Rachel Abbott
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Rachel Abbott is a writer, and author of psychological thrillers
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New from Rachel Abbott Yesterday, Scott was dead. Today, he’s back.And Anna doesn’t believe in ghosts. Scott was Anna’s boyfriend. She loved him, but he ruined her life. When he died, she should have been free, but today Scott is on the radio, threatening to spill her secrets. Anna is a mother, a wife, and head teacher of a primary school.And she’s a good liar. She made one mistake, and now she is having to pay for it. Scott is the only person who knows the truth about her past, but how can he be alive? Soon, DCI Tom Douglas is going to knock on her door looking for answers. But Anna is already running scared: from the man she loved; the man she watched die; the man who has come back to life. She has one week to find him. One week to stop him. Find The Shape of …
I like to make sure that my most loyal readers are given advance information of what’s coming, so you are the very first to see the cover of my next book – Come A Little Closer. Please feel free to share the cover on Facebook and Twitter when you see it there in the next week or so! What do you think of the cover? I really love it, and I’ll be excited to tell you more about it in my next newsletter in the new year. For now, though, the plot is still under wraps – more will be revealed very soon. Keep a look out for it, though. We’re expecting to publish mid-February, if all goes to plan!
This month I posed a few questions to Laura Marshall author of Friend Request. You may remember that she was featured in my May newsletter? I had just read Friend Request and loved it. It’s about a woman who receives a friend request on Facebook, but the person who it appears to be from has been dead for over twenty years. The intrigue and confusion ramps up throughout the book until you have no idea who to trust. Wonderful stuff! It was interesting to catch up with her again to hear what she relies on in terms of comfort and space and how she finds and sets aside the time to get her words on the page. Laura, what is the first book you remember as a child? The first books I remember really loving were the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” books. My Mum read them to me first …
This month I’m in conversation with Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go and I See You, who I recently bumped into at The Crime Fair in Denmark and we agreed to have a chat about our publishing journeys. It was great to see you in Denmark, Clare. Was it a good event for you? It was my second time there, and it was really amazing. I’m still fairly new at this with only two books to my name and last time I was there only about two people – my editor and somebody sitting down because they had a bad back – were interested in listening to me speak! Coming back this year after I Let You Go, suddenly I had queues and a massive audience because the book did so well there. It’s a reminder of how much has happened in such a short time. I remember …
This month I put some questions to Alex Marwood, author of The Darkest Secret and I’m delighted with the answers. Read on for a wealth of fool-proof advice and wisdom on writing and life! What is the first book you remember as a child? I think The House of Arden, by E Nesbit, though I will have been too young to read it myself. I was the youngest in an academic family, and frustrated by not being able to read, so I taught myself when I was two, though I would still have been at Peter Rabbit level, readingwise, when I consumed this with my siblings. It’s a wonderful book, obviously, because Nesbit was a wonderful writer: my first time-travel saga, and great at bringing history alive. My favourite bit was when the children involved end up somewhere on 4th November and ask when the fireworks are, then recite the …
I am thrilled to be able to interview Daniel Cole – author of the amazing debut novel RAGDOLL for my newsletter and blog. I absolutely LOVED this book and raved about it in an earlier post. Daniel and I are going to be speaking at a number of locations in the North West of England later this month, so check out the EVENTS post for more details. What is the most important element of fiction to you, as a reader – plot, character, location? It’s all about characters whichever medium you’re working in. Not a very high-brow example but quite relevant to me as writer/director Joss Whedon is one of my heroes: The second Avengers movie was enormous. It probably cost a gazillion dollars to make. An evil robot tries to blow up the world by dropping an eastern-European city on it from a great height… and yet, the best part of that …
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when Sharon Bolton agreed to be interviewed for my newsletter and blog. I have been a fan since I read Sacrifice about eight years ago. Since then, I have devoured every single book she has written and enjoyed them all. Read on to find out more about this wonderful author and her views on Christmas. What do you think is the best thing about Christmas? The way it turns the darkest of seasons beautiful. I just love the look of Christmas: twinkling lights in the black sky, sumptuously wrapped presents, wreathes on cottage doors, exquisitely decorated trees and tables groaning under piles of delicious food. One of the great joys of Christmas for me is making my home beautiful for the holiday, and seeing my neighbours do the same. What will you be eating for Christmas lunch, and are you …
Part of the joy of being a self-published author is the variety of people I get to meet. This month let me introduce Trevor Jenkins, the music producer behind my last three video trailers. In conversation, it became clear that he’d had a couple of spooky experiences so I asked him to share them for Halloween. If you do nothing else this Halloween, listen to the audio track at the end of this article and tell us what you make of it. It made my blood run cold! Having made some original music inspired by three of Rachel’s superb novels, we started to talk about the creative DNA of music and drama and it’s emotional impact. It’s a powerful alchemy. Imagine Hitchcock without Herrmann or the opening scenes from Jaws without the strings? The virgin listener to Tubular Bells will hear not a note of menace within the music but …
This article was originally published at NovelKicks. In the very first of my novels, Only the Innocent, I wanted a man to be murdered and I wanted his killer to get away with it. I didn’t mind that people might guess who the killer was – the book wasn’t really about that. It was about why he had to die. The most important part for me, though, was creating an unbreakable alibi for his murderer, and that took some thinking about. If you want to be credible, it takes a lot of research – checking out train timetables, flight routes, maybe even tide tables. You might also want to check details like the time of sunset according to the month and location of your murder, if that’s relevant. Every detail has to be considered, or readers will see straight through it. So, alibi is top of my list of techniques …
I was recently fortunate enough to be asked to take part in a conversation with the wonderful Angela Marsons on the Liz Loves Books Blog. We had great fun sharing our experiences, and if you want to know about the ups and downs of becoming a writer – read on! Angela’s book Silent Scream took the Amazon charts by storm, as have all her following books, and she’s a lovely lady! Angie: Rachel, thank you so much for agreeing to answer some of my questions. I read your story at a particularly low point in my writing journey and found it incredibly inspirational. I know you faced rejection with your first book Only The Innocent but you managed to keep the faith and keep going. How did you do that? Was there someone in particular who consistently urged you to carry on? Rachel: To be honest, I only approached a small …
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The Shape Of Lies
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