CANR
WORK TITLE: The Woman Who Lied
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Bath
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CA 9_2021
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: two.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and journalist.
AWARDS:Marie Claire Debut Novel Award, 2013, for The Sisters.
WRITINGS
Also author of the novella The Text, 2017.
SIDELIGHTS
Claire Douglas is a British writer and journalist. She has contributed feature articles to a number of women’s magazines and newspapers for fifteen years before she decided to turn her attention to writing novels. She won the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award in 2013, for The Sisters, which was published two years later.
In The Sisters, Abi Cavendish moves to Bath from London after the death of her twin sister, Lucy, where she attaches herself to Beatrice. Beatrice, who resembles Lucy, appreciates Abi’s friendship and brings her into her bohemian lifestyle of living in an old house full of artists. But when Abi becomes the object of the pranks of her new roommates and her sister’s letters go missing, she realizes this new life was not as good as she had imagined. A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that the plot of the novel “sags at times, stretching credibility with a fast-arriving fleet of characters who look exactly like other characters.”
Douglas’s second novel is Local Girl Missing. Sophie Collier disappeared in 1997 at the age of twenty-one and is now presumed dead. In 2016, her brother, Daniel, reconnects with Sophie’s best friend, Frankie, and encourages her to return to Oldcliffe to help police piece together her last-known living moments. Reluctantly, Frankie returns, only to be haunted by a woman who resembles Sophie and starts receiving notes about the pair’s dark secret.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly suggested that “only a problematic portrayal of mental illness undercuts this atmospheric, twist-filled thriller.” A contributor reviewing the novel in the Book Mood Reviews website stated: “A well structured thriller which leaves you doubting everyone and everything, this book explores the effects of a disappearance and potential murder on the residents of a small seaside town. It demonstrates that even after twenty years the past can still catch up with you, and that such secrets can never stay hidden. With a somewhat unreliable narrator and an exciting series of plot twists, this is a thriller to put straight onto your reading pile.” The same reviewer pointed out that “all of the loose ends were tied up by close of play, making this a tightly structured thriller.”
In the novel Last Seen Alive, Douglas centers on the newlywed couple Libby and Jamie and their troubles. Libby miscarries after a fire at her school. Added to their financial problems, this just adds to the tension in their relationship. Deciding to shake things up and leave London for a vacation, they agree to a house swap in Cornwall. There, however, Libby discovers surveillance equipment in the house and a stranger on the property. When Jamie falls ill and their dog digs up a bloody corset in the yard, they quickly return to London to discover that vengeance is the motive behind the house swap offer.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly reasoned that “with its forced twists and loosely drawn conclusions, this tale falls short of its potential.” Booklist contributor Henrietta Verma claimed that “readers will be rapidly and deeply drawn into the maelstrom of fear in which Libby feels trapped.” Writing on the Criminal Element website, Gabino Iglesias summarized that “ Last Seen Alive is a psychological thriller that explores budding friendship, the nature of love when it’s built on lies, and the way things like vengeance or the desire to escape a bad situation can drive people to do despicable things. The beauty of this novel lies in Douglas’s talent for quick buildups and escalating reveals. The reader starts knowing almost everything and eventually realizes nothing is right, nothing is true, and all hints lead to deeper, darker, more complicated lies.” Iglesias called it a “taut, gripping novel.”
A contributor to the Jenny in Neverland website admitted: “I’ve not been completely and utterly and fully engrossed in a book to the point where I need to read it at ever spare second I have in a long time (probably since I read The Sisters actually!) This book is so exciting, so, so exciting; it takes hold and twists you and turns you until you have no idea who to believe, what to think or what on Earth might happen next. Because anything could.” A contributor to the Debbish Dotcom website shared: “I enjoyed this novel of suspense, but it also frustrated me. I think readers kinda guess what’s happened just before Douglas tells us. But the twist isn’t as simple as we initially expect so there are complications thrown in.”
(open new)In Do Not Disturb, Kirsty Whitehouse moves to Wales with her two young daughters and her husband, Adrian. Hoping to give their family a new start after Adrian attempted suicide, they begin renovating the Old Rectory, hoping to turn it into a guest house. However, Kirsty’s overbearing mother, Carol, soon becomes an issue, and an intruder leaves a disturbing message in the guest house. Also, Kirsty must face an old family issue when Carol invites Kirsty’s estranged cousin, Selena, for a visit. In an interview with a contributor to the Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb website, Douglas discussed the inspiration for the book’s setting, stating: “I really wanted to write a thriller set in a guest house because my parents used to own one by the sea in South Devon in the UK. My mum had lots of fascinating stories about the customers who stayed and the day-to-day running of the guest house.”
