Jessica Payne’s assassin thriller Somebody Worth Killing is the beach read you need

Jessica Payne. // photo by Ellie Knasiak

Author Jessica Payne’s new novel, Somebody Worth Killing, is about Nadia Davis, a married mother of two who happens to have a job working as an assassin, unbeknownst to her family and friends. On the outside, she presents as the sort of mom who shows up to PTA events, or makes her husband Brian a cocktail in the evenings.

Of course, sometimes that cocktail is laced with sleeping meds so that she can slip out of the house to snipe her latest target. It’s a complicated life, and becomes even more complicated when it becomes apparent to Nadia she’s been mommy-tracked, and her agency’s response to her asking for higher-profile jobs is to assign hubby Brian as the next target.

Somebody Worth Killing only gets wilder from there, making it a beach read of the uppermost tier. The book is the sort of thing for which you need two days of completely uninterrupted attention, aside from maybe taking a dip in the water or ordering another fruity cocktail. Once you start Payne’s book, having to set it down for longer than it takes to run to the bathroom feels like an affront, such is the fun and excitement as you follow Nadia through her adventures.

It appears we’re not the only ones excited to follow the career of Nadia Davis, either, as it was announced before the book was even officially released this week that there’d be a sequel coming in 2027. Therefore, we were beyond excited to hop on Zoom with author Jessica Payne to discuss Somebody Worth Killing, her writing process, and more ahead of the book’s release.

The Pitch:  Somebody Worth Killing feels like it’s something different for you. You have written a lot of thrillers, but this is your first spy thriller. What made you want to do one?

Jessica Payne: I love writing thrillers. I think it’s so fun to dip into the dark, twisty side of the human mind and also to what’s really going on beyond, behind closed doors. So for this, I kinda was ready for something that still had a lot of those thriller elements, but that also was fun and funny, which is something I’d never done before. I think there’s a little bit of dark humor in my other books. People tell me that there is, but this was really going full force into that.

My agent had asked if I was at all interested in writing a book about a female assassin, and I was like, “Yes. Why? I would love to.” It was actually a book I wanted to write a few years ago, but the market seemed not to be totally ready for a female, morally gray character. A lot has changed and it was really fun to just–all the stuff I love, I got to throw into this book, and it was fantastic.

I love how it reminds me of other things but it’s not a one-to-one transfer. There’s obviously a little bit of Dexter in there. There’s a little bit of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But not in a way where it’s just, “Oh, this is this. This is this.” It’s also that you write a lot of books about women with secrets and Somebody Worth Killing is the first one where it’s like the protagonist is the force doing the acting as opposed to being acted upon.

A lot of domestic suspense/psychological thrillers are almost always about women being in danger, so it was really fun to be like, “Okay, she is the one putting people in danger this time,” and it was a really nice change of pace.

My first book, Make Me Disappear, was about a woman being terrorized by her boyfriend, and trying to escape him, and then turning the tables on him. Then my second book ended up being a book where the person wasn’t so vulnerable, because as the author, it sometimes takes a lot out of you to be writing these very vulnerable characters who are on the run or whatever.

So with Nadia in this book, it was like, “Yeah, she is such a badass. She might not be perfect and have everything under control, but she’s gonna try really hard,” and it was fun to write someone dangerous, especially as a woman. She’s dangerous, but also not fully just the assassin.

She has fun doing what she does, even if she’s not quite comfortable with that.

Yes. I think for her … she’s very much a textbook psychopath, like Dexter, as you said and has learned to take this thing that she loves doing and funnel it into a way that isn’t just killing everyone in her sight, but killing the bad people. I didn’t wanna make her just an evil, bad person. I think that’s a very two-dimensional type character, and with Nadia, I really wanted to create a character where she seems like a real person.

I feel like in fiction, when you have these badass women, oftentimes they are just archetypes. They’re not real fleshed out people. With Nadia, I tried to do that. She has a family that she loves. And yes, she does need a babysitter to come so she can go kill this guy, but there’s a balance.

Every parent needs a babysitter to get to work at some point or another, and it’s just her job’s a little bit different.

Exactly. I’m glad you understand. She’s a strong, independent woman with a career that happens to involve killing people. They’re bad people, it’s okay.

What was the research you had to do for this? What is your knowledge of knives and guns and things of that nature?

Are you asking if it just comes naturally? I did a lot of research. Before I started writing books, I worked in healthcare for many years. My first degree was a degree in psychology, and I loved abnormal psychology and so, I’ve always–in my spare time–read about psychopathy and sociopathy and different types of personality disorders. I’ve always found that to be really interesting.

One thing I thought was fascinating is that often, there are far more female psychopaths than they used to think, because they don’t present the same way men do. I think that’s just so interesting. This article I read said that probably one in 20 women is probably a psychopath. She just blends in or doesn’t fit the typical expectation of what a psychopath is.

Then I also did research on how women kill, because women do tend to kill differently than men as far as weapons and such. A lot of that is easy to find online. Some of it is just being very creative and then, my husband’s in the military. He has shot a gun in the military before, so I could go to him for a lot of questions, too.

