Blessing in disguise

‘As a fan of crime fiction, I always wanted to write a spy thriller, but wasn’t sure where to start,’ writes subscriber Karmen Špiljak.

‘Although I lived in Brussels, the supposed city of spies, the job itself is steeped in such secrecy that it’s hard to find reliable sources of information. The more I learned about spies, the clearer it became I didn’t want to write a classic spy story. For one, my spy would be a woman and she would spy for a specific cause, rather than a country.

‘While working for WWF, I learned about the vast scale of environmental crime, which gave me an idea.

Could my spy work on behalf of the environment? It wasn’t until I read accounts of people involved in crime that my main character sprang to life.

‘Antonia (Toni) Morretti arrived with heavy luggage. As a mobster’s sister who cooks her brother’s books, Toni struggles to live a life of crime, but she doesn’t want to betray her family. She fakes her own death and starts anew. In Mexico City, she finds work as a spy, but her new boss knows more than he lets on. Her brilliant disguise skills get her by, but it soon becomes clear she’s not as safe as she thought. When her past comes knocking, Toni needs to decide: to run once more or risk her life for a chance of freedom?

‘I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo and took three more years to revise and polish the story. No Such Thing as Goodbye has been shortlisted and received an honourable mention at the Black Spring Crime Fiction Prize 2020 and has been longlisted for the 2020 Exeter Novel Prize. Despite getting a hybrid publishing offer I decided to self-publish, as this is the first book in a series. The book came out in July 2022.’

Website: www.karmens.net