Just Like the Other Girls tells the story of Una Richardson, a woman who becomes a caregiver to Elspeth McKenzie, a wealthy man living near Bristol, England. Una’s daughter, Kathryn, is against Una’s taking the new job, but Una cannot resist the pay and relishes the opulent working environment. As she spends more time as Elspeth’s caregiver, Una learns that many of her predecessors have either disappeared or died in suspicious ways. With the help of her best friend, Courtney, Una decides to find out what really happened to them, though it may put her own life in danger. In an interview with a contributor to the Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb website, Douglas noted that real events inspired the plot of the volume. She stated: “I read an article about the Craigslist Murders in the U.S., which was about a man who advertised for single guys with no family ties to work on his ranch but then when they arrived he would kill them. However, I wanted a more domestic setting with women, rather than men, who were being lured to their deaths.”
The Couple at Number 9 finds Saffron Cutler discovering two skeletons in her cottage’s garden. Investigators estimated that the people were murdered between 1970 and 1990, a time period during which Saffron’s grandmother, Rose, lived in the cottage. In her visits with Rose, who has dementia, Saffron begins piecing together what might have happened. Meanwhile, the revelation of the killings brings about potential new danger. In an article by Douglas on the Novelry website, she explained the inspiration behind the plot, stating: “This was inspired by a story I covered about a young couple in Winchester who were excavating their basement to install a kitchen when they found a skeleton. That skeleton turned out to be hundreds of years old, but it triggered the idea for a thriller.”(close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2018, Henrietta Verma, review of Last Seen Alive, p. 28; August 1, 2022, Jane Murphy, review of The Couple at Number 9, p. 26; January 1, 2023, Jayme Oldham, review of The Girl Who Disappeared, p. 30.
Bookseller, January 19, 2017, Katherine Cowdrey, “Mushens Strikes First Six Figure Deal at New Agency for Claire Douglas;” January 19, 2024, Alice O’Keeffe, “Writing a Thriller a Year Since 2015 Has Seen Claire Douglas Build Towards Brand-Name Status,” author interview, p. 24.
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2024, review of The Woman Who Lied.
Publishers Weekly, March 21, 2016, review of The Sisters, p. 54; May 8, 2017, review of Local Girl Missing, p. 38; May 7, 2018, review of Last Seen Alive, p. 48; September 28, 2020, review of Do Not Disturb, p. 44; November 29, 2021, review of Just Like the Other Girls, p. 39; June 6, 2022, review of The Couple at Number 9, p. 32.
ONLINE
Book Mood Reviews, http://bookmoodreviews.com/ (May 9, 2017), review of Local Girl Missing.
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (December 7, 2020), author interview; (January 28, 2022), author interview.
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (June 24, 2018), Gabino Iglesias, review of Last Seen Alive.
Debbish Dotcom, https://www.debbish.com/ (July 24, 2017), review of Last Seen Alive.
Jenny in Neverland, https://jennyinneverland.com/ (July 30, 2017), review of Last Seen Alive.
Mushens Entertainment, https://www.mushens-entertainment.com/ (September 9, 2024), author interview.
Novelry, https://www.thenovelry.com/ (March 13, 2022), article by author.
Claire Douglas
UK flag
Claire Douglas has worked as a journalist for fifteen years, writing features for women's magazines and newspapers, but she's dreamed of being a novelist since the age of seven. She finally got her wish after winning the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award for her first book, The Sisters, which became a bestseller. Local Girl Missing is her second novel. She lives in Bath with her husband and two children.
Genres: Mystery
New and upcoming books
March 2025
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The New Neighbours
Novels
The Sisters (2015)
Local Girl Missing (2016)
Last Seen Alive (2017)
Do Not Disturb (2018)
Then She Vanishes (2019)
Just Like the Other Girls (2020)
The Couple at No 9 (2021)
The Girls Who Disappeared (2022)
The Woman Who Lied (2023)
The Wrong Sister (2024)
The New Neighbours (2025)
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Novellas and Short Stories
The Text (2017)
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Omnibus editions hide
The Grip Lit Collection (2016) (with Lili Anolik and Koren Zailckas)
QUOTED: "This was inspired by a story I covered about a young couple in Winchester who were excavating their basement to install a kitchen when they found a skeleton. That skeleton turned out to be hundreds of years old, but it triggered the idea for a thriller."
