In addition to filming her latest Hallmark project, the new series “Hope Valley: 1874,” actress Bethany Joy Lenz has also been hard at work on her first novel.
Two years after Simon & Schuster published Lenz’s New York Times bestselling memoir, “Dinner For Vampires,” the company will release her first work of fiction, “The Betrayal of Cora-Wexford,” in October. On March 18, 2026, the book’s haunting cover was unveiled, featuring a painting by the multi-talented actress.
Bethany Joy Lenz Reveals How Crafting Her Historical Thriller Was Different Than Writing Her Memoir
While appearing on KTLA to promote her new Hallmark series, she told the morning show hosts that writing “The Betrayal of Cora Wexford” was a different experience than writing her memoir about winding up in a cult while she was filming “One Tree Hill.”
“This is historical fiction, and it’s different than a memoir,” she said. “For the memoir, I knew the story because it was my life, and I had the chronology all written out. It’s quite easy to fly through it.”
“With this one, I’m really crafting a new story from scratch.,” Lenz continued. “So this one is a psychological thriller set in London in the 1880s. It’s set in the art world. There’s a woman who’s a painter — she paints postmortem portraiture, and she gets involved in researching the lives of the victims of who we now call Jack the Ripper.”
“It’s really examining the parallels between physical violence and psychological violence, and how communities can be complicit,” the actress added. “It’s a world I know a little bit about.”
More Details About Bethany Joy Lenz’s Novel
HallmarkSimon & Schuster describes “The Betrayal of Cora Wexford” as a “gripping novel of psychological suspense that examines intertwined themes of desire, manipulation and community complicity—and shows how truly terrifying love can be.” The book is available for pre-order and will be released on October 13.
Protagonist Cora Wexford, the publisher says, “is single and childless at thirty-seven, with secrets that drove her to flee life in America and come to London.” On her birthday, she meets a “charming and successful stranger” named Miles Vale and given the chance to “catapult her career.” When she begins to realize that the women she’s been commissioned to paint after their deaths were all murdered in the same way, she becomes obsessed with the cases and “her life begins unraveling.”
Lenz has a knack for going back in time to tell compelling stories. She co-starred with Kristoffer Polaha in 2024’s Hallmark hit “A Biltmore Christmas,” set in the 1940s, and “Hope Valley: 1874,” which premieres on Hallmark+ on March 21, is set in — you got it, 1874.
