Shropshire Star

'I'm a best-selling thriller author based in Shropshire - here's what to expect from my new book'

International best-selling author Jenny Blackhurst is known for writing psychological thrillers that keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Published

Her latest novel, The Final Wife, opens with Luke Whitney having been stabbed to death and his wife Anna confessing after she is found next to his body.

But when she can’t confirm any details of the crime, detectives suspect she isn’t telling the truth. 

“The police try to find out who she is protecting. They didn’t have any kids so there isn’t anyone obvious she could be protecting,” explains Jenny.

Jenny, who lives in Shrewsbury, has written 10 novels
Jenny, who lives in Shrewsbury, has written 10 novels

As police dig into the circumstances, they learn that more than one person had a reason to want Luke dead – his scorned ex, his neglected mistress and Anna – who knows what happens to Mrs Whitneys when Luke gets bored of them.

Thanks to the dual-timeline narrative, readers discover more about past events and their relationships while police in the present try to piece together the puzzle of what really happened to Luke. “The whole idea came from a well-known saying – there are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth,” says Jenny, who lives in Shrewsbury.

“I thought that it was a good idea for a book and I knew there would be a man and a woman and the truth somewhere in between.

“I’d had an idea for a scene where a woman is standing over a man’s body and she confesses straight away. I saw this idea in my ideas book and put the two together.

“I’ll have ideas for one scene but you can’t make a book out of one scene so I write it down,” explains the 41-year-old, who is one of the leading British crime authors in Germany and Poland.

Although readers will have to wait until the final pages of the book, which is set in the Cotswolds and Oxford, to discover the truth, Jenny always starts with the ending.

“I write a lot easier when I know the ending. It doesn’t always stay as the ending, it can change as I’m writing, but if I don’t know the ending it’s a real struggle,” she explains.

The mother of two has been delighted by the feedback from readers, who have enjoyed the fast-paced plotline. 

“It’s been described as dark and twisty. You get a bit numb to your own writing after 10 years so I don’t realise if things are darker than normal or twistier than normal!,” says Jenny. 

Jenny, who has sold more than 500,000 copies of her books in the UK, enjoyed writing the twists for The Final Wife, which is her 10th novel. “I like it when the twists come to me organically – it’s a heart-thumping moment,” she says.

“I liked writing the police officer, Rebecca, who is a secondary character, I had a lot of fun writing her,” adds Jenny.

The Final Wife, published by Canelo, is available now. See www.canelo.co/books/the-final-wife-jenny-blackhurst