Local author Tilia Jacobs releases debut thriller!

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – A psychological thriller with an unconventional heroine, Wrong Place, Wrong Time by award-winning author Tilia Klebenov Jacobs is a rush of adrenaline.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time (October 1, 2013, Linden Tree Press) introduces Tsara Adelman, a Jewish mother and wife who finds herself abducted and on the run after she learns her uncle is holding several children captive on his property. Originally a project for National Novel Writing Month in 2009, Jacobs’ book is packed with action and emotion, presenting ethical questions and unpredictable drama on every page.

“This is a story of redemption,” Jacobs says. “This is a story about an ordinary woman fighting back in extraordinary circumstances.”

Jacobs was inspired by the 1950 Burt Lancaster film “The Flame and the Arrow,” a light-hearted, Robin Hood-esque story about Dardo Bartoli (Lancaster) kidnapping Anne de Hesse (Virginia Mayo) in Medieval Lombardy as part of a struggle against the evil Hessian overlords, one of whom is holding Dardo’s son hostage to keep the rebels quiet. After watching the movie a few dozen times, Jacobs started wondering, “What if this happened in real life? What if the woman weren’t a voluptuous 20-something but a happily married wife and mother? What if she didn’t fall in love with him? What if she were Jewish?”

Jacobs weaves elements of the real world into Wrong Place, Wrong Time with fight scenes based on her experience as a student in a women’s self-defense course and in-depth interviews with a lawyer, a Massachusetts state trooper, psychologists, an archer, a rabbi and FBI agents.

Jacobs lives near Boston, Mass. with her husband, their two children and a pair of standard poodles. In addition to teaching writing in state prisons, she is a judge in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition and a member of Grub Street, an independent writing center in Boston. She has won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction work.

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