Q&A With Allison Buccola

I am delighted to be doing this Q&A with mystery author Allison Buccola. Allison is the author of Catch Her When She’s Down & coming out in May 2025 The Ascent. 

Q: Allison, would you please give a brief description of your books starting with The Ascent? 

A:  The Ascent is a psychological thriller about a woman who grew up in a reclusive cult. She woke one morning to discover everyone was gone, including her mother and sister, and the mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. Twenty years later, she is grappling with new motherhood and trying to build a normal life for herself when a woman appears at her front door threatening to dredge up the past.

Catch Her When She Falls—also a psychological thriller—is about a woman who has believed for the past ten years that her high school boyfriend murdered her best friend.  But when reminders of the past start showing up at her workplace and home, she starts to question whether that’s really true.

Q: Where did the ideas for both The Ascent & Catch Her When She Falls come from? How long did it take you to write both novels?

A: I got the idea for Catch Her When She Falls while listening to a true crime podcast and imagining the reactions of friends and family members who were interviewed.  Would they welcome this new attention, or would it feel more like picking at an old wound?  That gave rise to the main character in Catch, Micah Wilkes, who has complicated feelings about her best friend’s death.  She wants to put the past behind her but can’t quite escape its pull.  That one took about two years to write.

For The Ascent, I knew I wanted to write about a cult.  I was watching cult documentaries and reading books on cults and interviews with former cult members, and the stories I found myself drawn to were about the conflicted feelings people have after leaving the group.  So that’s how I came up with Lee Burton, the main character in The Ascent.  She’s been living in mainstream society for twenty years when the book starts, but she’s never felt totally comfortable in it and she’s never fully processed the loss of her family.  She’s hit with the full brunt of that when she becomes a mother herself and the past comes back for her.  This one also took about two years to write—if I’m counting the time it took to come up with the idea and a few of the false turns I took along the way, which I guess I should probably include!

Q: What important lessons do you hope readers learn after reading your books? What emotions do you hope readers feel after reading your books?

A:  Both books explore our consumption of true crime media—Catch Her When She Falls involves a true-crime blog, and there is a cult documentary in The Ascent that Lee wishes didn’t exist—so I hope that element will provoke some thought about our consumption of true crime.  The Ascent also explores motherhood and identity.  Lee is trying to do her best with her daughter without feeling confident that she knows how—which I think is a common experience even if the circumstances are a little different—and so I’d love it if readers find themselves rooting for her on that journey.  Mostly I hope that readers enjoy the mysteries in these books and connect with the women at their center!  

Q: Can you reveal any plot details for the next novel you are working on now?

A: It’s still in the works, which means a lot could change, so I’ll just say it involves a close-knit family, false accusations, and betrayal.

Q: If Hollywood were to get the rights to your work, who would be the dream cast for the characters you created? We need originality in the entertainment world again. 

A:  This is only sort of an answer to that question because I’m terrible at coming up with casts!  I recently watched the new adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, and one thing I really enjoyed about that remake was how Andrew Scott looked radically different from almost every angle—to the point where it’s hard to pin down what age he’s supposed to be.  Some angles he looks boyish, some he looks old; some sinister, some innocent.  I’d love someone who can look that ambiguous for the “mysterious stranger” character in The Ascent.  (I won’t say more about her identity here to avoid giving anything away!)

Q: How does it feel knowing Ana Reyes, the New York Times Bestselling author of The House in the Pines, gave such a glowing review of The Ascent? 

A:  I LOVED The House in the Pines and the hazy, almost-otherworldly feel to the mystery at the heart of that book. Ana Reyes is such a talented author, so it means so much to me to have her praise The Ascent.  The Ascent has gotten early praise from some of my other favorite authors, too—Stacy Willingham, Jo Piazza, Julia Heaberlin, and Megan Collins—which is a fantastic and surreal experience.  It’s so cool to know that authors you admire are reading your book.

Q: How did you feel when Booklist called Catch Her When She Falls “Wildly Suspenseful”? 

A:  Really great!  I am always aiming for suspenseful ☺