Jean Hanff Korelitz’s new book, “The Sequel,” is exactly what it is titled, a follow-up to “The Plot,” her best-selling mystery set amid the darker corners of the publishing world. Korelitz returns to similar terrain where literary theft can have dangerous consequences. She is the author of nine novels, including “You Should Have Known,” which aired on HBO as “The Undoing.” She lives in New York City with her husband, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon.
BOOKS: What are you reading?
KORELITZ: I’m reading Stephen King’s “Holly” and I’m listening to a British novel, Sarah Waters’s “The Paying Guests.” Juliet Stevenson, one of my favorite actresses, reads the book so it’s really a pleasure. I always have one brick-and-mortar book and one audio book.
BOOKS: Are you a longtime King fan?
KORELITZ: I’ve read everything he’s written except for the fantasy stuff. He’s a marvel. I think my favorite is “The Shining” and its sequel, “Doctor Sleep.” All of the chapter titles in my book are named for a sequel by another author so one of my chapters is titled “Doctor Sleep.”
BOOKS: What are your other favorite sequels?
KORELITZ: When I was a teenager, I read Erica Jong’s “How to Save Your Own Life.” It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. I didn’t realize it was the sequel to “Fear of Flying.” Then I read that novel, which is phenomenal. I’m not a big reader of series but I love Thomas Perry’s Jane Whitefield books, about a Native American woman. He is one of our great writers of suspense.
BOOKS: Do you have any favorite literary bad guys?
KORELITZ: I love the work of Molly Keane, the great Irish novelist, who had a specialty for writing about truly reprehensible people. Her great novel “Good Behavior” has a character that is so awful. Then “Time After Time” is about a family in which all the adult children are truly reprehensible.
BOOKS: How would you describe your taste in books?
KORELITZ: I love contemporary literary fiction. I love anything that promises to surprise me. But the times that I’ve been truly surprised have been few and far between. Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent” is the only novel that totally shocked me. I was on the subway reading when I got to the big reveal and I made a scene on the car. I have to add Sarah Pinborough’s “Behind Her Eyes” and Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mysteries.
BOOKS: Do you read nonfiction?
KORELITZ: I’ll read anything about any cult or niche religion, like Lawrence Wright’s book on Scientology “Going Clear,” which is genius. I’ve been dipping into Michael Austin and Ardis E. Parshall’s “Dime Novel Mormons,” which is excerpts from 19th- and early 20th-century dime novels in which Mormon characters appear. It’s hilarious but not something you sit down to read end to end. I’ve read a lot about the Mormons.
BOOKS: What would you recommend from your Mormon reading?
KORELITZ: John Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” is a wonderful and devastating book that uses a modern crime to go back and tell Mormon history. One of the most important books is Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My History,” her biography about Joseph Smith. She was derided and excommunicated for that book. Avi Steinberg visited all the places in the Book of Mormon for his memoir “The Lost Book of Mormon.”
BOOKS: What is on your to-read pile?
KORELITZ: I run a literary series called BOOKTHEWRITER, which is held in people’s apartments around New York City with the author. My to-read pile are books for the series. I read the books right before the events so they are fresh in my mind. I’m about to start Michael Cunningham’s latest novel, “Day,” for that. Tickets are sold out for the fall events but anyone can join online and ask the author questions.
BOOKS: Are there any common questions for the writers?
KORELITZ: In every meeting — for fiction, nonfiction, even memoirs — someone will ask the author if, when they started their book, they knew how it would end. The answer is always no. I love the ripple of absolute shock that passes through the room. People who aren’t writers can’t comprehend how in the dark we are when we are writing our books.
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter @GlobeBiblio. Amy Sutherland is the author, most recently, of “Rescuing Penny Jane” and she can be reached at amysutherland@mac.com.