I have always loved reading and writing.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been making up stories, poems and even magazines that I’d sell to family members for 20p back in the eighties. I fell in love with Enid Blyton and books like The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, and somehow managed to get through GCSEs and A-levels while spending most of the lessons staring out of the window and creating other worlds in my head.
But this was as far as it went, and instead I went onto university to study Retail Management and then started a fifteen year career in marketing, where I met my husband, and had my first child.
IN 2012...
In 2012, just after my second child was born, I took redundancy from my job, and decided it was a good time to make some changes to my life. And one of these was to see if I could write a book.
It took a year to write a full novel, which I managed to complete by setting myself word count deadlines. I was then accepted onto the inaugural Curtis Brown Creative online Novel Writing Course, which fuelled my desire to become an author even more. But it took five years, two different agents and many rejections before I finally became a published writer.
IN 2017...
In 2017 I signed a two-book contract with Penguin Random House. I have since signed many more, and am now writing my eighth novel, which will be out in spring 2026, with two more contracted to write.
Writing is a passion, and I feel incredibly lucky to be doing a job that I love.
I write whenever and wherever I can. Often this has been up to the kitchen table but I am excited to soon be moving into my new ‘office’ in the garden!
Much of my inspiration comes from where I live and the areas surrounding it. My home is in Bournemouth and there are some stunning places along the south coast that I have used as locations for my books. See if you can spot them! They range from Portland, Lymington, Brownsea Island, West Dorset and soon to be the Isle of Wight. Sometimes the darkest things can happen in the most beautiful places!
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How do you get your ideas?They come from all sorts of places but will usually just start with one small nugget, and this has a few times been in the form of a ‘what if?’ question. What if you were looking after your best friend’s child and they disappeared? (NOW YOU SEE HER) What if it was the mother who vanished rather than the child (THE WHISPERS) Or I have been people watching on holiday and recognised how easy it is to make judgments about people we don’t know, and what if we got this dangerously wrong? (THE OTHER GUEST). The hard part is working that idea into a story that could be developed into a 90,000 book.
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Which authors inspire you?There are so many. I love reading crime, thrillers, police procedurals, dramas. But I do have some go to authors whose books I will always jump on as soon as they hit the shelves. To name a few they are: Liane Moriarity, Shari Lapena and Rosamund Lupton.
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Would you ever write in another genre?Potentially, although I wouldn’t stray far. If I wrote something different I would love to try my hand at a YA or middle grade book, but I think it would still be a thriller/crime inspired novel if I did.
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What would you do if you didn’t write?At the time I took redundancy from my marketing job I had a decision to make and at that point if I didn’t write, I thought I would like to be a counsellor. I think this is what I would choose if faced with that decision again today. If I were choosing a university degree again, I would opt for psychology. But my other big joy is art and craft and so if I could find something within that line that I was good enough to make some money from then I’d also do that!
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Which of your books do you like the most?This is the hardest question, because they all mean different things to me. Now You See Her was the book that launched my career and for that reason will always be close to my heart. But other than that, the book I have been the most excited about is Someone is Lying.
Publication
TIMELINE
2012
December
I started writing my first book, which I would go on to get editorial feedback for but would never progress
2013
September
I was accepted onto the inaugural Curtis Brown Complete Novel Writing Online course and started writing another novel, Beneath The Surface
2014
September
I secured an agent and this novel was sent out on submission to a number of editors who all rejected it
2015
January
I started writing yet another novel, but this one wasn’t sent out on submission
2016
March
I self-published Beneath The Surface, and sent Now You See Her to a few agents
2016
June
I was offered representation by Nelle Andrew, and together we worked on Now You See Her for a year before it was ready to submit to publishers
2017
August
Within two days Now You See Her was picked up by Penguin Random House in the UK and Simon and Schuster in the US
2018
July
Now You See Her was published in hardback, later becoming a Richard and Judy pick and a Sunday Times Bestseller. It received a Nielson award for selling over 250,000 copies
2019
July
Come Back For Me was published in hardback and became a Sunday Times bestseller
2020
April
Two weeks after we went into lockdown Three Perfect Liars was published in hardback
2022
March
The Whispers was published in hardback, and later became a Sunday Times bestseller in paperback
2023
January
The Other Guest was published in hardback
2023
December
The Last Resort was published in paperback