Imagine you’re at the top of your high-powered career when, out of nowhere, a colleague you trusted blackmails you. As you look deeper into your company, you start to wonder if the blackmail is a threat . . . or a warning.
That’s the idea behind The Lies We Trade, a new domestic thriller set on Wall Street. The author, Kristine Delano, spent over twenty years on Wall Street before turning her expertise into novels.
Kristine shares with us how her Wall Street career inspired The Lies We Trade. She also tells how she managed to convey complicated financial concepts in a way readers with no experience will easily understand. And she details how the book can help readers stand up for what’s right.
If you like what you read, get access to the entire first chapter of The Lies We Trade. Or find your own copy in softcover, e-book, or audiobook at a retailer near you.
How much of Meredith’s story is inspired by your own career on Wall Street?
My time on Wall Street gave me a front-row seat to the drama and enough material to fill quite a few thrillers. But no, the book isn’t a diary in disguise. My experiences enabled me to create an authentic world of high finance, but nothing in Meredith’s story is lifted wholesale from my own career. Betsey, Dave, Terrence, and others are stitched together from little quirks and big personalities I encountered in my career. As for the plot, it’s my wild imagining of what could happen if our cravings for power, influence, and money ran completely off the rails and what kind of courage it might take to set things right.
How did you ensure the financial details were accurate while keeping them accessible to readers unfamiliar with Wall Street?
Great question. And honestly? It was very difficult—like trying to explain the Instagram algorithm to your great-grandma. My editors at Tyndale were absolute wizards at spotting moments when I’d gone full Wall Street gobbledygook and gently suggesting I swap jargon for a relatable analogy. No one wants a thrilling scene interrupted by a detailed walk-through of a quarterly earnings report. The book lands somewhere between authentic enough to satisfy my former colleagues and clear enough that no one needs to look up EBITDA mid-chapter. I do hope The Lies We Trade awakens an interest in the thrilling world of Wall Street.
Trust and forgiveness are central themes in the book. How do you think these themes resonate with readers, especially in the context of family and career?
Authentic trust and building a lifelong habit of forgiveness gets harder as life’s bumps and bruises pile up, and we start convincing ourselves that putting up walls is the best way to stay safe. But before you know it, you’re trapped in a fortress of your own making. I think readers resonate with this tension because we’ve all felt it, whether in family relationships that go sideways or important colleagues who disappoint us when we need them most. I hope seeing these ideas play out in the book reminds readers of how freeing it can be to trust boldly and forgive quickly.
What message do you hope readers take away about resilience and standing up for what’s right, even in the face of betrayal?
If we don’t exercise the muscle of facing, solving, and even suffering through challenges, we risk not having the strength to stand up for what’s right. Sometimes we rush to label every hard situation as “trauma” or every difficult person as a “toxic bully,” and while real harm absolutely exists, we can also end up shielding ourselves from the messy but necessary work of navigating conflict and learning to reconcile. My hope is The Lies We Trade offers readers a safe space to recognize those situations, identify tools of resilience, and feel inspired to apply them in the real world. Because standing up for what’s right will never be easy, but it’s always worth it.
The Lies We Trade by Kristine Delano
Meredith Hansel should be having the best week of her life. After establishing herself as a portfolio manager at a prestigious Wall Street firm, she’s in the national spotlight for the innovative funds she created. But as Meredith prepares to celebrate, the plates she’s kept spinning for years begin to crash: Her strained marriage reaches a breaking point. Her conscientious teenage daughter acts out under mysterious pressures. Someone vandalizes her home with disturbing graffiti. And Betsey, her most trusted ally at the financial firm, goes rogue, and Meredith is forced to sign a restraining order against her.
Then her worlds collide when she receives a thumb drive and a cryptic note from Betsey threatening to reveal a secret that could have devastating effects on Meredith’s family . . . unless she can figure out what Betsey wants and deliver it in time.
As Meredith begins to dig into the data, however, she begins to suspect that it’s no coincidence her life is crumbling. That maybe what’s happening to her family is connected to what’s boiling beneath the surface at her investment company. Soon Meredith realizes there’s only one way to avoid taking the fall, and it all hinges on Betsey’s true motives. Was she really threatening Meredith or trying to warn her?
Kristine Delano spent over twenty years navigating a career on Wall Street before trading her panoramic city view for her standing writer’s desk. A lifelong fiction lover, she now crafts thriller novels set in the high-stakes finance world, exploring the emotional tension of work-life balance.
In pursuit of compelling stories, Kristine hosts the popular podcast We Talk Careers, where she interviews the voices of Wall Street on leadership, growth, and purpose. She is also a board member, speaker, and strategic advisor for businesses, schools, and parachurch organizations. Her faith fuels her passion for helping women navigate their calling.
Kristine’s work has been recognized in fiction-focused writing competitions and with the ACFW Crown Award. She also loves the chance to stay connected with fellow authors and readers on Instagram and LinkedIn and through her membership in writers’ groups.
When she’s not writing, Kristine enjoys playing games with friends, scuba diving, and chasing her husband and children down the snowy ski slopes of western Maine—never does she catch them, but with joy she tries. Connect with her online at kristinedelano.com.