Yasmin Angoe is a first-generation Ghanaian American thriller writer from Northern Virginia who came to fiction publishing later than most, and has since been moving at a pace that suggests she has no intention of slowing down.

She is the Anthony Award-nominated author of the critically acclaimed Nena Knight trilogy — Her Name Is Knight, They Come at Knight, and It Ends with Knight, as well as Not What She Seems, which became a number one Amazon bestseller. The Nena Knight series is currently in development for TV by Ink Factory and Fifth Season. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, The Guardian, and POPSUGAR, among others.

Her fifth book, Behind These Four Walls, published this January by Thomas & Mercer, follows Isla Thorne, a woman who spent her childhood in the foster system and never stopped searching for her missing best friend, as she inserts herself into the wealthy and powerful Corrigan family to find out what they are hiding. It is a tight, propulsive psychological thriller about the darkness that money can conceal, and it arrives with two more books already on the horizon: She Drinks the Light, a YA novel, and The Ferryman’s Daughter.

We caught up with Yasmin to talk about the new book, writing villains she finds just as interesting as her heroines, what the American South offers her as a storytelling space, and what it feels like to finally be living the life she once only dreamed about.

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Brittle Paper

Hello Yasmin. Congrats on getting your fifth book out. Behind These Four Walls came out this January. How does it feel?

Yasmin Angoe

To be honest, it still feels like a dream. I can’t believe something I labored on so long is out there. That there are four other books before that. That people read my books that I’ve dreamed about writing and putting out for pretty much all my life. Yeah, it’s surreal.

Brittle Paper

And you have two more on the way, right? She Drinks the Light and The Ferryman’s Daughter? How do you stay so productive?

Yasmin Angoe

I’m not sure how I stay productive. My imagination is always going, even when not writing. I have so many kinds of stories in my head itching to get out but so little time to get them out. And because my being an author now is like a second career for me, I feel I have to make up for twenty years of lost time. It’s not easy, though, to remain productive and creative. I struggle immensely. But then I think again about how life was when I was just wishing this instead of living it.

Brittle Paper

Let’s jump in to Behind These Four Walls. What inspired the story? Was there a spark?

Yasmin Angoe

I don’t know if there was really a spark per se. I think I wanted to write about this person who goes up against very powerful people when she herself has very little. A David verses Goliath, kind of. I like writing about women who, whether they know it or not, go on a journey of re-self-discovery and who learn what their power is in their own way. That’s how it works with me…I’ll say to myself, I want to write about a woman fighting against microaggressions and societal perceptions and there came Not What She Seems. I want to write about a woman going up against a powerful wealthy family who took the only thing she cared about from her and there was Behind These Four Walls.

Brittle Paper

You’ve written female protagonists who are trained killers, small-town returnees, and now an undercover investigator of sorts. What are the three most important things you believe can make or break the writing of a female character?

Yasmin Angoe

I think what makes a female character is being true to herself and her character. She needs to be relatable to the reader in some way. Most of all, I think she ultimately has to save herself. Whether she’s like Nena Knight, the trained assassin who uses her training and physicality to save herself, or she’s like Jac Brodie or Isla Thorne who use their ingenuity to save themselves, they do it. Sure others may help out at times, but ultimately, it’s the protagonist who has to learn as she works toward her success.

Brittle Paper

Part of what makes the lead women in your book so complex is that you place them in front of villains who are themselves interesting. I’m curious about how you think about crafting villainy. In psychological thrillers, the villain is as much a draw for readers as the hero is a moral anchor. The Corrigans are not saints but they held our attention. Do you have any core principles when it comes to writing villains?

Yasmin Angoe

Oh yes! Writing the villain is my favorite because I can do so much with them, but within limits—or their limits. I try not to write the typical stereotype of villain (same as protagonist) because they are the heroes of their own stories. So they also have to be relatable in some tiny way to the reader…or they have to be, as you said, interesting. Their goal has to have a reason I, and subsequently the reader, can understand even if it’s crazy. It makes sense to the villain and it will make sense or make it interesting for the reader. So my core principle is to make them humanistic in some way and to make them have a true reason for whatever they’re doing…so like a story to their actions.

