Welcome to Jen’s Jewels, your go-to destination for the latest in fiction. Today, I’m shining the spotlight on BABY QUEEN by Ty Landers. If you love a gripping thriller with plenty of twists, suspense, and surprises, this one deserves a spot on your TBR. Read on to find out more.
LIGHTNING ROUND
What’s your go-to Thanksgiving or fall comfort food?
This one is easy. Being from Alabama, my favorite year-round comfort food is fried okra. I live for it. I’m obsessed with it. Especially if it is lightly breaded and cooked in a cast iron skillet so the end pieces get a little too done. For Thanksgiving, my mother can cook like it’s nobody’s business, and she makes a cornbread dressing that has pecans, green apple, sausage, and celery in it. I also crave this dressing year-round, and my wife says sometimes I wake in the night mumbling about it.
Are you an early Christmas decorator, or do you wait until after Thanksgiving?
We have very strict rules about this. Christmas décor can’t go up until after Thanksgiving. This can be tricky, since we live in Wisconsin and have had seven inches of snow on the ground as early as Halloween. It’s smart to get the decorations out before the snow comes. But, I believe every season should get its window. Santa needs to back off Halloween and Thanksgiving. My wife and I did leave our Christmas tree up until February once though.
What’s your favorite cozy writing day essential?
Coffee. When I’m working, I drink coffee from 9am to noon. Then afternoon coffee happens from 3pm to 4pm. It is one of many rituals to which I strictly adhere. The coffee does not have to be fancy but it does have to be strong. Also, I work in a basement and there is no dedicated heat in my office. I have a great space heater that creates a tropical microclimate while the rest of the basement rarely tops 55 degrees. It is very cozy.
THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK
November is a time for reflection and thankfulness. What inspired you to write this story, and what message do you hope readers will take away?
This book was really two separate ideas crashing together in a great way. I had been wrestling with an idea about a small-town crime family with a strong female protagonist inspired by my family’s sketchy past. My grandfather was killed in a gunfight he started at an Alabama grocery store in 1952. His killing was related to a family feud that went back decades. When he died, my grandmother had never had a job and didn’t know how to drive a car. She picked herself up, worked rough jobs, and raised four kids. Her response changed our family trajectory. While I was trying to write something inspired by that history, my wife sent me an article about the dire straits of the American honeybee and implied that we might need to start beekeeping. My bee research and the women in my life melded in the most amazing way. I love the strong women at the core of this story. I hope readers step away from this book knowing that women are badass, they do impossible things for their families daily, and that their underrepresentation as hard customers in crime fiction has been to the detriment of all of us.
Did a particular character, relationship, or storyline surprise you as the story developed?
Yes! My primary antagonist Adam Harmony has a wife named Twyla. I hadn’t intended her to be much beyond a quirky side-character, but once I started writing, she got loud and stayed loud. I loved her. She stuck out to my agent as well, as he was reading the early manuscript, and his editorial note to give her more time and complete her arc is one of my favorite things about the book. I really wish she…well…no spoilers.
The way you’ve crafted your setting almost makes it feel like its own character. What motivated you to pick it, and in what way does it influence the story?
This book is set, not just in Alabama, but in my Alabama. I grew up here. Almost all these places are real and can be visited. I changed a few city names or merged a few places, but it is very real. It is such a unique place. It’s gorgeous and hot and twangy and isolated and interesting. The setting really makes the book feel special. The book has an accent, and the setting really delivers that accent.
Did any personal memories, traditions, or meaningful places influence this book?
Absolutely. I spoke previously about the setting and there are so many places in the book that are meaningful to me. I also included a ton of family traditions and memories. My family’s idiosyncrasies are represented throughout the book. My family thought it was hilarious that I included the ritual of flipping a baby’s liver. My great grandmother was a proud purveyor of Appalachian witchcraft and lived in Horse Creek, Tennessee. When a new baby was born in our family, they had to be taken to my great-grandmother. She would hold the baby upside down, by the ankle, and “flip the liver” which staved off everything from colic to irritability in a baby. As an aside, my mother didn’t allow me to get my liver flipped and I have been irritable since. Thanks, Mom.
