This story originally appeared on Bainbridge Island Review on August 12

It could have gone either way, really.

Susan Wiggs was handing over her latest novel — a timely tale shaped in part by rage, she said, written “in a white heat” — to her new editor. The reception was uncertain. Hers is a bonafide bestselling fiction brand with an enthusiastic readership, but this one was a little different, a little darker.

“It’s kind of a new focus for me,” Wiggs said. “I turned in the first draft and I thought, she’s either going to go running for the exit door or she’s going to really love it — and she really loved it.”

She’s wasn’t the only one.

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