Claire Douglas on When an Idea
is ‘The One’
Claire Douglas
March 13, 2022
Narrowing down my ideas was tricky in the beginning
An opportunity pushed me to make a choice
All your ideas are worth saving
Where I find ideas
How I test my ideas
Sometimes, writers have a swarm of ideas buzzing around their brains. Every overheard conversation on the bus, every dishwashing daydream, every insistent but why? from a child can spark off a new story. So how do you decide which one is worth investing in? Which do you dedicate your precious time to, crafting it into a fully-formed novel?
Here, Claire Douglas discusses how she knows when she’s onto a winner—and the ideas she’s let go of in the process.
Claire won the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award with her first novel, The Sisters, which was followed by Local Girl Missing, Last Seen Alive, Do Not Disturb, Then She Vanishes and Just Like the Other Girls. Her latest novel, The Couple at No. 9, was a Sunday Times top three bestseller and a Kindle number one.
Read about how Claire dealt with the battle between two very different stories and decided which to pursue. If you’re being tugged between ideas, it may well help you make your choice!
Narrowing down my ideas was tricky in the beginning
As a book-per-year author and currently writing my ninth thriller, I constantly have to come up with ideas I’m ready to run with. But how do you know when that idea is strong enough to be turned into a 90,000-word novel?
I found this particularly tricky when I first started out.
I was an unpublished author who had spent two years writing (and re-writing) a romcom about twins. It was very nearly ready to send out to literary agents.
But then one day in 2013, as I was driving home from the school pick-up, I had a brainwave for a psychological thriller, also about twins. The first line and the subsequent paragraph popped into my head, fully formed, and I was terrified I’d forget it when I got home.
I rushed into the house to capture the first chapter and I realised, as I furiously typed, that I felt more excited about this dark, twisted story than the full-length novel I’d spent two years working on.
I realised, as I furiously typed, that I felt more excited about this dark, twisted story than the full-length novel I’d spent two years working on.
An opportunity pushed me to make a choice
Then came decision-time—my friend sent me details of a writing competition Marie Claire magazine was holding with HarperCollins. The prize was an introduction to a literary agent and a publishing contract—a dream-come-true prize for me and something I had been wanting for so many years. (I had many rejection letters in my desk drawer at home to prove it.)
The competition required the first three chapters of a contemporary novel with a two-page synopsis. I had my full manuscript that was polished and re-written to within an inch of its life, but now I had this other idea—the thriller that I had only just started writing. And I didn’t know which one to send.
I told myself I should send the romcom because I had finished it and I had only just started writing this other one, which still felt messy and incomplete.
But the romcom didn’t excite me in the same way my new idea did. So I decided to swiftly write the extra two chapters of the psychological thriller, honed the synopsis, and sent that instead, just in time to meet the deadline.
I didn’t hear back from the competition for several months and simply forgot about it; after all, I’d entered numerous writing competitions in the past and had never gotten anywhere. When they contacted me and told me I had won, I couldn’t believe it.
That book became The Sisters, my debut novel, and my way into publishing.
I’ll never know what would have happened if I had sent my other novel instead.
But, of course, there is always the dreaded fear that I’ll never think of another idea again.
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All your ideas are worth saving
My best piece of advice would be to make a note every time you come up with an idea, either in a notebook or, as I do, in a Word file.
When an idea strikes I always write it down so that I don’t forget it, then I can mull them over in more detail when the time comes to think about what I’m going to write next. Some ideas might only be strong enough for a short story like ‘The Text.’ Others I’ve discounted because they might be too similar to other published books, or just didn’t feel exciting when I returned to them.
Where I find ideas
I get most of my ideas from reading crime pieces in newspapers or magazines. I was a journalist before I became a writer, mostly covering local stories that could be turned into true-life features for women’s magazines, and this experience has sparked many of my ideas.
My latest book, The Couple at No. 9, is about Saffy and Tom, who find two bodies buried in their garden while building a kitchen extension. This was inspired by a story I covered about a young couple in Winchester who were excavating their basement to install a kitchen when they found a skeleton.
That skeleton turned out to be hundreds of years old, but it triggered the idea for a thriller. Then I let my imagination take me further, adding another layer: what if the house Saffy and Tom were renovating actually used to belong to her grandmother, Rose? And what if the murders had taken place 30 years before, when Rose lived there? And what if Rose couldn’t remember much about that time because she’s in a nursing home with dementia?
How I test my ideas
For me, the four main ingredients I need before I can start believing my idea is ‘The One’ are:
What is the hook?
