WHERE THE IDEA FOR SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME CAME FROM

Someone's Watching Me is my most commercial book. When writing it, I was inspired by thriller authors such as Lisa Jewell and Sue Watson, whose book First Date I really loved.

I was in the process of moving house at around the time I was writing Someone's Watching Me so all things property were on my mind. I was thinking about home, belonging, and safety, and also, in true thriller author fashion, what could compromise a peaceful home. I was thinking about creepy neighbours, and so decided to write a thriller about a woman who has a nice life, which falls apart when a strange man moves in next door. She notices him watching her, sees strange activity at his home, and then odd things start happening like she starts getting trolled on social media, her tyres get slashed, and it spirals from there.

Becky, my main character is convinced the new neighbour is messing with her, but everyone seems to think he's just a normal bloke. And anyway, why would some random man be out to get her?

I had fun writing this novel, in which the main character also happens to be an estate agent. I was inspired by the case of Suzy Lamplugh, the estate agent who went missing when going out for a viewing in July 1986. The case was never solved, and it has always interested me. I tried to capture the vulnerability of female estate agents, alone in strange houses, in Someone's Watching Me.

If you like tense psychological thrillers with lots of twists and turns, you'll probably like it.