Even though my new novel, How Not to Murder Your Ex contains a dead body, a car chase and a psychotic killer, it is really – at its heart – a love letter to female friendship. It tells the story of Clio, who has told everyone in her small seaside town that she wants to murder her ex, only for him to turn up dead on her doorstep on her forty-fifth birthday. There is only one suspect: her. Can she and her two oldest friends, Amber and Jeanie, find the real killer before it’s too late?
The novel was inspired by the friendships that got me back on track after my bumpy arrival into midlife. Aged 45, I had all the classic symptoms of the peri-menopausal woman: rage, insomnia, brain fog and a body temperature hotter than the earth’s core. One night, awake at 3 am for the 375th night in a row I listened to my husband sleeping peacefully beside me and felt a little bit murdery.
I am happy to say that said husband is a) still alive and b) still married to me, but it was that moment that sparked a midlife change of writing direction from romance to crime. However, there is no way I would have made it happen without my friends. The one who left HRT leaflets lying around until I could ignore them no longer; one who dropped chocolate to my door when she saw through my ‘I’m fine’ façade at school pick up; one who told me to get a dog because it would make everything better (she was right); the friend who sent me meerkat memes to make me laugh; one who had my children for sleepovers so I could have more time to write.
In the book, my trio of detectives are inspired by all these people: the ones who are there for me no matter what. Amber is an ex-copper, running on rage after being fired from her job. Jeanie is an IVF mum who hasn’t slept since having twins a year ago and Clio is a one-woman miniseries who always follows her heart. The three of them would do anything for each other and – in this book – they frequently do.
As such, How Not to Murder Your Ex is a celebration of all the friendships that got me through my midlife crisis. So, if you enjoy women like you standing up for each other and facing their fears, then I hope this is the book for you. And if you like it, I really hope you will tell all your friends about it. Spare no one.