Who are the characters?
What is the twist?
Where is it set?
I don’t really plan my books—I’d definitely be in the ‘pantser’ category!—but as long as I have intensively thought about the four points above, I find it’s enough to carry me through the 90–100k words needed.
If, after I’ve thought about all these elements, the idea is enough to excite me, then I’ll run with it. There is only one of my books—an early one—where I felt I didn’t listen to what my instincts were telling me, and even though the novel was published, I was distracted while writing it because another, better idea (that went on to be the next book) kept pushing into my subconscious, and I couldn’t wait to write that one. As a result, I wasn’t quite as passionate about what I was writing and it was more of a chore to get down the words.
If you have a few different ideas and you’re not sure which one to run with, think about the following:
Will this idea interest you enough to sit down every day and write?
Has it got characters and/or a setting you enjoy writing about?
Do the hook and plot excite you?
If it’s a yes to the above, then it’s ‘The One.’
Members of The Novelry can enjoy the recording of our live session with advice from Claire in the Catch Up TV section of the Membership Area.
QUOTED: "I read an article about the Craigslist Murders in the U.S., which was about a man who advertised for single guys with no family ties to work on his ranch but then when they arrived he would kill them. However, I wanted a more domestic setting with women, rather than men, who were being lured to their deaths."
Friday, January 28, 2022
Q&A with Claire Douglas
Photo by Lou Abercrombie
Claire Douglas is the author of the new novel Just Like the Other Girls. Her other novels include Do Not Disturb. Also a journalist, she lives in Bath, England.
Q: What inspired you to write Just Like the Other Girls?
A: I read an article about the Craigslist Murders in the U.S., which was about a man who advertised for single guys with no family ties to work on his ranch but then when they arrived he would kill them. However, I wanted a more domestic setting with women, rather than men, who were being lured to their deaths.
The characters of Elspeth and Kathryn and their complicated relationship came next and the rest grew from there.
Q: The book includes a number of point-of-view characters as well as chapters set in different time periods. How difficult was it to keep track as you were writing?
A: I always write my books in chronological order and so each character telling their part of the story felt natural and in keeping with the plot as it progressed. But I did go back over the first draft after I finished the book and edited each character’s narrative separately to make sure their voices stayed individual and distinctive.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Kathryn and her mother, Elspeth?
A: I think their relationship is very strained, with each of them harbouring resentments towards the other.
Kathryn feels a sense of duty towards her mother, but she is also suffering a lot of hurt from her childhood and feelings of never feeling good enough for Elspeth. This has made her grow up to be a very brittle and secretive woman, but underneath it all she has a big heart which I hope comes across in how she interacts with her own children. She’s determined to give them the love she felt she never had growing up.
Kathryn was one of my favourite characters to write because she is so complicated.
Q: Why did you choose to set the book in Bristol?
A: I grew up in a town not far from Bristol and the area around the Clifton Suspension Bridge has always fascinated me because it’s so beautiful but also so rugged, with its jutting cliff edges and the Avon Gorge.
The suspension bridge itself is very old and iconic to Bristol, and I thought it would be a great setting for a thriller due to its magnificence but also how atmospheric it is. It’s very high up so looks wonderfully eerie on a foggy night.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve just finished my eighth book, which is due to be published in the UK in September 2022. It’s a thriller about four teenage girls travelling in a car after a night out along a notoriously haunted road when it crashes. The driver, Olivia, is unconscious for around five minutes, but when she wakes up, she’s shocked to find herself alone in the car. Her three friends have disappeared.
Twenty years later, journalist Jenna Halliday arrives in the town to make a true-crime podcast about the strange disappearances of Olivia’s friends, but someone knows what happened that night and they are determined that Jenna doesn’t find out the truth.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My next book to be published in the US and Canada is The Couple At Number Nine, which is out in August 2022. This is about a young couple, Saffy and Tom, who inherit a cottage from Saffy’s grandmother, Rose, only to uncover two bodies buried in the garden when they begin renovations.
Spotlight on: Claire Douglas
Hi. I’m Claire Douglas and I write psychological thrillers. My sixth book is coming out in August and it’s called Just Like the Other Girls.
What’s the first novel you remember completing?
It was a (dreadful) novel I wrote when I was 23. It was supposed to be a romcom about a woman who goes to university but it wasn’t very funny and not much happens! I sent it off to agents but, not surprisingly, it got rejected and never got published.
What’s one piece of advice you have from your own experience submitting to agents?
