More perhaps than most, Megan Abbott knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men (and women, too). This explains Ms. Abbott’s ability to conjure the perfect bad guy — ahem, a contractor — in her latest crime novel, the ballet-centric thriller, “The Turnout,” which will be published Aug. 3.

Let the record show that Ms. Abbott, 49, also the author of “Dare Me,” “You Will Know Me” and “Take My Hand,” was not writing from personal experience.

Seventeen years ago, when she and her then husband, Josh Gaylord, also a novelist, bought a junior four in Forest Hills, Queens, they were completing Ph.D. programs and had the anemic bank accounts to prove it. The kitchen, which had long since been renovated on the cheap, would have greatly benefited from an intervention, and the floors needed refinishing. But serious home improvement would have to wait. (It’s still waiting.)