Bookish Thursday - Guest Post by Liz Wanic - Life As An Expat

If you check out my August 13, 2026 post, you will see my review of Liz Wanic, with her sister, Rebekah Wanic, book Under Cover of Chaos. 

And now I am fortunate enough to feature a guest post from the author herself, Liz Wanic. This topic is of particular interest to me as many times I have considered moving to another country. However, my sights were set on anywhere from Tuscany, to Fair Isle, Scotland, to somewhere in England. 

But here is Wanic's take on 'Life as an Expat'...

Life as an Expat – Surviving On Limited Evidence 

By Liz Wanic

Imagine you arrived in a new country three days ago. This morning you woke up feeling slightly off. Now it’s lunchtime. You’re feverish, your extremities are turning blue, and it’s all you can do to keep your insides from exploding. Do you trust someone you only met in passing yesterday to take you to the hospital and stay with you there? When this happened to me, I had to make call, and thankfully, it turned out to be the right one. But I had a lot of moments like this during the years I spent living and working overseas, and they didn’t all end smoothly.

Usually, we build trust slowly, with the benefit of shared history, mutual friends, and time. But when you move to a new place every year or two, you have to decide quickly who is safe, who is telling the truth, and who wants something from you. And without enough evidence, you have to choose, because trusting no one isn’t an option. Especially not in some of the environments I worked in, where relying on the wrong person could mean more than an inconvenience. Is it really safe to go to this part of town or will we get caught up in a fight? Can I trust this man to drive me five hours away from the others, alone? Is it better to pay a bribe or argue with the local police? 

Sometimes you’ll be right to trust someone, and a stranger will turn into a great roommate and friend. And sometimes you’ll be wrong and find yourself backing out of a confrontation at an armed checkpoint. But that’s part of the life. When the only thing you have to go on is your instinct, you’re going to make some wrong calls.

Under Cover of Chaos is about serial killer. But what enables the killer is the same dynamic I experienced during my time as an expat – being forced to make high-stakes decisions about other people with incomplete information and sometimes getting it wrong. In the book, Janus exploits this dynamic for his gain, while Stella struggles to understand where to place her trust.

I don't live in stressful environments anymore, but I still find myself evaluating people in the same way – even in low-stakes situations like with a new coworker, the pest guy, or the person next to me at the bar. My experiences trained me to do this, even though most of the time now, it doesn't matter. But I spent a long time in situations where it did. Under Cover of Chaos plays on this concept – that expat environments, where you have to trust quickly, can sometimes make it easier for a murderer to operate.

Many thanks to Liz Wanic for sharing her experiences with us. Take a look at book reviews and other guest posts from her here...