I’d say make sure to do your research first before submitting to agents. Check that they represent authors in the genre you are writing in and if they are taking on new clients. Sometimes agents stipulate what kind of thing they are looking for.
What has been a highlight of the publishing process so far?
Getting an agent has been one of my highlights as there were times when I thought it would never happen. And seeing my novels on shelves in supermarkets and book shops. Being published was a dream I had for so long that I’ll never take for granted seeing my books on shelves.
Just Like the Other Girls.jpg
What are you writing next?
My new thriller is about a young woman called Saffy who inherits her beloved grandmother’s house in the Cotswolds when she has to go into a care home because of dementia. But when Saffy and her boyfriend start renovating the house they are horrified to discover a body dating back to when her gran lived there alone. Her gran becomes the prime suspect but Saffy sets out to prove her innocence. But is her unassuming and kind grandmother really a killer?
Just Like the Other Girls is out on August 6th!
QUOTED: "I really wanted to write a thriller set in a guest house because my parents used to own one by the sea in South Devon in the UK. My mum had lots of fascinating stories about the customers who stayed and the day-to-day running of the guest house."
Monday, December 7, 2020
Q&A with Claire Douglas
Claire Douglas is the author of the new novel Do Not Disturb. She lives in Bath, UK.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Do Not Disturb, and for your character Kirsty?
A: I really wanted to write a thriller set in a guest house because my parents used to own one by the sea in South Devon in the UK. My mum had lots of fascinating stories about the customers who stayed and the day-to-day running of the guest house and it gave me the idea: what if someone staying at the guest house was murdered?
I wanted a main character who was strong and capable but who also found it hard to let go and who was a bit of a control freak. She also has a dark secret in her past that has made her the way she is in the present.
Q: As you mentioned, the novel is set in a guesthouse--in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Can you say more about why you chose that as your setting?
A: I thought a guest house would be the perfect locked-room type setting because, essentially it is full of strangers.
Apart from some family members of Kirsty’s who come and stay, the rest of the guests are unknowns and I wanted to explore that sense of distrust and paranoia that comes with having strangers staying under your roof.
I chose the Brecon Beacons because they are beautiful but also very rural and wild and therefore as claustrophobic as the guest house.
Q: The book focuses on mental health issues--what inspired that focus?
A: I think most of us have had some experience of mental health issues – either ourselves or with those close to us – so can relate to the characters in the story.
On the surface it seems like it’s Kirsty’s husband, Adrian, who is the one suffering with mental health issues with his depression, but on closer inspection Kirsty realises that her over-protectiveness towards her daughters isn’t wholly healthy.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I hope readers feel a sense of creepiness and unease when reading the story but really the theme is motherhood and, when it comes down to it, what you would do to protect your family. I’d love it if readers discussed what they would do themselves in that situation.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve just finished writing my seventh novel, another thriller, about a woman who inherits a cottage from her grandmother and, while carrying out renovations, discovers two skeletons in the back garden that date back to when her grandmother lived there.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: My next thriller to be published in the US is called Then She Vanishes and is out next summer. It’s about a journalist called Jess who returns to her home town after her childhood friend, Heather, violently kills two people.
Jess can’t understand why mild-mannered Heather, now a wife and mother, would murder, seemingly at random, two strangers. It’s a whodunnit as well as a whydunnit and I think that, out of all my books, I enjoyed writing this one the most.
Ever since her 2015 debut, The Sisters, Claire Douglas has delivered a thriller every year. Her books, often described as domestic noir, tend to combine a pacy story "ripped from the headlines" with emotional drama. The Wrong Sister, her 10th novel, is the first to be published in hardback. As Douglas' long-term editor at Michael Joseph, Maxine Hitchcock, says, two print format editions "will help maintain a year-long shelf and online presence which is so important when building a brand author".
Over video call from her home in Bath, Douglas, who is already hard at work on book number 11, explains how she manages the demands of a book-a-year schedule. Everything starts with the hook: "I imagine, if you picked it up in a bookshop, what the hook would be." Inspired by a friend, who told Douglas about a regular "life swap" she did with her sister, The Wrong Sister begins with two sisters trading places before it all goes horribly wrong.
Tasha has spent her whole life in the town of Chew Norton, near Bristol. Married to her teenage sweetheart Aaron, a mechanic, the couple are raising young twin girls. With Tasha on a part-time salary, money is tight so when her wealthy, child-free sister Alice offers them a break for a week in her holiday apartment in Venice, Tasha jumps at the chance. Alice and her husband Kyle will look after the twins in Chew Norton.
