The idea for The Last Mrs Sinclair came, as novels often do, from a combination of different inspirations. In early 2024, I was reading articles about how some younger women, disillusioned with the promises of feminism, had decided to abandon their careers and their hopes of finding a relationship based on equality. Instead of working long hours in insecure jobs and devoting themselves to men who turned out to be emotionally immature and unreliable, many women are now on a mission to find a wealthy man to pay for their lifestyles.
Helping them with their quest are a host of online influencers, who offer tips on how to find and catch such a man. These influencers encourage their followers to exploit men financially and also to hold onto their own power while doing so. Women are warned not to invest in these men emotionally and are advised how to manipulate situations for their own gain.
Listening to these influencers, I was appalled. I also couldn’t help admiring their brazen attitude to getting what they wanted. I wondered how the reality of pursuing and using a wealthy man for money would measure up against the dream of a luxurious life. How would such a transactional relationship really feel?
As I pondered this question, I thought about Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel, Rebecca, in which a naïve young woman falls for an older widower. What if, I asked myself, this novel’s narrator had been a streetwise gold-digger instead of an unworldly girl? This question sparked off the idea that eventually became The Last Mrs Sinclair and gave me my main character, Leah Williams.
Setting is always a crucial factor in my novels, and I wanted this story to take place in a house with its own character like Manderley in Rebecca. Having decided to set the novel in a fictional French château, I took myself off for a weeklong creative retreat at a château an hour north of Paris. It was May and I’d envisaged a week of sunning myself in the château grounds while dreaming up plot lines. However, a week of freakishly cold weather and incessant rain meant I spent most of my time trapped indoors. Disappointing as this was, the situation allowed me to imagine how isolated Leah might feel stuck at the château all summer. How cut off from the world you can feel when the château gates clang shut. I didn’t get my week of lazing around in the sun, but I did get so much inspiration for the atmosphere of the story and I hope that comes across when you read The Last Mrs Sinclair.