About the author… Louise Candlish

As a child she was inspired to start writing after reading the complete works of mystery author Agatha Christie and she penned her first book at 30. She lives in London with her husband and teenage daughter. This is her 15th novel.

This novel was inspired by… There were a few themes I wanted to explore, including revenge. I wanted a family feud I hadn’t seen before and the mother/son’s friend dynamic struck me as unusual and untapped. I was also interested in the nature of crime memoir and how one person’s version of events might not be the definitive one.

The most fun/challenging thing about writing it was… The book was written in its entirety in the UK Covid lockdown, so its creation was as much a lifeline as it was a form of livelihood. “Fun” might not be the word, because it was an intense and anxious time, but writing it was certainly a form of escapism. Ellen and Vic were my friends when I couldn’t see my real ones!

My writing habits are… If you surprised me at my desk, you’d think me very casual in my habits – for a start, I don’t actually have a desk, but write on my laptop on the sofa. But my mind is quite organised and I’m both a keen list maker and an adherent to deadlines.

If I’m writing a first draft, I have a weekly word count of 5000; for redrafting, all bets are off and I might add a game-changing new scene in one inspired gush or make a terrifying discovery of an error that jeopardises the whole project. I drink a lot of coffee and eat constant sweet treats: salted caramel is my favourite.