Greg Wands and Fiona Davis: A Literary Love Story

Fiona Davis and Greg Wands’ love story is of a literary sort — which is fitting, seeing as the pair are both authors.

On a rainy November evening in 2018, author Fiona Davis was holding a book signing event at Shakespeare and Company on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Greg Wands, a fellow author who had just sold his debut novel alongside his writing partner, Elizabeth Keenan, was encouraged by his publicist (who had also been working with Davis), to attend the event.

Keenan was busy that evening, so Wands flew solo, and introduced himself to Davis.

“I caught a spark right away,” Wands said. “I managed to play it cool and keep myself busy in the store until Fiona wrapped up her signing and we could continue the conversation.”

Davis had a similar reaction to their meet-cute.

“I looked up from signing a book just as this handsome guy walked into the bookstore,” she said.

Davis’ demographic of readers is mostly women. Thus, it was a slight surprise when Wands walked up to her signing table to introduce himself.

“It was like all the molecules in the room started vibrating,” Davis said. “I’d never had that kind of reaction to someone before.”

At the end of the signing, Davis was happy to see that Wands had stuck around. The pair wandered around Shakespeare and Co., and, as book-lovers are wont to do when in a bookstore, they bought a few books. After a drink at the bar next door, Wands saw Davis into a cab, but not before they both exchanged numbers.

“We started texting each other within a half hour, and that was that,” Davis said.

The pair have been together ever since.

Having met in a literary setting, the assumption might be that literature is the way this couple bonds. While that’s certainly true, Davis said, it is perhaps not in the way one might think, because the two write in different genres. Davis writes historical fiction, while Wands writes thrillers.

“A lot of our discussions are about what worked or didn’t work in whatever our current read is,” Davis said, adding that they analyze books together in a way that would “drive nonwriters crazy.”

Wands and Davis have both been immersed in the literary world for quite a while, albeit in different ways.

Davis started out as a journalist, and branched into fiction writing 12 years ago by way of an article.

“I stumbled upon an idea for an article about the former Barbizon Hotel for Women,” she said. “The article didn’t pan out but I couldn’t shake it, and decided to see if I could turn it into a novel instead.”

That idea turned into her debut novel, “The Dollhouse.”

Wands, who grew up in Sag Harbor, was influenced by literature long before he started writing in his 20s.

“I’ve been an avid reader since I was a kid,” Wands said. “I grew up in a house filled with books, and some of my earliest memories are of my parents reading to me before bedtime. I’d save up the allowance money I made mowing our lawn and spend it all at the annual book fair.”

Wands added that “coming up in Sag Harbor in the midst of such a vibrant arts scene certainly helped” his love for literature.

Sag Harbor has been home to many famous writers, and Wands was fortunate enough to grow up right down the street from one: Thomas Harris, the acclaimed author of the Hannibal Lecter novels. A few years ago, Wands had a “really exciting full-circle moment” when Harris invited Wands to his house to “talk shop.”

“I think that growing up in such a tight-knit community, where there’s a sense of support and camaraderie, went a long way toward giving me the confidence to pursue this kind of career,” Wands said.

“I’m envious of Greg’s childhood in Sag Harbor,” Davis said. Her family grew up all around the continent, “from Canada to New Jersey to Utah, back to New Jersey and then to Texas,” she said, so she deeply appreciates Sag Harbor’s “sense of place and belonging.”

Last year, the couple wrote a novel together, “The Gimlet Slip.” The book, a “prohibition-era mystery novella,” opens on the East End, and the action oscillates “between Long Island and Manhattan,” Wands said.

The idea, Wands continued, spawned from a story the pair had heard about the Island Club, an old speakeasy that opened in 1928 in Montauk. The Club was visited by many locals: actors, mobsters, writers and politicians alike.

Wands explained the story thus: “One night, during a police raid, Jimmy Walker — mayor of New York City at the time — avoided arrest by slipping into the kitchen, throwing on a waiter’s uniform, and dipping out the back door with the rest of the staff,” he said. “We knew we had to work that detail into a book somehow.”

Both authors are working on new pieces. Wands said he is in “research mode” for a speculative-noir genre book. Davis is drafting her next book, set at the Morris-Jumel Mansion.

“It’s New York’s oldest house — and a gem of a museum that hardly anyone has heard of, including most New Yorkers,” she said.

While the two authors don’t have any local author events planned for this summer, both expressed gratitude for book talks they’ve been able to do in the past.

“I’ve loved speaking at Hampton Library’s Fridays at Five and taking part in East Hampton Library’s Authors Night,” Davis said, adding that Wands was part of the Ram’s Head Inn’s “Thursday Fireside Chats” last year on Shelter Island.

“Greg and I had a great time speaking about ‘The Gimlet Slip’ at Finley’s Fiction’s Summer Series, held outside on a gorgeous summer evening,” Davis said. “There’s nothing better.”

Wands and Davis both had books published this year. “The Stolen Queen” by Fiona Davis was published on January 7. “Trust Issues” by Greg Wands and Elizabeth McCullough Keenan was published on January 28. Both novels are available wherever books are sold.