working on that now as well. It’s been such a fun process so far, and I hope we’ll get to bring Scarlett to the screen soon.

Get In Touch

Layne loves connecting with readers. You can get in touch with her at:

Website | Instagram | TwitterFacebook


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46 Reviews for Layne Fargo

    Sounds so good – would love to read‼️📚

    Great interview! Now I also want to read the storybook about Tigger. Maybe it could be a gift for newsletter subscribers??? LOL.

      Hahaaa!
      So thrilled you enjoyed the interview! 🙂

    A must to read book. Love the cover

    Wow. Sounds good. Love a good serial killer book

    I keep seeing this one everywhere. It has such rave reviews and I really want to get my hands on it! Sounds amazing!!!

      It’s soo good! A very unique serial killer twist! 🙂

    This sounds like a page turner!

    This is a must read for me, as some of it I can relate to it. I love the thriller killer books.

    Enjoyed meeting Layne! This books sounds like a must read!

    Sounds just the sort of book I would love

    I would love to try a new author. It sounds intriguing.

    I haven’t read too many books about women serial killers, so this sound exciting!

    Reading it right now and almost finished. Honestly, I don’t want it to end. I read and LOVED debut novel, a Temper, too. Looking forward to your next one and the TV adaptation of They Never Learn.

      Thank you so much for reading both books, and I’m thrilled you enjoyed them!

    I can’t wait to read this book! It is in my TBR. I hope I get a copy of this book 🤞Thank you for the chance!

    i would love to win this book winter is a coming and i need a good read ty

    Love the plot! So different!

    Added They Never Learn to my must-read list. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy!

    This sounds like a very unique thriller! I would love to win a copy.

    Sounds exciting! Very Dexter like!

    Bravo on your review. Added it to my TBR list!😘❤️

    Sounds like an interesting plot. So fun getting to know Layne. Thanks

    Love the whole revenge idea of taking care of people that need to be taken care of! To get what they deserve! You are a new author to me but I would love to check this out! Sounds creepy enough to help me forget about our lonely Thanksgiving we will all have this year!

      Thank you! I’m reading creepy books to distract from the holiday blues too – currently THE RETURN by Rachel Harrison, which is super scary and atmospheric

    This book is definitely on the top of my TBR list! I can’t wait to read it! The cover is great also.

      Thanks! I’m so obsessed with the cover too. It was designed by the very talented Laywan Kwan.

    I loved your review! New author for me. Book sounds incredible!

    Would love to read the book.

    What a great interview and this sounds like an awesome read!

    I saw some info on this book before I saw the interview. Sounds like it’s being put on my TBR!

    It would be fun to read a thriller from the perspective of the killer!

    Where was this book 30 years ago when I divorced my abusive husband! It would have been cathartic to read this book! I can still appreciate a book on this topic and I will be reading it, and looking for it on TV.

      I hope it’s still cathartic now! I based some of the male characters on awful men I have known, and it was *extremely* cathartic to write about

    Oh yesss sounds suspenseful would love to win and read

    Great interview, but the book doesn’t sound like one I would read. Thanks for the interview and synopsis so I knew that up front.

    gotta say – “I AM LOVING THOSE GLASSES!!”

      Thank you! I love the cat eye look, I’ve got a couple different pairs

    I love her answers, particularly who she would invite to dinner. I’m right there with her on Gillian Flynn and Shonda Rhimes. I’d also invite Pope Francis, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway.

    This sounds like a book I would love to read.

    This sounds very interesting and different. Thanks for the chance to win.

    I’ve been dying to read this one, sounds so good! So very true on the things so many women experience in their lifetime, I’d surely root for our killer female lol. How very exciting it’s been optioned for TV, will definitely be on the lookout for it.

    Great interview! I also like to read romance or rom coms between thrillers!

    Psych thrillers are my favorite reads This sounds great and is on my tbr!

    Love thrillers like these! Can’t wait to read!

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