This post was originally published on Audible.co.uk.
Claire Douglas has crafted another spine-tingling story with The Family Friend. In this conversation, she reveals how 15 years in journalism shaped her approach to fiction, why she's endlessly fascinated by old houses hiding dangerous secrets, and what it's like to hear voice actors bring her characters to life for global audiobook audiences.
Tricia Ford: While your novel-writing career didn’t take off for you until a little later in life, you’ve been a storyteller your whole life. And even as a child, you liked your stories on the scary side, admitting to giving people nightmares since age seven, starting with your little sister. How has your approach to creating psychological tension evolved from those childhood stories to your many published novels?
Claire Douglas: My stories as a child definitely seemed to revolve around ghosts and the supernatural, mainly to scare my sister! Even though I loved reading and watching thrillers, I started off thinking I wanted to write romantic dramas because I love exploring relationships. My first three (unpublished) novels were more in the women’s fiction genre, but it wasn’t until I started writing my debut, The Sisters, I realised I was actually writing something much darker. I think a lot of the psychological tension in my books comes from the different dynamics between the characters and their complex relationships.
Your Marie Claire Debut Novel Award in 2013 launched your fiction career after 15 years in journalism. How did those journalistic skills—research, interviewing, meeting deadlines—shape your thriller-writing process?
I’m the sort of person that needs a deadline otherwise I’d spend too long procrastinating, so journalism worked really well for me. It’s definitely helped me with deadlines for my books, which are usually quite tight as I write a book a year. I was mainly writing human interest features for women’s magazines, and the things I wrote about and the subjects I covered definitely helped spark my imagination for my thrillers. I met so many interesting people from all walks of life, with so many compelling stories to tell. I once covered a story about a young couple who found human remains while excavating their old house—and even though they turned out to be Roman remains it was one of the seeds for The Couple at No 9.
Your new book, The Family Friend, involves another mysterious inheritance and dark family secrets. What draws you repeatedly to themes of hidden pasts and dangerous gifts? Do you find certain psychological dynamics irresistible to explore?
I’m quite nosey, so I’m always drawn to themes where dark secrets are being uncovered, and there is something so fascinating to me about old houses with all their history. Even as a child I made up stories about old houses and diaries being found under floorboards! I love stories about the past, so I like to have a historic thread running through my thrillers. In The Family Friend one of my main characters is an artist who is found dead at the beginning of the book, but I wanted to go back and write her story, and it spans 50 years.
You've mentioned influences ranging from Enid Blyton to The Time Traveler's Wife. How do you think this eclectic reading background helps you create what fellow thriller author Gilly Macmillan calls your "brilliantly claustrophobic settings"?
One of the things I love about reading is being transported to a new place, whether it be Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood or The Time Traveler’s Wife’s Chicago. My favourite books always have a very distinct sense of place and I try and do the same in my own thrillers. I want the setting to be a character in its own right.
Your novels are a worldwide phenomenon! Your books reach global audiences, increasingly through audiobook formats. How do you feel about voice actors bringing your characters to life? Do you write differently knowing your work might be performed rather than just read?
I love listening to audiobooks and it’s endlessly fascinating to me to hear the voice actors bringing my characters to life. I think they do such a brilliant job. It’s one of the highlights of writing a book to find out who will be reading the characters, and the cast for The Family Friend is amazing. I don’t think I write differently but I do try and read my books out loud at the proofreading stage to try and iron out any jarring sentences.