In Venice, Tasha receives a phone call. Alice and Kyle have been brutally attacked in the family home. By the time Tasha arrives back in England, Alice is in hospital and Kyle has not survived his injuries yet the twins slept through, unharmed. Just as Tasha is trying to figure out who on earth would want to harm her sister, a high-flying biochemist, she receives an anonymous note: "It was supposed to be you...".
Suffice to say The Wrong Sister continues apace, with red herrings, misdirection and twists galore. I ask Douglas about the challenge of coming up with all of this, not just once but year after year: "You want to write the twist so that it doesn't suddenly come out of nowhere. I tried to seed a few things in so that [the reader] thinks, of course! But it is hard to get that balance I think, of trying to get a twist in that is unguessable but not too 'out there'." This is where her editor comes in. "My editor doesn't know what the story is about, she knows roughly, but she doesn't know the twists, so it's good to have a fresh pair of eyes."
Local appeal
Douglas has favoured a small-town setting for many of her books--"it's a bit claustrophobic and everybody knows everybody, everyone is gossiping about everyone else". Douglas grew up in Chipping Sodbury, a small town about 12 miles from Bristol, with a mother who was an avid reader of crime and thriller books, but not the sort that Douglas could imagine writing herself: "In my head, crime writers were people like Lee Child."
But from the age of seven, Douglas wanted to be a writer. Her first job, after studying journalism at university, was as a reporter on a local paper in Hampshire where her beat covered anything from the Army in Aldershot to more random human interest stories. Those were the days when people would ring the news desk to relate unusual things that had happened to them that week; one that stands out is the woman who was chatting to her daughter in the kitchen at home when a man barged in with a chainsaw (no murderous intent, he was lost).
She then worked for a press agency that supplied weekly magazines such as That's Life and Take a Break with true life stories, and these were often crime related. "When you wrote these pieces for the magazines, you had to write it in the first person. You had to put words in their mouths and then send it to them to okay it. And that's when I thought, 'Oh I would love to do this.'" This sounds like perfect practice for the sort of crime novels Douglas would go on to write but, although she wrote her first novel at the age of 23, followed by "three or four more", these early novels weren't crime.
"All those years ago, when I was trying to become an author, I wanted to write more like Marian Keyes' type of books," she says. She sent them off to literary agents but to no avail.
Douglas had been working on a commercial fiction book featuring twins "for about two years" when she heard about a writing competition run by Marie Claire magazine which required three chapters of a "contemporary" novel plus a synopsis. But, driving through Bath one day, she suddenly thought of a way to make the story much darker, to turn it, in fact, into a psychological thriller. Although, as she endearingly confesses: "To be honest, I didn't even know what the term psychological thriller was, it was only what the publishers called it!"
She then had to make a decision; to submit the much-worked on rom-com, or the darker, twisted version that had literally just popped into her head. She clearly made the right call as she won the Marie Claire Debut Novel Award, which included a one-book deal with HarperCollins, which published The Sisters, and an introduction to agent Juliet Mushens, who represents her to this day.
Her second book, Local Girl Missing, was snapped up at auction by Michael Joseph, and another four books followed, all psychological thrillers although she thinks her recent bestsellers have had more of a focus on "uncovering mysteries". But then The Couple at No 9, published in 2021, broke her through to another level, sales supercharged by selection for the Richard & Judy Book Club. That was the book she wrote during lockdown, after the one before, which came out in 2020, had suffered from a publication date when all the bookshops were shut. She wrote The Couple at No 9 very fast, partly as an "escape" from the pandemic chaos, and with an "I haven't got anything to lose" attitude. "So that was a bit of freedom in a way, I didn't have any expectations almost. Now there's a bit more pressure because you want to keep writing books that people are going to like. But I try not to think too much about it because otherwise I don't think I'd write anything!"
