Louise Candlish talks to Cheryl about her approach to writing, the evolution of reader expectations, and the challenges and triumphs of being a long-standing author. Her latest book, Our Holiday, is out now.

About The Author

Louise Candlish is the internationally bestselling author of 17 novels. Her brand-new crime drama Our Holiday, set among holiday-home owners on the English south coast, is a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and a Richard & Judy Book Club pick for summer.

2024 marks her 20th anniversary as a published author.

Louise is best known for Our House, on our screens as a major four-part ITV drama starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton. It won the British Book Awards Book of the Year – Crime & Thriller and was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Specsavers National Book Award and several other awards. A Waterstones Thriller of the Month, it has received a Nielsen Bestseller Silver Award for 250,000 copies sold.

She recently won the 2024 Capital Crime Fingerprint Award – Thriller of the Year for her book The Only Suspect , which has also been shortlisted for the 2024 Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction. She was shortlisted for the 2024 CWA Dagger in the Library Award. ​

Louise lives in a South London neighbourhood not unlike the ones in her books with her husband, daughter, and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie, who is the apple of her eye. Her favourite authors include Tom Wolfe, Patricia Highsmith, Barbara Vine and Agatha Christie.