She's an award-winning writer, published in national and international media, and is the recipient of the State of Connecticut Martin Luther King 2024 “Courage Like Coretta Award” for raising awareness of world atrocities through her writing and speaking.
Her first book, THE CRATE, is a nonfiction, true crime story about a murder that involved her family. A NEST OF SNAKES followed, inspired by real-life lawsuits against elite New England private schools. A NOVEL CRIME, her latest, is about a desperate romance writer whose chance encounter with a glamorous celebrity novelist sends her down a rabbit hole of mayhem.
Debbie’s dream of storytelling began one summer night by a camp bonfire as she listened to a ghost story: The Monkey's Paw. The memory still makes her shiver.
She wanted to write the perfect novel. Instead, she became the perfect villain.
Struggling romance writer and recent divorcée Marcy Jo Codburn feels like a failure. She’s green with author envy and longing for a book deal, a launch party with cupcakes, and the admiration of her daughter. But her dream of literary success is fading faster than her beige hair dye. When she witnesses celebrated author Francesca Barber in a compromising position, Marcy sees her chance. Transforming into Summer Branigan, her bolder, blonder pen name, she leverages Francesca’s secret to secure the ultimate coauthor.
As their collaboration spirals from Marcy’s modest Connecticut home to Francesca’s lavish Hamptons estate, both women discover that in the cutthroat world of publishing, every story has its price. With looming deadlines, a kidnapping plot gone awry, and more than one fraud to hide, their twisted partnership careens toward a surprise ending neither could have written.
In this darkly comic page-turner, critically acclaimed author Deborah Levison skewers the publishing industry with razor-sharp wit. A Novel Crime asks just how far an aspiring writer will go to see her name on a book jacket—and what happens when the stories we tell start to write themselves. (Courtesy of Amazon.)
“Uproariously funny, exquisitely unputdownable, and ingeniously plotted with a heroine you’ll be rooting for every step of her wildly hilarious journey, Deborah Levison’s A Novel Crime is the perfect delicious escape!”
—May Cobb, bestselling author of The Hunting Wives
“Wickedly hilarious and utterly compelling, A Novel Crime is a delight. A refreshingly bold, highly addictive, and uproarious suspense that showcases Deborah Levison’s phenomenal talent and warns us all how quickly we can cross the line from fantasy into a nightmare.”
—Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of Hello, Juliet
“A Novel Crime is a fast, funny, utterly unputdownable romp through the wild world of publishing—where ambition meets chaos, and nothing goes according to plan. Levison packs this novel with jaw-dropping twists, a mind-blowing plot, and an ending you’ll be texting your friends about.”
—Elise Hart Kipness, USA Today bestselling author of Close Call
What is a favorite compliment you received on your writing?
Since A Novel Crime is meant to be funny, I love that one reader said in a review she laughed so hard she had to use an inhaler. Not that I would wish respiratory distress on anyone… but a little wheeze here and there is kind of flattering, right?
Before that, The Jerusalem Post called my true crime book, The Crate, “exquisite” and “a brilliant story” that “should be used in classrooms;” and one bookstagrammer posted that my first novel, A Nest of Snakes, was a “bloody masterpiece.” I try to remind myself of compliments like these on days when it seems like everything is going wrong.
What is something new you learned while writing A Novel Crime?
To get inside the head of the bad girl. In my first book, I recounted the discovery and investigation of a gruesome crime – a murder that involved my family –from our point of view, not the murderer’s, of course. In my second book, the main character was a middle-aged man who’d suffered physical and sexual abuse at an elite New England private school. Again: I wrote from the victim’s point of view, not the abusers’.
But A Novel Crime tracks the downward spiral of a desperate woman who goes down a rabbit hole of mayhem and is deluded enough to justify her reprehensible actions, all of which was so much fun to write.
If A Novel Crime was made into a movie, who would you cast in the leading roles?
Thank you for this question—hopefully we’re sending good juju into the movie-verse!
There are four female leads plus a whole supporting cast. Marcy Jo Codburn, around whom the story revolves, morphs from blah beige romance novelist wannabe to off-the-rails criminal mastermind. I can totally see Elizabeth Banks or Kristen Bell in this role, and I imagine Angourie Rice, from The Last Thing He Told Me, as Marcy’s studious, judgmental daughter, Beatrice.
Then we have the glamorous celebrity author Francesca Barber, portrayed by Rose Byrne. Or maybe Amanda Peet? Unsure. However, I am sure that Francesca’s stunning young daughter, Hollywood It-Girl Aspen Barber, should be played by Sara Waisglass, who stars as Maxine in Ginny & Georgia. Sara’s a Toronto girl with a ton of acting credentials under her belt. Her parents also happen to be dear friends of mine… but no favoritism here, I swear.
For the part of Tabi Benlolo, the smoldering, sexy, Brazilian boytoy, I can’t quite think of the right actor off the top of my head, so I will be holding private auditions.
What is the last book you read that you would recommend?
Argh, that’s like having to pick your favorite child. It depends on the day, and even then, I wouldn’t want to hurt the others’ feelings. I’ve recently read so many great books by thriller-author friends of mine it’s hard to choose, so I will go off-genre and recommend Circe. Madeline Miller’s writing is so rich and lyrical, some of her prose is permanently seared into my brain (“his mouth stretched around his laughter” and “humbling women seems to be a chief pastime of the gods.”) Song of Achilles is up next.
If your life was a TV series, which celebrity would you want to narrate it?
For publicity’s sake I know I should answer with someone chic and popular like Julia Roberts (except whenever I hear Julia speak, I think of her voicing Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web, and I really, really, really hate spiders, so she’s out.) Also, Steve Carrell immediately comes to mind, probably because I think of myself as cringy and awkward, a female Michael Scott. But let’s go with Zsa Zsa Gabor. My inner monologue has a thick Hungarian accent, and secretly I think I could pull off a feather boa.
If we were to visit you right now, what are some places you would take us to see?
I’m in Toronto as I write this, and there are endless options for sightseeing, dining, major league sports, and nightlife. It’s the fourth largest city in North America but has ten million trees (a fifth of its area is parkland!) so it’s charming as well as urban. It’s also incredibly diverse: take a walk down any street and you’ll hear dozens of different languages. Do I sound like a tour guide?
To answer your question, though, I’d take you to the CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the western hemisphere—and I’d make you do the Edge Walk, this insane thing where you put on a harness and frolic around this narrow metal grate at the top of the tower, over a thousand feet above the Earth. People literally lean out over the edge! I feel queasy just looking at the videos on YouTube. And no, I won’t go up there with you. Ever.
Thanks to Deborah for visiting with us and for sharing her book with our readers.
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