NHWP: Lounging at Panera leads to spine-tingling thriller

‘Winds of Fear, the newest novel from best-selling author Gledé Browne Kabongo, is a perfect read for this time of year. The gripping psychological thriller was released Oct. 23, just in time for Halloween, and readers are already enthralled. “A fantastically written psychological thriller that draws you in and takes you on a roller-coaster ride and doesn’t let go until the end!,” one Amazon reviewer wrote. The page-turner will keep readers glued to every chapter as heroine Abbie Rambally finds out why her new neighbors are so fascinated by her oldest son and just what they are hiding.

Kabongo began her career as a journalist, but bitten by the writing bug as a young girl growing up in the Caribbean, she hung up her journalist’s hat and began writing novels in 2012. She has been writing award-winning thrillers ever since.

“I write about strong, complicated women who are dysfunctional in their own way, but readers like those characters,” said Kabongo. “I think my readers relate to these complicated women because they understand their goals and motivations. And my books explore themes that are universally understood, like family, love, loss, betrayal, courage, and especially secrecy. Everyone has secrets.”

Winds of Fear is the third story in the Fearless series. “My next book was supposed to be a standalone novel which was completely outlined and ready to go,” Kabongo said. “However, I kept being drawn back to the Fearless Series. Book three, Winds of Fear, was dying to be told.”

Each book in the series is written as a standalone, but the inspiration for Winds of Fear came from the award-winning Autumn of Fear, book two in the series. Winds of Fear takes place 10 years after Autumn of Fear ended. Kabonago does an excellent job capturing the character growth in the protagonist during that 10-year period.

When asked if she ever draws from her own personal experience in her writing, the author responded in the affirmative. “I drew from my personal #MeToo experience to bring Nina Kasai’s story to life in Conspiracy of Silence,” she said. Nina is a high-powered executive who goes toe-to-toe with a seemingly untouchable sociopath who never paid for his crimes. The book takes the issue all the way to the halls of justice in a dramatic courtroom showdown.

“I read a statistic, which stated that less than 1% of perpetrators ever see the inside of a prison cell. It was important for me to tell that story within the parameters of a thriller,” explained Kabongo.

Kabongo laughingly shared how her family knows when she is in the throes of a project. “When I tell my kids I’m heading to Panera, they know it’s my unofficial writing cave and they won’t see me for hours,” she said.

Kabongo holds a master’s degree in communications, and has been a featured speaker at the Boston Book Festival, Author Hour, Epilogues Podcast and various industry panels. She’s also an instructor with the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. She lives outside Boston with her husband and two sons.