As a child, I devoured the
Famous Five mysteries by Enid Blyton and was later drawn to crime
thrillers, such as
A Simple Plan by
Scott Smith and
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth. Ever since they became recognised as a distinct category,
however, I’ve been captivated by psychological thrillers, loving writers such
as Minette Walters and Nicci French, from the 1990’s onwards. At the time, I
was in awe of all writers and the idea of actually putting together a
psychological thriller myself was completely beyond me!
Before I first had a go at writing fiction in 2008, I was a psychotherapist
for 15 years. As well as seeing clients with mainstream issues such as low
self-esteem, depression and relationship issues, I was privileged to work with
ex-convicts from high-security institutions. I found this work fascinating and
aside from giving me ideas for novels, it gave me considerable insight into the
disturbed and criminal mind.
So, should I try to write murder mysteries or psychological thrillers..? Which
would I choose? In the end I didn’t. I put the two genres together.
In my first attempt at a novel,
The Evil Beneath, I wanted to create
a story that had a distinct mystery on the surface and a deeper psychological
thriller lurking underneath. To create dissonance between what the reader
‘knows’ and what the lead character hasn’t yet worked out. I like to find ways
to mislead the reader and to create
jeopardy from the ‘inside-out’, rather than from
the ‘outside-in’. By this I mean that the characters are exposed to danger on a
mental level – mind-games and deception – rather than (or as well as!) a
physical one.
I’ve written nine psych thrillers to date, with another in the pipeline,
and my plots usually centre around the
hidden unreliability or instability of individuals in the story. My
protagonists often face a tortuous situation: a missing child, a death made to
look like suicide, a stalker, a simple but deadly mistake, for instance.
In Don’t you Dare, for example, the story starts with a mother
misunderstanding a situation involving her daughter and killing someone. This
kind of mystery allows the reader to get right inside the minds of key players.
It encourages them to try to anticipate how characters might handle certain
dilemmas and tempts the reader towards trying to figure out what their true
motives are. Not just ‘who dunnit’– but ‘why’ and ‘how dunnit’! It also invites
readers to consider: what on earth would I do if I was faced with this
situation..?
Most of all, I like
the idea of dramatic events happening to ordinary people. A dark and
deadly puzzle involving clues where hidden dangers come to light.
I love twists and turns and that big OMG
moment at the end, of course – that turns everything on its head!
In my novel,
No Longer Safe, for
instance, nothing is as it seems… Many readers told me that when they got to
the end of the book, they were so gob-smacked, they had to go back to the
beginning to discover how the events turned out as they did! That’s such a
great compliment for a writer. I love to knock my readers sideways – and
there’s certainly a delicious sting in the tail in that novel!
In all my books I like
exploring moral dilemmas and what happens when relationships are blighted by
jealousy, secrets, lies or revenge. I like writing ‘domestic noir’ – what could
be more scary than thinking you’re safe in your own home and finding that’s
where your worst nightmares begin…
My current favourite authors are Belinda Bauer, Claire
Kendall, Lucy Clarke and Sabine Durrant.
Brilliant books I’ve read recently are:
Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes and Tideline
by Penny Hancock.
I Spy by Claire Kendal
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