My trilogy is dark, but I hope the love shines through too

MY new book, In The Shadows, continues the Anna Clarke trilogy almost immediately after the events of Twisted Truth, the second book in the series.

I answers all the lingering questions, finally concluding the mystery surrounding Anna’s parents’ disappearance, as well as delving deeper into Tom Gallagher’s life in his hunt for Kate and his struggle to maintain control over his business empire.

The main character in the trilogy is a young woman named Anna Clarke.

Driven by the mystery surrounding her parents’ disappearance and the need to help her friend Kate, she is a popular ‘accidental heroine’.

Anna is a young woman, an ordinary person that people can relate to, but she is thrust into extraordinary situations. I think readers are invested in her story and root for her.

In In The Shadows, Anna is tired of watching and waiting, checking over her shoulder for Dean Harris, the rapist who has evaded the gardaí, unable to sleep, waiting for news from the final search for her long-lost parents.

She needs something to take her mind off it all. Her friend Vivian ask for her help in researching a cold case, an unsolved murder on the steps of the Cork courthouse.

This offers Anna the distraction she needs, but she soon finds out that the past is a dangerous place to revisit.

The first book in the trilogy was Blinding Lies, and much of the plot in that is driven by Kate Crowley, Anna’s friend, who shot Tom Gallagher’s son, David, in a bid to save her sister.

In The Shadows picks up Kate’s story as she, her sister and nieces hide in Spain to evade Tom’s revenge.

In the opening chapter, it is revealed that Tom has located her, and so Kate is forced to flee again, never shaking Tom and his spies for long.

But someone on the inside is willing to betray him, offering Kate a lifeline.

Tom Gallagher is truly crumbling under the pressure wrought over the course of Blinding Lies and Twisted Truth. His family is destroyed, his business falling apart.

The realisation that someone on the inside of his organisation is tipping Kate off, and the reappearance of old enemy Ely Murray, cause him to lose the tight grip of control he has always clung to. This is Tom at his most dangerous.

So, how did the idea for this trilogy of books begin?

A few years ago, I was searching for my CV on an old laptop, and came across a chapter I had written a long time ago. It featured Anna Clarke, a young woman who was about to be attacked in her house.

As a man crept up the stairs, she stood waiting and ready inside her bedroom. When I read that chapter again, I was excited and intrigued by the character.

I decided to pick up the story again, and many months later, I finished Blinding Lies. I redrafted it several times, which proved a great escape from the depths of Coronavirus and the first lockdown.

I was writing for myself, creating an escape from daily case numbers, constant worry about loved ones, and homeschooling.

I sent the first three chapters to Poolbeg Books, figuring I had nothing to lose. A few weeks later, publisher Paula Campbell asked for the whole book. A few weeks after that, she offered me a three-book deal.

A book that I was writing to escape and for my own enjoyment now became a trilogy that was going to be in bookshops and on readers’ Kindles… it was a thrilling moment for me.

I knew there was too much plot for Anna, Kate and Tom to be confined to one book. It was fitting that for three characters, three books would better serve their story fully. The trilogy takes place over a set period of time, one book running into the other.

The inspiration for Anna’s character came from my love of all characters that are overlooked at first glance, underestimated or written off as anyone of significance. Frodo Baggins and Lisbeth Salander are two personal favourites, but the list is long!

I love books that contain an element of threat, but not overt violence or gore - I hope readers agree that I leave room for their imagination to kick in in those scenes!

There are dark themes in the book, and it is violent, but there are also loving relationships and friendships.

All the characters, good and bad, are willing to do anything for the people they love - I enjoyed exploring that, the light and dark inside everyone, and how far a person can go when pushed.

In many ways, while Anna and Tom are opposites, they also have many similarities, it’s just that their moral compasses are set in different directions.

Early reviewers are describing In The Shadows as “a brilliant story and a fitting finale”, “Absolutely brilliant”, “…well-written and has relatable characters…great read.”

Mairead Hearne, a popular book blogger at Swirl and Thread, has said this is “a series that finishes with a roar. Wow wow wow”.

These are the exact reactions any crime-thriller writer hopes for!

I have loved writing made-up stories since I was a child and my dream job is, of course, a fictional one - Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote fame, who gets to snoop around and solve crimes, before turning her adventures into best-selling mystery books.

I love getting to create fictional characters, learning who they are and what makes them tick.

And then it’s really fun and interesting to create their world - who populates it and what is about to go wrong, determining how the character navigates their situation. Sending the characters on a journey to survive or exact revenge or find answers to a mystery that haunts them is very satisfying.

In The Shadows is available in all bookshops now and online.