Women not presenting as psychopaths–women are taught from such a young age to hide things and mask emotions and present in a certain way … that ties in very nicely with this. She’s using these things that all women have to do in a way to make herself safe, but in a very different way.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And it’s fun to lean into that. So often, being a woman who is ignored is considered a weakness. What if it’s a strength? What if you can get away with doing the bad thing because nobody would in a million years suspect the PTA soccer mom would actually have a gun tucked into her yoga pants because she’s gonna go assassinate a bad guy?

What’s the journey been like for you? This feels like this is a new big step.

Yes, it has. My first four books were published with Bookouture, which is a digitally focused publisher. Most books in America, or a majority, are sold online, so for them, that’s a very good market strategy. It’s also nice because I tend to be a fast writer, so I could put out a book every six months with them, which is fantastic.

More traditional publishing, like with Berkeley, often takes more like a book a year and takes a couple of years to get started, so it’s been a little bit of a slower process, but I’ve really enjoyed it because it’s let me slow down and really focus on fleshing out characters and understanding the plot line and hopefully taking my writing to a new level. That’s been my goal with it, and it’s been a really good experience.

I saw you’ve already announced that there’s a potential sequel on the way in 2027. Yes, 2027. Is it just you enjoyed Nadia so much that you’re just like, “I wanna do more with her. I wanna take this journey on”? ‘Cause I wanna be part of it, honestly.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Also, I have always wanted to write a series. As with anything in publishing, it kinda goes in and out of style and for a while it was very hard to sell a series unless you were writing in a very specific genre, like maybe fantasy or something like that, so to get to write in a series in something more like–I call them “fun, funny, feminist thrillers”–is fantastic.

Early on, I knew I wanted this to be a series, so I’ve plotted out at least a few books. We’ll see if that many happen. I get at least two with Nadia, and she’s a lot of fun. It’s neat, too, to write more than one book in the same character’s voice and in her mind. You would think it is easier. I actually think it’s harder. But I love that challenge of something new in writing.

The best part about Somebody Worth Killing is that it is self-contained. I feel like a lot of series start out where the first book ends on this cliffhanger, and I don’t wanna wait two years to find out how this story goes, whereas this is a story in and of itself, while leaving the opportunity for more to come along.

Absolutely. I think it’s really important that even in a series, each book concludes at least the main chunk of the plot, and there’s still an overarching plot that goes beyond the first book.

There’s the inclusion of text messages and emails and things like that, and I am an absolute nerd for epistolary anything in a book. Was it important to include that sort of thing–where you get to see how she presents herself in yet another form?

To me, I think the world we live in today, that is just reality, especially as a parent. You’re texting the babysitter or texting the family member watching your children. One of my favorite things is that she stares at the text from her husband and is like, “Wait, what would a good wife’s response be?” She’s trying to game plan it, and she’ll Google to see what a good wife would do in this situation because that’s not how her brain works. It was really fun to have a very sharp focus on that part of her in the text message or email moments.

When you’re writing, do you draw from anything in your own life to craft books? Specifically, with Somebody Worth Killing, as a mom or are any of these places that she has connections to, like the bookshop, are they drawn from real life or is it just something you’d like to see?

My joke is, “Are you asking me if I’m an assassin?” A lot of this is definitely drawn from real life. I live in Washington State. I’m originally from Kansas City. But I did spend 18 months living in Texas, in San Antonio. We moved there for my husband to attend PA [Physician Assistant] school, and so I really got to experience that city. A lot of my experiences in Texas are woven into this.

The bookstore is based on a real bookstore that is there, with a slight name change because I wasn’t sure how they’d feel about being in my book, since it’s about an assassin. And yes, I love being a mom. Before I became a mom, I worked in the NICU taking care of sick babies, so I thought, “I got this. I know how to do the baby thing,” and no, I did not.

Everybody thinks they know what it’s like to be a mom before they’re a mom, and it’s so much harder. It’s also so much more wonderful, but it’s so difficult at times, and there’s a lot of being the default parent–the first person the school nurse calls, no matter what. They almost never call the dad first.

Things like that were great opportunities to work in humor while also hopefully connecting to other parents out there who have been in my shoes and they’re like, “Yes, even though Nadia is an assassin, I know exactly what she’s talking about in this moment.” Lots of real life woven in.

As you’ve traveled, is there anything from growing up in Kansas City that has really stuck with you and has helped you as you’ve grown your writing career?

I think my love of books, and maybe that’s a funny thing to be so location-specific about, but I still remember my first trip to Rainy Day Books. Going in and getting to pick out my own little chapter books. Even now, I come visit once a year, and that’s the first place my daughter and I go. We land at the airport, we get our rental car, and before we even go check in, we usually go to Rainy Day Books.

I also really love the Plaza, and what I would say is one of my books, The Lucky One, is based in Kansas City, and it’s about a serial killer, but it’s also my love letter to Kansas City. It’s a place that has such a vibe, such a warm feeling. The way snow smells in winter or the way the cool fall breeze flutters through the leaves is something that, even living on the other side of the country now, I can feel at any given moment if I just stop and think about it.

I think that was really helpful in teaching me how to write a setting and help make it feel real, thinking about that.

Jessica Payne’s Somebody Worth Killing is out Tuesday, June 16, from Berkley.