What inspired you to write The Family?
I’ve always been fascinated by old, derelict buildings, and The Family came from a vision of a once-grand Victorian villa sitting in the middle of a run-down council estate. As the last privately owned property, it would stand out like a sore thumb, and I imagined how the eccentric character who’d lived there might have felt as her neighbours’ houses were demolished to make way for new-builds. That character had already died at the start of the book and the house was falling to pieces, so I attributed my own curiosity to the girl across the road, Cheryl; how she would see the place each day and long to be able to see what it was like inside. It really all started with that, and the house became as integral a part of the story as the characters who lived in and around it.
How do you build suspense in your novels?
I never know where a story is going to go when I start it, so I think the suspense builds naturally as I get to know my characters and watch them navigate their way through whatever predicament I’ve put them in. I’ve always been intrigued by how differently people react to and handle difficult situations, and I feel the same about my characters, because they become so real in my mind. I have also been a victim of crime, so I understand fear in a deeply personal way, which absolutely affects how my characters behave - although, they often do the exact opposite of what I have done or ever would do.
Your books often have twists that surprise the reader. How do you decide when to reveal clues and when to keep things hidden?
The twists in my books are often as much of a surprise to me when they appear as they subsequently are for my readers. It’s not something I do consciously; it happens as the story evolves and the characters take on a life of their own. I can be writing and one of my characters will suddenly do something that I hadn’t intended. Rather than delete it and stick to whatever I originally had in mind, I will often roll with it to see where it takes me, which can open up a completely new perspective.
What message or feeling do you hope readers walk away with after finishing one of your books?
I hope that my readers will feel satisfied that whichever character they’ve been rooting for managed to get through whatever struggle they faced; and that they feel vindicated on that character’s behalf when the ones who caused those struggles get what they deserved.
What do you think makes a story truly compelling, and how do you achieve that in your own writing?
Characters and their emotions/personalities are what make a story compelling for me. Nobody is all good or all bad, in my experience, and even the kindest, most mild-mannered of people can do unthinkable things in defence of someone they love. Equally, seemingly evil people can lay their own lives on the line for someone they love. It’s those emotionally driven decisions and actions that keep me invested in others’ stories, and also in my own, because I get so deeply involved with my characters that I genuinely care about them.
What are your top 3 crime & thriller book recommendations?
This is a tough one, because there are some spectacular writers in this genre, and I have more than a few that I would recommend. Some I’ve read more recently that have stuck in my mind are: David Jackson’s The Resident. I won’t give anything away, but I loved the premise of this story. It’s genuinely creepy, simply because it’s all too possible. And David has a killer ability to write shocking one-liners that smack you right between the eyes. That was my first by him, and I highly recommend his others as well.
John Marrs’s The One and The Passengers. Both of these books stayed with me long after I’d finished reading them. John has a brilliant flow to his writing that I love. His stories suck me straight in, and his characters are always richly drawn and fascinating. Those two were my introduction to his work, and I’ve now read them all. Again, highly recommended.
My third recommendation is Tracy Whitwell’s The Accidental Medium series. It isn’t what would traditionally be described as Crime/Thriller, although it does contain those elements, but it’s so deliciously spooky, witchy and hilarious, I absolutely loved it. So much so, that I felt compelled to reach out to Tracy after reading the first. We subsequently became friends, and I can tell you that her lead character – Tanz, the accidental medium – IS Tracy, which is why they’re so believable. I was also privileged to be granted an early read of her book The
She, which absolutely blew my mind. It’s far darker than the Tanz series, and not yet published, but that book should be massive. In fact, it’s one of the most visual books I’ve ever read and should be a major film, in my opinion. But definitely not for the faint hearted!