Brittle Paper

Let’s talk about the American South in your writing. You’re from the South, right? It was present in Not What She Seemsand now again in Behind These Four Walls. What do you find generative about the South as a space for storytelling, especially for the kind of work you do?

Yasmin Angoe

I’m from Northern Virginia which is South but we don’t consider ourselves southern because we’re right there with DC and Maryland. But I have lived in South Carolina and love the small towns that make it up. Each of those towns are characters in themselves and so I think it’s a great setting for suspense and thrillers. Small town are so quaint and look safe and the people warm and welcoming, but they can be a place of darkness and evil. It’s intriguing to me ugly things encased in beauty—very much my thinking in Behind These Four Walls. We see wealth as beauty and awe, but behind it could be straight darkness. Small towns are very much the same to me.

Brittle Paper

The South in Behind These Four Walls is different from the one in Not What She Seems. Did the move from small-town familiarity to elite power change how you approached the story?

Yasmin Angoe

Yes, the change in how the small town in NWSS is different than BTFW was very intentional because the town was the focal point in one story and was not the focal point in the other. The Corrigans were the focal point and I wanted to highlight them. In NWSS, the town was the focal point because it helped in creating the issues that Jac had to deal with in the past and in the present.

Brittle Paper

I’m also curious whether your African roots ever informs how you experience the South. If so, what do you notice or see differently?

Yasmin Angoe

I haven’t really thought of this significantly. But I guess it may, meaning my African roots and having immigrant parents helped me to be accepting of different ways of living and different cultures and beliefs that I come across. That doesn’t just happen in the South, though, but anywhere I go, I’m always enthralled with how things are done in this area verses another verses how I grew up.

Brittle Paper

What are your influences when it comes to writing suspense and thrillers? Which authors or books feed your sense of the genre?

Yasmin Angoe

To be honest, I read from all genres and they all influence me in different ways. There are too many authors to name because I find something in all of their works that move me.

Brittle Paper

What’s your take on the suspense and thriller space in African writing right now? Do you think we’re doing okay? Would you like to see more work in that space?

Yasmin Angoe

I would love to see more work in that space for sure, but I think that African writing in the suspense and thriller space is on the uptick. I’m seeing more authors from African countries breaking into traditional publishing and doing so well and I cheer for them all. Of course we need more, because stories from an African perspective need to be told so we can be seen in a variety of ways.

Brittle Paper

I imagine a writer’s TBR list is pretty hefty. But can you share just a few titles you’re really looking forward to reading in 2026?

Yasmin Angoe

Yes!!! Two especially from Ghanaian authors in the YA space. Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb which comes out June 2nd and The Freeverse Society by Delali Adjoa that comes out March 24th.

Brittle Paper

For my last two questions, I want to shift to more craft-facing question. As a writer whose books get a lot of attention on Goodreads, how do you decide what kind of relationship you want to have with that space?

Yasmin Angoe

Ha! I don’t have any relation with Goodreads. I appreciate all reviews. I love good reviews. I understand not so great ones are subjective. Goodreads is a reader’s space and it’s not in my best interest mentally and creatively to go in and read what everyone’s saying or rating. You have to protect your space and allow in what you can manage, you know?

Brittle Paper

As with any craft, it’s always interesting to hear how people actually work. You have two more books coming out this year, one of them YA. Is there a secret to how you stay so productive?

Yasmin Angoe

I try to stick to a schedule but I’m not that great with self-discipline if I know I have a lot of time to do something. I need to be better at that, honestly so I’m always a work in progress. I can say that when I’m not actively writing, I’m always thinking and taking notes about what I’m working on so having to turn my brain off is hard. But yeah, I’m a morning worker. My creative brain shuts down by 2-3 pm so I’d better get it in before then if anything is going to happen. I also use Scrivener which breaks down wordcount for my by day and allows me to have a target word count per day to meet. If I start early enough, then the word count doesn’t seem too huge to manage.

Brittle Paper

To sign off on our conversation, I want to just ask: what do you absolutely love about the act of writing?

Yasmin Angoe

I absolutely love when a reader really loves or hates a character of mine. I like when they tell me about that character and what they’ve gotten from the story and how that character affected them. It makes me feel like I’ve truly made a contribution in this world.

Brittle Paper

Yasmin, thanks so much for chatting with us!

Yasmin Angoe

Thank you for having me!