1. What's your favourite thing about the thriller genre?
The sense of tension it provides, in essence. The way the genre poses questions, then dangles the answers just out of reach. In a time where there are so many competing demands on our attention, in the form of say social media and the 24 hour news cycle, I still love a thriller’s ability to lock you in and take you on an unpredictable journey that feels like a fairground ride - a potent mix of pleasure and fear. And because thrillers can be so engaging, as you’re racing through them, it’s definitely a way to switch off from everything else around you. A form of escapism.
2. Why were you drawn towards the coastal towns and what kind of atmosphere do these spaces create?
Well, from the age of 11, I was brought up in the coastal town of St Andrews which is the inspiration for St Rule in Bluff. My previous novel, Pine, was centred around a forest. I wanted to explore something new in Bluff, so I chose to write about the coastal landscape of north east Fife. There is a sense of claustrophobia to the small town. You’re always running into - or indeed being overheard by - people you know. Yet, in a coastal town that sense of smallness is juxtaposed with wide expanses of sand and sea. St Andrews is also a university town that is popular with tourists. So while it may be small in size, there is an interesting, international mix of people that was fun to write about.
3. There is a 10 year gap between Joanie's departure from St Rule and Cameron's return, why was it important to you to have this distance?
I really liked writing Joanie’s character, at the difficult and impressionable age of eighteen. She was the character I started off with. As the novel went on, I felt it would benefit from a different, more grown up perspective, so I introduced her friend Cameron’s point of view, ten years from when they had left secondary school. I had a lot of fun writing from the perspective of a man, Niall, in Pine that I wanted to try it again, but with a different kind of character and in first person. There was something enjoyable about writing about a group people (Joanie, Cameron and their classmates) at two different stages of their lives. Ten years after leaving secondary school is enough time to make you wonder - what really happened to that school friend who disappeared?
4. Secrets are a big part of this story, what is it about secrets (and their reveals) that interests you?
In order to create that sense of tension and invite the reader to keep turning the pages, I wanted to give nearly all the characters a secret they’re hiding - whether it’s something small, big or even deadly. Who doesn’t love a good secret?
5. Could you tell us more about Bluff and what inspired you to tell this story?
Bluff is a psychological thriller set in Fife. It follows the perspectives of Joanie, a teenage girl who has just left secondary school and that of her classmate Cameron ten years later, who comes back to his home town for Christmas, only to realise no one has seen or heard of Joanie for years. At least that is what people tell him.
The idea for the novel came about during the isolation of the pandemic. We often think we can look up all our old friends online, but what if there was that one person whose search results came up blank?
6. How do you approach fleshing out compelling and believable characters?
I have a starting point for most characters. Often they are informed by time and place. I never base my characters on real people, but they are usually inspired by a kind of person one might find in a certain place. For Joanie’s character, I knew she was going to be a teenage girl as I had so enjoyed writing the teenage girls as secondary characters in Pine. She also had to be someone who was being pushed away from her support network and pulled into a new environment. Cameron was a character who, in his own timeline, wants to play detective. However, to flesh both main characters out, I had to keep coming back to them, adding small and sometimes contradictory details. I like writing in the grey areas of characterisation, to make someone do something that maybe seems at odds with a first impression of them as I think that reflects reality. For example, Joanie is a popular girl at school, but inside she is a bundle of nerves. I like creating complex characters this way, but it takes a few drafts.
