Before You Die is a book about secrets buried deep inside families, the unexpected ways they resurface, as well as asking the question: How well do we know our children? As a mother, I tend to write my own worst nightmares and Before You Die doesn't shy away from this. It tackles online bullying and a spate of teen suicides centred around a sleepy Warwickshire town. DI Lorraine Fisher, who's staying in the area with her sister, gets caught up in the investigations when another young man seemingly kills himself.
Before You Die
Please tell us about the character of Lorraine Fisher. She's brilliant and I wish I knew her in real life! As mum to two feisty teenage daughters and the wife of another police officer in the West Midlands Police, Lorraine is constantly chasing her tail, trying to balance a busy home life with her demanding work as a detective inspector. She's tough yet also emotional, devoted to her family, and thoroughly driven to be treated as an equal alongside her male colleagues - especially her husband, Adam.
What made you set the book in Warwickshire? I live there! It's a beautiful county with many unspoilt villages just like Radcote in Before You Die. My village is fictional, but is based on a specific area of south Warwickshire, not too far from Stratford-upon-Avon. Lorraine lives and works in Birmingham but in this novel, she goes to stay with her sister, Jo, for a summer break. It doesn't turn out to be a very relaxing week for her, however.
You have worked in many different jobs- so how much have these aided your storytelling? Scratching around for a living and taking whatever work I could seemed hard at the time, yet has proved an invaluable resource for my characters. I once worked as a private investigator (my first novel features a female PI) and I also looked after children at a nursery in Australia - great inspiration for my novel Until You're Mine. And the book I'm currently writing (number three in my DIs Fisher and Scott series) features a private pilot. I learned to fly a plane when I was only fifteen (I once wanted to be a pilot) so I'll certainly be including some experiences. However, I think the biggest and most important job I've ever taken on is that of a mother, and I think the relevance of this stands out in Before You Die.
You have spent time in the USA and Australia, so where is your favourite place to be? My time in the States was wonderful. My youngest daughter was in fact born in Seattle. And Australia will always feel like a second home because my husband's family all live there. But I have to say that my favourite place is my home county of Warwickshire. I grew up here and still have lots of family living nearby.
How much has travelling affected your writing? I think it's important for a writer to have as many experiences as possible, and travelling is ideal for collecting anecdotes and meeting fascinating people. Apart from a cracking story, a novel is all about the people inhabiting it, and I've certainly met some interesting characters on my travels over the years.
Please tell us about the short story you wrote back in 2003. It was actually a ghost story about a man and a woman in a motorway service station café, each waiting to meet their lover. By the end, we learn they were actually the ghosts, although they never come to realise it, having been killed together in a car crash. It's their fate to be stuck waiting forever. It won a short story competition and heralded the beginning of my career as a writer. My early work was much more horror/fantasy-based, but I gradually made the transition to crime by the mid-2000s. When I started writing psychological thrillers, it really felt as if I'd found my 'home' genre.
What is next for you?
I'm currently working on the third book in the DIs Fisher and Scott series of novels, which will be out next year. I can't say too much yet, but it's shaping up to be extremely tense and creepy - with a thoroughly shocking ending, of course!