Metadata
Imprint Michael Joseph
Publication 14.03.24
Format HB (14.99 [pounds sterling]), EB (7.99 [pounds sterling])
ISBN 9781405957595/ 9781405957625
Rights sold Four territories to date, including the US (HarperCollins)
Editor Maxine Hitchcock
Agent Juliet Mushens, Mushens Entertainment
Douglas' top three
The Girl Who Disappeared
Penguin, 8.99 [pounds sterling], 9781405951180
Douglas' eighth novel was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick for autumn 2022. "Clever... Adventurous... Fans of The Couple at No 9 will enjoy her lively female characters." Daily Mail Copies sold: 242,730
The Couple at No 9
Penguin, 8.99 [pounds sterling], 9781405943406
Her seventh thriller hit number three on the Sunday Times charts. "Devotees of domestic noir will love the multiple perspectives and shifts in time." Times Crime Club newsletter. Copies sold: 178,900
The Woman Who Lied
Penguin, 8.99 [pounds sterling], 9780241542361
Douglas' ninth novel, about a bestselling crime writer whose life takes an unsettling turn when someone she knows dies exactly like a victim in the book she's still writing. Copies sold: 152,493
Data: Nielsen UK
Alice O'Keeffe @aliceokbooks
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 The Stage Media Limited
http://www.thebookseller.com
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O'Keeffe, Alice. "Writing a thriller a year since 2015 has seen Claire Douglas build towards brand-name status." The Bookseller, no. 6050, 19 Jan. 2024, pp. 24+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A780194517/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=505673c2. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "thoughtful, twisty, and tense."
Douglas, Claire THE WOMAN WHO LIED Harper/HarperCollins (Fiction None) $18.99 7, 30 ISBN: 9780063277465
A novelist is beset by small harassments inspired by her books--and then the attention starts to escalate.
Emilia Ward, author of the successful DI Miranda Moody series, has decided to kill off her beloved main character after 10 years, even though Miranda has brought her success and fame. As she works on the final drafts of Her Last Chapter, delving into the dark world of a serial killer, she begins to find small gifts and offerings on her doorstep--a broken seagull figurine, a funeral wreath--that point to certain plot elements in the earlier Moody books. The police, of course, find little they can do, but Emilia feels more and more as if she's not only being targeted, but also followed. Louise, a friend who's on the force, is not directly involved in the investigation, but when Emilia's teenage daughter, Jasmine, goes missing, Louise is immediately on the scene. Jasmine is found without incident, but the scenario clues in Emilia to a chilling truth: Only the people nearest and dearest to her could have orchestrated it, as it's a plot point in her as-yet-unpublished novel. Could it be her ex-husband, now married to her ex-friend? Or her current father-in-law, himself a former cop? Or even Louise, who's been acting strangely? As the sense of threat escalates, Emilia must confront a shameful secret as she tries her own hand at investigation. The novel mostly centers on Emilia, though there are occasionally chapters from the point of view of a female detective investigating a serial killer, and chapters concerning a girl named Daisy whose mother seems to have been murdered by this same killer. Will all the stories overlap? Yes, of course. There are an awful lot of characters and names to keep straight, but overall, the book is well constructed and paced.
Thoughtful, twisty, and tense.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Douglas, Claire: THE WOMAN WHO LIED." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332682/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b46e0e7b. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "The haunting setting is both creepy and captivating."
The Girls Who Disappeared. By Claire Douglas. Jan. 2023.384P. Harper, paper, $17.99 (9780063277410); e-book (9780063277434).
What would you do to protect the ones you love? That's the question posed in Douglas' latest thriller (following The Couple at Number 9, 2022). It features Jenna Halliday, an investigative reporter with a new assignment to research and create content for a podcast on a 20-year-old cold case. Four teenage girls disappeared from Stafferbury in Wiltshire when their car crashed late at night on an eerie, possibly haunted road. Only the driver of the car, Olivia Rutherford, was ever found. When Jenna arrives in this small rural town to conduct interviews, she is met with suspicion. What happened to the missing girls? Some blame a supernatural force, while others believe they were murdered, kidnapped, or ran away. As Jennas investigation intensifies, she receives threatening messages. Someone does not want her to find out the truth. Through Olivias and Jennas points of view and a dual time line, this atmospheric mystery exposes many red herrings. The haunting setting is both creepy and captivating. Myth, legends, and folklore guide the belief system in this small town, making it impossible to trust anyone. --Jayme Oldham
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
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Oldham, Jayme. "The Girls Who Disappeared." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2023, pp. 30+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735624229/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b10f57bb. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "tense and compelling and often touching."
The Couple at Number 9. By Claire Douglas. Aug. 2022.400p. HarperCollins, paper, $16.99 (9780063138148).
Every house has its secrets, but not every house has skeletons in its yard. When pregnant Saffron Cutler is gifted a cottage that belonged to her grandmother, she is happy to be out of the city and in a quaint village in the Cotswolds. She and her partner, Tom, have begun an expansion of the kitchen, but the excavation comes to a stop when two sets of human remains are found. What happened there 30 years ago? Was her grandmother Rose involved? Rose's memory has been addled by Alzheimer's, but her ramblings lead the police to believe she was. Who was the menacing Victor she mentions? Who was Jean? Who was Sheila? Saffy's mother, Lorna, arrives and tries to piece together her memories of the toddler years she spent there. The stories of the three women play out in a shadowy narrative that is tense and compelling and often touching until the horrifying truth is revealed.
