Pat Gussin debuts new book

When Pat Gussin talks about Nicole Nelson and Ahmed Masud, it sounds as if she’s talking about old friends.

She knows about their careers and family histories and how adorable their 5-year-old son is.

But these people aren’t her real-life friends. They are the characters in her newest, and seventh, book, “Come Home,” which made its debut Nov. 7. On Nov. 12, Gussin discussed and signed her book for readers at the Longboat Library.

The book follows Nicole Nelson and Ahmed Masud, who are married and partners in a plastic surgery practice. Their life is successful and happy with their son, Alex, but things are beginning to fall apart. Masud has faced some prejudice following 9/11 as an Arab man, malpractice lawsuits against him are piling up and his family in Cairo is pressuring him to return to Egypt permanently with his son.

Soon, Masud’s family demands his return because the Hosni Mubarak regime is threatened by protesters, and the Masud family owes their control of the Egyptian cotton empire to the regime.

“In a very weak moment, he decides to adhere to their wishes,” Gussin said.

While Nelson is in surgery, Masud runs away to Egypt, taking Alex with him.

What ensues is Nelson’s mission to get her family back.

“At the core, it’s a clash between cultures, the mom and dad and kid in the middle and families lined up on each side,” Gussin said.

Despite pleas from the crowd, Gussin wouldn’t share the ending, but she gave a hint.

“It’s devastating,” she said. “When you’re the writer, you have to decide how to end it, and at the end of the day, there was no way it was going to end well.”

Gussin, who calls “Come Home” emotional, is planning to make a series out of the book with a second one focusing on Nelson’s twin sister, Natalie. She plans to call the series “The Identicals.”

Weaving characters throughout multiple books is something she’s done before. Her first book, “Shadow of Death,” is the first in a series following Laura Nelson. Nelson has sons and twin daughters. Those twins are Nicole and Natalie Nelson.

“I really like to explore what we would call domestic suspense,” she said.

Some of her writing is based on her personal experiences. Gussin said the character of Laura Nelson in her first novel is loosely based on herself, for she was in medical school in Detroit during the Detroit riots as was Nelson. Gussin was also in Cairo two days before Arab Spring began, which ties into “Come Home.”

As unplanned as her writing, the social and political upheaval points in her book weren’t  planned, either. However, she knows drama is a common denominator in her books. After all, “Come Home” is her second book involving a kidnapping, which is surprising even to her as a mother of six.

“As a mom, what could be more unimaginably horrible than a kid being taken?” she asked the crowd at the library.

Gussin, who co-owns Oceanview Publishing with her husband, Bob, never planned to be a writer, and neither of them planned to go into publishing. Both Gussins had medical careers, and on retiring, Pat Gussin discovered she wanted to write, which is where this story really begins.

The Gussins also own two vineyards in New Zealand, which is another adventure they didn’t plan on in retirement.