Author Archives: Sophie

There was a piece in the Guardian yesterday – http://gu.com/p/3g6vt/tw - asking if all novels were political.  The author concludes that yes, they pretty much are.  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie makes the political point that murder is wrong, he argues, and is therefore as political as 1984 or Animal Farm.  When I read the article, I had just finished writing a chapter of my latest work-in-progress, The Telling Error, which includes this exchange between my regular lead detective, DC Simon Waterhouse and….someone else in the novel (I’m not telling you who, because I’m addicted to secrecy and cliffhangers!): …

My new supernatural thriller, The Orphan Choir, is out now! The chilling story of a woman haunted by music that only she can hear…           Sung by a choir of children that only she can see…   Here’s the cover picture (copied and pasted from Amazon, hence the ‘Click to look inside’ button!) ‘Quietly brilliant ****  Deft and compelling, The Orphan Choir delivers a chilling gut-punch….Hannah takes us on a tense mental journey…A slow-burn psychological study, The Orphan Choir is no less accomplished for it.’ – SFX Magazine ‘If ghost stories are your thing, you will absolutely …

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GHOSTS   I have always loved ghost stories, for the same reason that I’ve always loved crime fiction: the suspense.  In both genres, the reader or viewer knows that something untoward is afoot, but doesn’t know exactly what or why, and the main thing driving her on through the narrative is the desire to find out and solve the mystery.   Though I haven’t read nearly as many ghostly novels as I’ve read detective stories, my strong impression from the few that I have read is that the overwhelming majority of ghost stories are mysteries. There might …

I had the spark of inspiration for Little Face shortly after my daughter, Phoebe, was born in November 2002. I was in hospital for five days trying to persuade her to come out, and hadn’t slept for more than half an hour at a time for five nights, so when my baby finally emerged I was absolutely exhausted! The midwife offered to take her and look after her overnight so that I could get some rest—an offer I quickly agreed to, but then I found I couldn’t sleep, so I tiptoed out on to the dark, quiet, night-time ward to try to …

I’ve received lots of emails asking if there is such a thing as a set of reading group questions for The Carrier.  There wasn’t, but there is now!  The Carrier – Reading Group Questions 1) Which of the characters in the book is most responsible for the death of Francine Breary?  Do you think the person who physically killed her is the person most guilty of murder? 2) Do you agree with Kerry Jose that ‘a tyrant is someone whose death would liberate somebody, even if it’s only one person?’ Does it make sense to talk of tyrants in the …