Heather Hach

SCREENWRITER & NOVELIST

NEW NOVEL OUT NOW!

The trouble with drowning

Kat is riding high—a top literary agent is going out to publishers with her memoir and she’s finally met her first love, Jacob, the son of one of her favorite writers. For once, Kat’s life is halcyon, and she’s obsessed with maintaining this fabled reality she’s always dreamt about. But as her mood swings get more erratic, her relationship collapses. To say Kat doesn’t take this well is an understatement.

Kat tries to move on, but she’s gutted when her book gets horrid reviews, and then she learns Jacob has begun dating someone new. Someone horribly, nauseatingly perfect. Someone Kat is determined to not only push off her perch—but replace entirely. 

Kat is a brilliant mess, yet oddly relatable. Readers will want to find out what makes her tick and how she embodies such human duality. This is a poignant read on first love, mental health, and the corrosive nature of competitive comparison. The Trouble with Drowning is a powerful story that is at once terrifying, comedic, and impossible to put down.

The accomplished stage and screenwriter Hach (Freaky Friday, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Legally Blonde: The Musical) will keep readers off balance and turning pages as they enter the disturbed mind of Kat Lamb. Hach’s fiction debut is a psychological thriller of obsession, jealousy, mental health, and the drive to do anything to belong. Bestselling author Eden Hart is the definition of perfect, and when she flies into Tucson to give a reading at Antigone Books, struggling author Kat can’t help but compare herself to her—professionally, physically, and socially—she’s everything Kat wants to be. Years later, Hart is a distant but distinct memory when Kat meets Jacob Walsh, the charismatic son of her true Tucson literary hero, Carol Walsh. Kat falls for Jacob, and her obsession with their relationship—and the idea of joining Carol’s family—grows more intense, to the point of sickness. It’s clear that Kat’s mind is unwell and that she will not handle setbacks well.

But setbacks define many writers’ lives, and Kat’s demons begin to surface as she faces the dissolution of the relationship and the failure of her debut novel—she’s absolutely consumed with the life she “could” and “should have.” The heat between lovers and the desire to belong are major themes in this captivating story, as Kat’s need to be perfect goes far beyond the norm. The suspense comes from how far she’ll go, how much she’ll lie, and who she’ll dare to hurt, even when she’s treated with surprising empathy by some she has wronged.

The Trouble with Drowning is full of twists and turns, stirring sympathy for Kat even as readers gape at what’s revealed beneath her mask. Hach’s prose is sharp and engaging, with memorable dialogue, and as it builds to a satisfying ending and jolting cliffhanger the story offers insightful commentary on mental illness, double standards for women, the tragedy of tough childhoods, pressure to succeed in one’s career, and taking the idea of “perfection” too far.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

  • “Expertly crafted, Hach’s psychological thriller will have readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page. Her novel also serves as an insightful commentary on the double standard for women today, whose narratives are deemed either sympathetic or crazy.”

    Amanda Brown, author of Legally Blonde

  • “The heat is turned way up on this writer’s tale of passion and the desire to belong. The Trouble with Drowning brilliantly proves we are all capable of writing our own story. The question is will anyone believe it?”

    —Jerry Mitchell, Tony–winning director and choreographer of Kinky Boots and

    Legally Blonde: the Musical

  • “Tony-nominated Heather Hach, an accomplished writer of stage and screen, makes her adult fiction debut with The Trouble with Drowning, a splashy, twisty psychological thriller about a troubled young writer who intertwines herself with her ex-boyfriend’s family and refuses to let go. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as Hach expertly twists the screws tighter and tighter, building to a chilling, cinematic finish. A page-turning debut crackling with tension and personality.”

    —Kristin Harmel, New York Times best-selling author of The Paris Daughter

  • “The Trouble with Drowning is a deliciously hilarious and wonderfully delightful blast from start to finish! A page-turner filled with chills and laughs, it’s got it all. Hach puts up a magnifying glass to our social media–obsessed world, exploring big themes through characters who are layered and relatable. It’s a hit in all the ways you want a book to hit you!”

    —Annaleigh Ashford, Tony-winning actress

  • “The fastest-paced slow burn you won’t be able to put down! Obsessively readable and beautifully observed, The Trouble with Drowning has it all—chills, laughs, and timely themes. It’s a hit!”

    —Laura Bell Bundy, Tony-nominated actress for Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: the Musical