Killer queen

THE last time I spoke to Rachel Abbot was in February 2019 when The Shape Of Lies was published, her ninth DCI Tom Douglas novel. She was then dubbed ‘the queen of the psychological thriller’.

She managed to publish another Douglas novel, Right Behind You, in 2020, as well as the second in her Sergeant Stephanie King series.

With her new book Close Your Eyes, she is now known as ‘the queen of twisted suspense’.

I first interviewed Rachel in 2016 when Kill Me Again came out and then every year since except last.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch about Right Behind You, but it all got a manic,’ said Rachel from her home in Alderney.

‘As well as that I wrote The Murder Game, featuring Stephanie King. It was for Headline who are traditional publishers. It was good but chaotic, so I didn’t do much publicity for Right Behind You.’

As for ‘the queen of twisted suspense’ she laughed.

‘It’s great. It’s from magazine reviews and blogs. I’m really pleased with all the reviews and quotes. It’s a bit of a thrill.’

Her latest comes with a cryptic blurb:

‘Don’t let him under your skin. He’ll destroy you. Don’t fight him. He’ll win. Run. Never let him find you.’

It’s a surprise to find out that 10 books down the line, DCI Tom Douglas was never originally meant to stay.

‘When I wrote my first book in the second chapter someone died and that’s when Tom came in. He was only going to be in one book. But when I started writing the second there were loads of people on social media saying “When is Tom Douglas coming back?”’

She has never looked back.

Rachel’s debut thriller, Only The Innocent was self-published in the UK through the Kindle Direct Publishing programme on Amazon in 2011. It was an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Waterstone’s ebook chart and the Amazon charts in both the UK and the US. It sold one million copies.

This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight and Stranger Child, Nowhere Child, Kill Me Again, The Sixth Window, Come A Little Closer, The Shape Of Lies, Right Behind You and Close Your Eyes.

In 2015 Amazon celebrated the first five years of the Kindle in the UK and announced that Rachel was the number one best selling independent author over the five-year period. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.

She founded an interactive media company in the 1980s, sold it and retired in 2005.

One of the reviewers (for And So It Begins) wrote: ‘It was so fantastically written and expertly portrayed that I felt I was watching a TV show’.

Rachel has told me before that when she imagines Tom Douglas she pictures the actor Jack Davenport. Has she considered adapting her novels for television or film?

‘TV would be delightful, but it’s quite difficult to convert a book into TV. They have to be stand alone or police procedurals. My books aren’t like that. Mine are from the point of view of the victims and the perpetrators.’

With so many books now written, does the process get easier or harder?

‘The writing is as difficult as it always was, as I’m always learning new stuff. I’m still learning about the craft.

‘And every time a book is launched I’m terrified how it will be received. It’s scary.’

Her first Stephanie King novel, the appropriately titled And So It Begins, came out in 2018. Was it a conscious effort to get away from Tom Douglas?

‘I had an idea for a book that didn’t fit in with Tom Douglas. And these are set in Cornwall [rather that Douglas’s Manchester]. I never tell a story from Tom Douglas’s point of view and I don’t with Stephanie King, so I didn’t find it any easier.’

Reading the reviews and soundbites Stephanie King looks set to be as popular as Tom Douglas. But readers needn’t worry.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever kill off Tom Douglas. Most detectives have some kind of flaw – their marriages are breaking up, they drink too much, sometimes they’re almost derelicts – but I intentionally wrote Tom as a good person. Readers love him.’

• The Kindle edition of Close Your Eyes is available on Amazon for £3.49.