Every crime novel is sparked by a writer’s “What If?” Luckily, most of mine have been pretty far removed from real life:

• What if your family moved into a house where another family was murdered and the killer was never caught? (The Other Family, William Morrow, 2022)
• What if you woke up to find a dead stranger tucked into your guest room bed? (Blue Moon, William Morrow, 2017)
• What if you found out you were adopted—and your birth parent might have been a serial killer? (The Butcher’s Daughter, William Morrow, 2021)

The premise for my latest psychological suspense novel might seem equally far-fetched, but it stems from a question most of us have asked ourselves:

• What if you won the lottery? (Windfall, William Morrow, Coming July 11)

In Windfall, three former college roommates chip in for a ticket during a girls’ getaway weekend. Back home, they discover they’ve won the billion dollar jackpot. Before they can claim it, the friend who’s holding the winning ticket goes missing. Was it foul play—or did she take the money and run? To find out, you’ll have to read the book.

In the meantime, I asked some of my favorite crime writers, “You just won a billion dollars. What are your first three splurges?”

Editor’s Note: Books that are not yet released have a date after them. The others are available now!

Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Beware the Woman

This is so hard! But here we go:

• A piece of art. I always wanted to be the kind of person who owns original art. I’d pick a photograph by William Eggleston or Nan Goldin.
• A trip to Venice. Yes, I know it’s sinking, but all the more reason to get there before it’s too late!
• A home movie theater. There’s nothing better than going to a proper movie theater to see a movie with an audience, but on those occasions when it’s not possible, I’d love this. Fully stocked with popcorn, boxes of Good & Plenty and champagne.

E.A. Aymar, author of No Home for Killers and When She Left (February, 2024)

I like to think of myself as someone who is relatively humble, but, there is a very good chance that I would buy diamond encrusted clothes and a pair of pet lions that I would bring with me to Bouchercon. It’s good to be self-aware.

• That said, my real hope would be that my first splurge is for my family, both in the states and Panama, to make sure everyone is provided for, blah blah blah boring, but you get the point.
• Then I’d want to find the perfect place to live, someplace safe and with all four seasons, a town that will give my child the loveliest memories as an adult. I don’t know where that is but, hey, I have a billion dollars! Maybe I’ll build it.
• And then, lastly, maybe just a diamond encrusted shirt and only one pet lion. After all, I don’t want the money to change me.

Lou Berney, award-winning author of DARK RIDE (September, 2023)

• 1 gorilla habitat.
• 1 1968 Olds Cutlass 442, olive green, restored to mint condition.
• 1 abandoned and allegedly haunted amusement park I will turn into a writers colony for all my friends and some of my enemies.

Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of Find Me

• I’d open a restaurant, hire any of my restaurant friends who were interested, give all of us huge salaries, have rotating pop-up chefs to change the menu each month, and—most importantly–the staff would be allowed to 86 anyone who’s a jerk. It would be a glorious place to hang.
• A house on the beach with enough guest rooms for all my favorite people.
• An obnoxiously extravagant marketing budget for my next book.

Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Sleepless City (July 2023)

• Taking care of all of my close family’s debts
• Buying my wife a cottage on the water
• A Porsche … not necessarily in that order.

Lynne Constantine, internationally bestselling co-author of The Senator’s Wife

• Pay off all the houses for everyone in my extended family
• Buy my dream beach house
• Take a one-year world cruise with my husband and children and dogs

Kellye Garrett, award-winning author of Like A Sister

• An Audi Q8 SUV but I’d also get it a custom paint color so I could recognize it easily in a parking lot instead of walking around in circles like “which of these 10 white Toyota RAV-4s” are mine like I have done in the past.
• I’d also have my realtor hunt down the owners of this apartment I’ve been crushing on for years and make them an all-cash offer so it can finally be mine in real life and not just my dreams. I’d also have to obviously get some celeb interior designer to furnish it. 
• Finally, I’d start my own crime fiction publishing company that would be focused on the voices often overlooked in our genre especially those of us from marginalized backgrounds and women of a certain age. 

Alison Gaylin, Edgar-Award-winning author of Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence

Okay, so since we’re talking splurges and not necessities, I’m going to say travel, travel and travel.

• One trip to a place I’m already in love with (Paris, Tokyo or New Orleans)
• One trip to a place I’ve always wanted to go (Barcelona, Costa Rica, Netherlands)
• One spa trip for utter relaxation.

