William Morrow editor Lyssa Keusch shares a laugh with suspense writer Kathryn Fox, who was feted at the Australian consulate last week on the eve of the annual Thrillerfest conference. Fox was beginning to tell us about arriving in Martha's Vineyard just in time to see Bunch of Grapes, the bookstore where she was scheduled to read and sign books, engulfed in flames. (We weren't laughing about the fire, of course—but about all the morbid comments that people made when they found out Fox's latest novel to be published in the U.S., Skin and Bones, is about an arson/murder.)

Also last week, the book party for Laura Dave's second novel, The Divorce Party, was held at Henri Bendel's Fifth Avenue showroom. Dave introduced me to screenwriter Gwyn Lurie, who is adapting the novel after doing similar work on her debut, London Is the Best City in America; Dave also told me that she's temporarily relocating to Los Angeles so the pair can collaborate on a third screenplay based on their own original story idea.