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Every novel has its challenges. Was there a moment while writing this one that reminded you why you love storytelling?
Well said. A novel is challenging even when it’s working. The thing that really stuck out to me about this book was how much fun I had at every turn. You spend a tremendous amount of time writing a book, thinking about it, arguing with the characters, and following them as they go along. It surprised me that I never got bored with these characters or this world. I was never tempted to go write something else, or lured away by a new idea. Sitting down every day, excited to get into a scene, assaulted with ideas, the book brimming with possibilities—that is what I love about storytelling.
Can you share one thing about yourself that readers might find surprising?
If a piece of clothing has a tag on it, and that tag touches my skin, I will go berserk. I can’t chill with that. Even if I remove the tag, I can still feel it. Like, phantom-tag-pains. Why do tags have to be the length and size of a full-blown contract? Whatever tactile defect the princess from the Princess and the Pea suffered from—I have that. I feel her pain.
What’s currently at the top of your TBR pile?
Like everyone else on the planet I have Josh Silver’s FRUIT FLY at the top of my TBR. That and Keith Rosson’s CRONE. I’m desperate to read them, but keep abstaining so I can savor them on the plane rides I have coming up this month.
LOOKING AHEAD
Can you give readers a sneak peek at what you’re working on next—without giving away any spoilers?
I just read the script for the BABY QUEEN pilot that is in development at HBO and it was fantastic. I’m also working on a novel about a young woman in witness protection and I’m having an absolute blast with it.
Where can readers connect with you and stay up to date on your latest books? Please share your website, newsletter, and social media links.
My website. I am also very active on Instagram and Threads and can also be found on Facebook.
BONUS: The Author’s Playlist
Share 3–5 songs that capture the mood of your book or inspired you while writing.
Love this:
“Queen of them All” – The Cactus Blossoms
“Stand by Your Man” – Tammy Wynette
“Alabama Pines” – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
“You’re the One” – Dwight Yoakam
“Fist City” – Loretta Lynn
Narrator: Sophie Amoss
For lovers of Ozark or Breaking Bad, a page-turning debut involving an Alabama family business, a dead body, a dogged investigator, and three generations of women who are forced to confront the secrets, betrayals, and buried crimes that haunt their family.
When a queen bee can no longer do her job, the worker bees will kill her, producing a new baby queen.
A perfectly preserved but very dead body is found in a barrel of honey, and the town of Noccalula, Alabama, will never be the same.
Natalie Link has inherited the family honey farm from her beloved grandmother Lana, who raised Nat after her mother ran off to Los Angeles chasing stardom. But it turns out Nat has no idea what Lana has been hiding in the hives. Is Nat up to running what turns out to be a business enterprise of questionable repute? Suddenly she is caught between her grandmother’s very frightening partners and the ex-cop with a grudge who’s been looking into her family since she was a kid.
Bob Sauk torpedoed his once promising law enforcement career chasing a lead he couldn’t prove. He has always believed that Lana Link was a murderer. Will he finally get the chance to prove he was right all along? And what happens when Nat’s Hollywood star mom returns to town after twenty-five years?
Full of secrets, murder, and Alabama fried frog legs, Baby Queen is a sharp-as-a-blade tale of family crime.
Thriller Crime [ Harper Perennial, On Sale: November 17, 2026, Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780063512290 / eISBN: 9780063512320 ]
Ty Landers holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside. Born and raised in Alabama, he spent more than twenty years in Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife, Emily, and their sons Jack, Rowan, and Barrett. Baby Queen is his first novel and has already been optioned by HBO.
Jennifer Vido is the award-winning author of the Gull Island series, a collection of sweet Lowcountry romances inspired by her love of coastal living and small-town charm. Her debut novel, Serendipity by the Sea, won Best First Book from the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Contest. Jennifer has been named Baltimore Magazine’s Best Local Author for three consecutive years (2024–2026) and was named The Baltimore Sun’s Best Author in its 2026 Best of Readers’ Choice Awards. When she’s not writing romance, Jennifer shares her love of books through her weekly Jen’s Jewels column, where she spotlights exciting new releases and talented authors.
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