What inspired the idea behind this book?
I knew from the start that Strangers was going to be a book about loneliness. I live in Bristol, a large city in the UK with a population of nearly half a million people. When I moved here nine years ago I only knew two people and, as a sleep-deprived new mum, I was often desperately lonely. It struck me that there must be thousands of people in Bristol, of all ages, all feeling as isolated and alone as I did. I live very close to a small shopping mall and I often see people milling aimlessly around on their own. As I did my shopping one day an idea started to from – I wanted to set a book in a shopping mall and follow the lives of three lonely characters: a security guard, a shop manager and a kleptomaniac. They’d be complete strangers, all lonely in different ways, and their lives would collide as a result of a crime. All I had to do then was get to know each of the characters and insert a mystery into each of their lives.
What was the research process like for the book?
Most of the research I had to do for Strangers involved finding out as much as I could about the world of security guards – how long their shifts are, how a CCTV office works and how a CCTV camera works. Fortunately I’ve got a friend who used to work in a shopping mall so he was able to answer most of my questions. There are also several scenes in a police station in the book so I spoke to an ex-Detective who was able to help me with the police procedural elements. My kleptomaniac character is a parcel courier so I spent a lot of time on Google reading about how much a courier is paid, the hours they work and how flexible the job is.
If I looked at your internet history, what would it reveal about you?
On a personal level it would probably show that I do far too much internet shopping late at night, that I have a dog that needs a lot of attention, and that I’m currently quite obsessed with running (I’ve nearly completed the Couch to 5k programme and transformed myself from couch potato to someone who can run for half an hour without stopping). As an author I frequently Google innocuous things like ‘Norse mythology animals’ (just for a throwaway line in the current book I’m writing) and ‘how tall are the cliffs in Ta’Cenc Gozo?’ to much darker questions about murder weapons, sentencing and how long bodies take to decompose in certain conditions.
Does the creative process get easier for you with each book?
I wish it did but, because I try and push myself to try something different each time, each book presents a new set of challenges. What I have realised though is that no hurdle is insurmountable. Given enough time there’s no plot problem I can’t solve eventually. Strangers is my seventh crime novel and when I set out to write it I knew that I would have ups and downs along the way. I love the plotting, planning and brainstorming stage of writing a book but when it comes to approaching a blank page I often feel too nervous to start. Around 10,000 words in I’ll love what I’m writing but when I hit 40,000 words I’ll start to doubt myself, and the book. Writing a book is a heady mixture of excitement, passion and self-doubt and knowing that I will get to the end eventually, and produce a book I’m proud of, makes it all worthwhile.
What’s some great advice you’ve received that has helped you as a writer?
The best advice I’ve ever received was when I stumbled on a quote by Elmore Leonard -‘When you write, try to leave out the parts that readers skip.’ Readers often tell me that my books are page-turners and they struggle to put them down and I think that’s because I get the most enjoyment out of writing tense, compelling, conflict-filled scenes. And I do love a cliff-hanger…
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