About the author… Nalini Singh

She was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. She used to be a lawyer but was always writing stories in her spare time, and published her first book almost 20 years ago. She lives in Auckland and is a prolific writer of paranormal romance, sci-fi and fantasy. This is her second crime novel.

This novel was inspired by… a mental image I had of a rusting car hidden deep within a forest, holding inside it bones clothed in red silk. Who was this woman who’d been left forgotten in the dark? Why was she there?

Would she ever be found? Once I began to think about her, I couldn’t stop until I knew the answers.

The most challenging thing about writing it was… the narrator. Aarav is gifted, complicated and not quite reliable. I didn’t, however, know the latter until I’d written the entire first draft.

Next for me is… finishing my urban fantasy novel Archangel’s Light. I’m currently on the third draft. Doing multiple drafts is a normal part of my process – I sometimes liken it to creating a sculpture from a slab of marble. With each draft, I reveal more of the shape hidden within, more of the truth. I’m also playing with an idea for another NZset thriller.