This mindbender from the best-selling Douglas (Then She Vanishes, 2021) will hit the spot with fans of Fiona Barton and Paula Hawkins. --Jane Murphy
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
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Murphy, Jane. "The Couple at Number 9." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 22, 1 Aug. 2022, p. 26. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A714679406/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0cbc94fd. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "Douglas does a fine job fairly misdirecting the reader. This gripping tale is sure to garner her new fans."
Claire Douglas. Harper, $16.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-313814-8
In 2018, Saffron Cutler, one of the narrators of this intricately plotted puzzle from British author Douglas (Do Not Disturb), and her partner are enlarging the kitchen of their cottage in Beggars Nook, a quainr Cotswold village, when builders discover a human skeleron in their back garden. Further digging uncovers yet another body. Forensic evidence indicates that the two--a man and a woman--were killed sometime between 1970 and 1990, years that overlap with the period that Saffron's grandmother, Rose Grey, occupied the house. Rose, now suffering from dementia, lives in a nursing facility. Her occasional flashes of lucidity seem to offer clues to what might have happened all those years ago. But danger isn't confined to the past. The discovery of the bodies awakens the interest of a murderer who will do anyrhing ro protect his secrets. Tension builds as the characters' backstories unfold through multiple perspectives, including that of one person whose relationship to the others isn't immediately apparent. Douglas does a fine job fairly misdirecting the reader. This gripping tale is sure to garner her new fans. Agent: Jenny Bent. Bent Agency. (Aug.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
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"The Couple at Number 9." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 24, 6 June 2022, p. 32. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711576426/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e2b4f533. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.
QUOTED: "Fully formed characters, plausible red herrings, and plenty of surprises keep the pages turning."
Just like the Other Girls
Claire Douglas. Harper, $16.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-313811-7
Una Richardson, the protagonist of this seductive psychological thriller from Douglas (TheSisters), is still mourning her mother's death when she accepts a job as a live-in companion and carer for wealthy Elspeth McKenzie. Elspeth immediately forms a srrong attachment to her, much to the chagrin of the old woman's middleaged daughter, Kathryn, who doesn't hide her resentment. Still, Una considers herself lucky to have found a well-paying job in a beautiful house in a desitable suburb of Bristol, England. Soon aftet her arrival, Una learns her predecessor left: suddenly, never to be seen again. After a little investigation, she discovers that other McKenzie companions/carers have died of apparent accidents or suicide. When the police enter the picture, Una and her best friend, Courtney, decide to find out what secrers might be lurking in the McKenzie family home. Douglas builds suspense through multiple points of view, including the endearing Una's vivid first-person narrarion, Kathryn's reminiscences, and a stalker's disturbing commentary. Fully formed characters, plausible red herrings, and plenty of surprises keep the pages turning. Readers will eagerly awair the author's next. Agent:Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Jan.)
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"Just like the Other Girls." Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 49, 29 Nov. 2021, p. 39. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686559079/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cb053e62. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024
Do Not Disturb
Claire Douglas. Harper, $16.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-300151-0
The decision of Kirsty Whitehouse and her troubled husband, Adrian, to move with their two school-age daughters from London to Hywelphilly, Wales, has fatal consequences in this disappointing thriller from British author Douglas (Last Seen Alive). Kirsty hopes that converting their new home, the Old Rectory, inro a guest house will bring a fresh start following Adrian's recent suicide attempt. But tenovation of the Old Rectory costs mote and takes longer than expected, even with the financial help of Kirsty's controlling mother, Carol Hughes, who will also live there. The guest house has barely opened when items are mysteriously moved and a small noose is hung in the hallway, an apparent allusion to Adrian's suicide attempt. The tension rises aftet Kirsty's estranged cousin, Selena Perry, and other relatives come to stay at Carol's invitation. The early-morning discovery of a body doesn't help business. The low-boil action, which focuses on Kirsty's anxieties, including being overwhelmed by the wotk required to tun a guest house, offers little suspense. Two twists at the finale compensate only in part fot the cliche-ridden plot and irritating charactets. Douglas has done better. Agent:Jenny Bent. Bent Agency. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
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"Do Not Disturb." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 39, 28 Sept. 2020, p. 44. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638637464/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a363369e. Accessed 25 Aug. 2024.