I’d bring my family on the first two trips, and the last trip, I would host friends — writer friends especially, because as a group, we are truly in need of a spa trip.

Greg Herren, award-winning author of #shedeservedit

• A house in Tuscany, preferably Panzano
• A TAG Heuer watch
• A really nice apartment in Manhattan

James L’Etoile, award-winning author of Dead Drop and the Emily Hunter detective series

• Work with local bookstores to cover all shopper purchases for a year, after making sure they stock all my friend’s titles
• Restock the local libraries
• And finally, a little guilty pleasure—remodel the house to include a slightly downsized replica of the New York Public Library’s Rose Reading Room

Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Prom Mom (July 2023)

• I would try to find out if money could make a difference in my sister’s living circumstances. She has Parkinson’s and is in a nursing home. I think I would buy her a house, pay for therapists, experimental treatments, round-the-clock care. 
• A Joan Mitchell painting. 
• A Bottega Veneta bag because, honestly, the only way you could justify a Bottega Venta handbag is if you had a billion dollars. I was admiring one the other day AND IT COST $3,000. I found a perfectly suitable facsimile for 1/10 of the price. Yeah, I know Hermes is more expensive still, but, for whatever reason, I always find myself drawn to the Bottega Veneta bags in the “editors’ picks” emails I get from Vogue. (The most recent email was on summer essentials and it included $8 Hanes T-shirts, this is why I cannot quit Vogue.)

Wanda M. Morris, award-winning author of Anywhere You Run

• Set up trust funds for my kids 
• Donate to some charities 
• Purchase some waterfront homes in several countries!!

Nadine Nettmann, author of The Bootlegger’s Daughter (March, 2024)

• First up, a house, or rather, houses. I mean, if it’s a billion dollars, more than one might fun.
• Second, a private chef as I love food, but I don’t love cooking and often have random cravings. I’d love to get some of those awesome meals made such as a dish I had years ago during my travels or a recipe that looked interesting.
• And finally, I’d love to set up college funds for all my nieces and nephews. A splurge shared 🙂  

SJ Rozan, award-winning author of The Mayors of New York (December 2023)

• I’d give $10 million to Planned Parenthood
• I’d give $10 million to The Nature Conservancy
• I’d set up a foundation to decide where the rest goes

Hank Philippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of The House Guest

If I HAD to–if the rules were that you could not give to charity or pay a million peoples’ college tuitions, or buy lifetimes of school supplies for every public-school teacher and student, or make sure no one was hungry or cold ever again, somehow—if we were required to choose a thing, then…. Okay. Because you required three things: 

• I would have a house in Paris. And one in Nevis.  And I would never have to do another expense report, I could hire someone to do that.
• First class flights, definitely. (Oh, see?  I am not used to this. I am still thinking small.  Private planes wherever I wanted.)
• And a chauffeur. My husband would definitely be happy about that. (Is that too many things?)

I would still write my books, isn’t that weird?

Alex Segura, award-winning author of Secret Identity

• New house
• Long + luxurious vacation with my wife
• A huge week-long party with my closest friends and family

Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six

• First, I’d start a Random Acts of Kindness foundation devoted to directly helping people with things like medical bills, education costs, new homes, anything that makes an individual person’s life more livable, less stressful, and more secure.
• Then, I’d form a think tank of engineers, scientists, and artists to apply their genius toward solving existing climate, humanitarian, and clean energy crises around the world.  
• Finally, after all of this I’d spend the next year traveling the world, visiting spas and yoga retreats!

Wendy Walker, internationally bestselling author of What Remains

• A trip to Anguilla with my favorite people
• Hire someone to fix everything that bugs me around my house and yard
• A week at a spa 

Sarah Weinman, award-winning author of Scoundrel, editor of Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning (July 2023)

• Immediately book a week of spa days at a very fancy place
• A trip to Australia and New Zealand
• Actually buy an apartment in Manhattan

(But let’s be real, I’d probably make sure my family and friends were sorted first, earmark some charitable cause donations, and put the rest in a trust.)

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New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub has published nearly 100 novels over a three-decade career, written under her own name and several pseudonyms. Her latest psychological suspense novel, Windfall (William Morrow), is on sale July 11. The fifth title in her Lily Dale Mysteries series is The Stranger Vanishes (Severn, October 2022), with two more under contract.