Over the past ten years, Iโve written eight books. Each of them has been a cross between a thriller, suspense and romance.
Back in 2015, at a time when Iโd already been writing for two years, I met my very first editor. I had a one to one with her at the RNA Conference and during the interview, she asked me if I wrote thrillers or romance. Her closing line was, โI love your author voice, but I think you need to decide, choose just one of them and stick to it.โ
Fortunately, Iโve never really followed rules. Deep inside, I honestly believe that the two genres can mix. And that even at the worst time in peopleโs lives, they still have the ability to fall in love, find romance, or simply feel passion. My heroines also have a fully developed life. They have friends, pets, jobs, children and family members. Albeit, quite often those families and lives are fractured, broken and in need of repair. However, in my mind they are real people and therefore, I want to give my readers a full experience by making the charactersโ lives as real, difficult, traumatic, loving and confusing as I possibly can.
In The Serial Killerโs Girl, itโs very clear very early in the story that Lexi is unsure about her relationship with Nate. Sheโs mistrusting in his actions, doesnโt understand why heโs suddenly acting secretive and when her birth mother is murdered in the same way that her serial killer father used to kill, she very quickly realises that both she and her daughter could be murdered next.
Having no alternative but to keep both herself and Isla safe, she flees to her childhood home. Back to Lindisfarne, and into the arms of Maggie, the foster mother who brought her up, gave her love and protected her at all costs. On the island, she feels loved. But she also feels nervous, threatened and confused. She has feelings that she canโt understand, especially when she realises that her teenage crush Harry is back on the island and the feelings sheโd previously had for him return.
In real life, people have real emotions. No day is the same and they often feel confused, and they have indecision, which makes their day so much more difficult than it should be.
My theory is… just because itโs fiction (and I say the word โjustโ with a lot of love for books and for telling a story), it shouldnโt really be different to real life? Our heroines canโt just have a lovely life. Not when youโre writing a thriller. They should have bad days, awful times, and days when their life is threatened. Then, while all of that is happening… sometimes, just sometimes, something amazing happens. And even on the worst day of their life… they can still have moments of pure clarity, a time when they can feel loved, cared for, or even just safe. Even if itโs only for a moment.
The Serial Killerโs Girl has been shortlisted by the RNAย for The Jackie Collins Thriller Award.
