In Conversation With…
Adam Mitzner
author of
‘A Matter Of Will’

There is no official Blog Tour for this book, however the lovely Katie from Little Bird Publicity has taken this one under her wing for promotion, with the usual thanks to NetGalley for their amazing download service!

I am currently reading this book and enjoying it loads. My full review will follow very soon.

You can check out the opening lines of the book here

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A MATTER OF WILL

Twenty-seven year-old Will is dreaming of hitting it big on Wall Street and trying to climb the Corporate ladder at cutthroat brokerage firm Maeve Grant. Short on his targets and perilously close to having to return to his small Midwest hometown with his tail between his legs and nothing to show for his thousands of hours at the office, Will is feeling particularly desperate when a chance encounter with wealthy businessman Samuel Abaddon and his enigmatic partner Evelyn Devereux presents an exciting new opportunity—one that seems almost too good to be true.

Winning Abaddon’s business turns Will’s life upside down and makes all his dreams come true—or so he thinks. Suddenly he is Maeve Grant’s brightest young star, bringing in more money than all his colleagues combined and living a life of luxury on his generous new client’s dime, the business rolling in so fast he can barely keep up with the paperwork as he signs his name against every seven-figure investment Abaddon sends his way. Things are even heating up in his personal life, as his relationship with ambitious fellow lawyer Gwen Lipton develops.

But every contract comes with consequences, and the dream quickly turns into a living nightmare when Will witnesses a horrifying crime that exposes the true nature of his mysterious patron.

With all revealed, Will must make a choice: Dive headfirst into hell, or face the consequences of a deal with the devil.

With its unraveling mystery and tightly-plotted suspense, A matter Of Will,
will have readers racing to learn Will’s fate and leave them questioning the moral compromises they themselves would make to have their wildest dreams come true. The novel has also been optioned for film treatment by Emily Siegel and Company X.

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ADAM MITZNER

Adam Mitzner grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which is about an hour outside of New York City. He graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. and M.A. in politics, and from there went directly on to law school at the University of Virginia.

After law school, he joined the litigation department of a large New York City law firm, and after a few more stops, is now  currently the head of the litigation department of Pavia & Harcourt LLP, which is located in midtown Manhattan.

Adam is the author of several acclaimed novels, including the #1 Kindle bestseller Dead Certain, A Conflict of Interest, A Case of Redemption, Losing Faith, and The Girl from Home.

Suspense Magazine named A Conflict of Interest one of the best books of 2012, and in 2014 the American Bar Association nominated A Case of Redemption for a Silver Gavel Award.

Adam and his family live in New York City.

Check out all the latest news at Adam’s website 

Follow Adam on Twitter

Connect with Adam on Facebook

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IN CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR ADAM MITZNER

Q: The protagonist of this novel, Will Matthews, gets himself into a situation way above his head, but you really pull the reader in and make them feel the temptation of money, lifestyle, and opportunity that is presented to Will by Samuel Abaddon. How did you create such a vivid character—one that readers can understand and empathize with, despite his questionable choices?

A: The challenge in this book—and truth be told, every book—is to have the characters make decisions that, although you might not make them, you nevertheless can understand. This was particularly tricky in A Matter of Will because everyone thinks that they’re not susceptible to falling for something that sounds too good to be true. But would we really be able to resist an opportunity that presented us with everything we’ve ever wanted because we suspected there must be a catch?

Q: All the characters in this novel have such evocative names: Samuel Abaddon, Evelyn Devereux, Gwendolyn Lipton. Even Will’s name has a deeper meaning (as evidenced by the title of this novel). How do you choose your characters’ names, and do you see that as a key part of your character development process?

A: Naming the characters is among the most fun and the hardest parts of writing for me. I like when the names mean something but don’t want to go so far as to be heavy-handed. One of the things I like best in A Matter of Will is that the characters actually talk about their names. Gwen tells the story about how her parents chose her name, Will remarks that his is a family name, and only Sam refers to Evelyn by her full name. I think it’s obvious from the first line that Sam is a character to be wary of, and in the Old Testament “Abaddon” is a place of utter destruction and death.

Q: You yourself are in the legal profession and Gwen, one of the central characters in A Matter of Will, is a lawyer at a top Manhattan firm whose legal knowledge becomes really important to the plot. Was Gwen a particularly fun character to write given your background in the law?

A: The lawyer-characters are always easier for me to write (even when they are women) because I understand their motivations. The masters of the universe, like Sam, and how Will wishes he were, are more difficult because they possess a set of skills and values that are different from mine. But of course, that actually makes them more fun to write than the lawyers.

Q: This story really keeps readers guessing, and there is a significant twist in the novel that is so cleverly plotted you just don’t see it coming. Without giving anything away, can you tell if you always know exactly where a story is going before you start writing your first draft, or do you explore and discover new narrative pathways throughout the writing process?

A: Before I write the first word, I’m focused on a question the protagonist must face. In A Matter of Will it was: How far would a decent, young, ambitious man go to fulfill his ambition? Then I construct a journey for that character that will answer that question. The twists that occur in A Matter of Will were not in my mind when I wrote the first sentence, but I knew from the very beginning that it was going to be a book about temptation, in all of its many forms. My wife is constantly telling me that it would be easier if I thought through the ending before I begin writing. I do not doubt that’s true, but unfortunately the story doesn’t appear to me that way. I write the way I read, thinking at every turn about what’s going to happen next. The only difference is that when I’m writing I have to come up with that on my own, rather than just turning the page to find out.

Q: All of your books feel like really refreshing takes on the mystery/thriller genre. Where do you draw inspiration from while writing, and what do you find most interesting and rewarding about writing within the mystery/thriller genre?

A: The “spark” that gives rise to the book is usually a moral question that I’m thinking about. For A Matter of Will, it was to examine how far an otherwise good person could be corrupted if offered the right temptation. My favorite part of the process is being with the characters, thinking about the world the way they do and wondering what they’re going to do next.

Q: You’ve said before that although you’ve always been interested in writing, you didn’t actually try to write until a few years ago. Do you have any advice for writers aspiring to get where you are today

A: To write. A lot. All the time. Not to worry about how good it is, but to tell the story you want to tell. Then to spend at least ten times as long editing as was spent writing.
Many, many (many!) years ago, I ran the New York City Marathon. Back then, people would tell me, “I’d love to do that, but I don’t think I could do all the training.” To me, running a marathon was the training, and you had to love the training—all that time when you’re alone—to be able to enjoy race day when people line the streets cheering. Writing is the same thing. You have to love the solitary aspects of thinking about every word and living with your characters for years in order to experience the thrill of sharing your book with readers.

Q: We have to ask—what are you working on next? Is there anything you can tease for readers who are looking forward to your next book?

A: My next book is a return to my Broden Legal series (the third in the series after Dead Certain and Never Goodbye). It is not a true sequel but a look at the family’s patriarch at different critical times in his life. The spark for that one is the question: How far would you go to seek retribution against a loved one who had wronged you?

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