Rosie Walker’s latest novel began as a short story she wrote in 2011 to be critiqued by her fellow students as part of her work on a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh.
It was when her dad read the story, he said, ‘This felt more like the start of a novel than a short story.’ His comment really stuck with the author and she spent a long time thinking about how to expand it into a novel, even planning out a whole book. It could have been Rosie’s debut novel, but something about it just wasn’t working and she couldn’t work out how to get to the end of the book. So she put the manuscript in a drawer until over a decade later when her husband Kevin gave her the vital puzzle piece that she needed to get started again with the book: a new point of view.
‘Ex-Girlfriend is now completely unrecognisable from that original short story, but that wasn’t the end of the novel’s journey of changes: while I was devising the initial plot, my literary agent, Charlotte Robertson, gave me the next vital step when she suggested really jazzing up the novel’s setting. Instead of a normal house on a suburban Edinburgh street, why not take this family into the middle of nowhere, in a huge remote mansion? How much creepier would it be when Alice and Natasha turn up on the doorstep, if Sadie can’t find a way to get them to leave? And Charlotte was so right: I love writing about big creepy houses and the Highlands setting feels almost like a character in itself.’
Rosie
Editor, Maisie Lawrence says:
‘Rosie Walker’s stunning psychological thriller is non-stops thrills, twists and secrets. Ex-Girlfriend is one of my highlights of the year and Rosie’s first two books with Bookouture are going to launch her into the psych thriller stratosphere. Get excited!’
What readers are saying about Rosie Walker, ‘‘EXCELLENT… This was definitely HEART-POUNDING!!…’, ‘Holy cow what a ride!!! Twists and turns and just a great book!’ and ‘WOW!!… I was hooked from the start, captivated and captured…’.
Ex-Girlfriend will be published on May 3rd, 2024 and will be available on Amazon.
