I started writing Under Her Roof in March 2023, two months before The Final Party was published, and finished the first draft in July of the same year. It’s quite different to my previous books, focusing mainly on a two-person narrative, rather than the multiple voices that feature in my other psychological thrillers, but I really enjoyed the challenge of developing the characters of Seb and Adriana who, for me, are probably the most sympathetic and emotionally fragile of all my characters to date.
What makes the psychological thriller so compelling is the way it focuses on ordinary people in everyday situations/relationships we can all relate to in our own lives, but which necessarily take a darker turn – this being a thriller after all! The landlord–tenant relationship is a perfect example of this, and one I was keen to explore. Many of us will have been tenants at some point in our lives, some of us may even be landlords, and in fiction this set-up has the potential to take a particularly ominous turn because in the majority of cases each party will be a total stranger to the other, thereby conjuring up all sorts of ideas in the devious minds of thriller authors like myself!
Likewise, living in the digital age, a world where we freely expose our lives to perfect strangers on social media, along with the idea of ‘Big Brother’ watching us, I thought it would be intriguing to weave this into a landlord–tenant story – the idea of being watched, every aspect of our lives under surveillance, and the sheer feeling of helplessness, claustrophobia and terror it induces on the part of the victim. I, for one, find this a terrifying concept, and one I hope never to experience.
I chose to base the book in Hampstead for several reasons. For one, having lived in the North West London area for the best part of thirteen years, it’s an area I’m very familiar with, but one I couldn’t in my wildest dreams afford to buy a place of my own in! I remember going for long winter walks around Hampstead Heath as a student, gawping at the area’s mansions with their stately gates, wondering who lived in them, and then in later years pushing my son around in his buggy in the summer months with my NCT friends. It’s a very pretty, picturesque, affluent part of London, and one where a person should feel incredibly safe. But, of course, Seb and Adriana feel anything but safe with their lives being monitored, despite living in a veritable palace, and therein lies the dramatic irony I wanted to convey.
One other important thing to mention is that in Under Her Roof I explore various difficult and painful real-life issues I won’t reveal here should you, the reader, happen to read this letter before the book itself, in respect of which I did a considerable amount of research, including via on-line chat forums and reading scientific papers and studies. I hope I have addressed these delicately and with empathy. It was certainly my intention that this be the case.
I hope you found Under Her Roof an exciting, twisty and compelling read that kept you turning the pages and guessing until the end. I’ve loved every minute of writing it, and I’m so grateful to you for taking the time to read it. After many months of hard graft and editing, it really means the world. If you enjoyed the book, I would be thrilled to hear your thoughts via a review, which I hope might also encourage other readers to read it. It’s so uplifting seeing positive reader reviews; they are hugely inspiring and greatly appreciated. Incidentally, if you enjoyed this book and haven’t yet read my other books with Hera, She’s Mine, published in August 2021, The Loyal Friend, published in June 2022, and The Final Party, published in May 2023, I’d love for you to look them up. They’re available at Amazon, Waterstones and all good online book retailers.
Again, thank you for your support on my writing journey and I hope you’ll continue to follow me as I work on new releases.
You can get in touch on my social media pages: Twitter, Facebook. Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok. Also, please visit my website for further information on my books, and latest news/blog posts. I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to talk about any of my books or anything else for that matter.
Much love,
Alex x
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