Author Interview: Marrisse Whittaker

A very warm welcome to novelist Marrisse Whittaker, who’ll be answering some questions about her novels, including her next book, A Body of Lies. 

I’d like to know more about your latest novel, either published or a work-in-progress. What can readers expect to encounter in its pages?

My latest novel, A Body of Lies, is due to be published on 9th April. It’s a crime thriller, full of secrets, lies, survival and the darkness a family can hide. The theme affecting all of the main characters, is the famous George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This is the blurb:

Ten years ago, Sunny Hart vanished. Now her sister wants the truth – no matter the cost.

Investigative journalist Rose Hart swore she’d never return to her hometown, the place that stole her sister and shattered her family. But it’s finally time to lay the ghosts of her past to rest.

Her fragile peace is shattered when a horrific parcel arrives in the post, followed by a chilling warning beside a dead body. Suddenly, Rose is dragged back into a nightmare she can’t escape.

As she begins to investigate, Rose realises she’s not the only one hunting for answers. Leo Thorn, a forensic pathologist with secrets of his own, and Vinny Strong, a convicted murderer with unfinished business, become unlikely allies.

Together, they step into a labyrinth of long-buried secrets and a history far darker than Rose ever imagined. Someone knows what happened to Sunny, and they’ve waited a very long time to finish what they started.

Tell us about yourself and what you get up to when you’re not writing.

I spent the first twenty years of my life working as a film/TV Make-Up Artist on feature films and dramas and then ran my own TV company making factual TV content for all of the main broadcasters. I also wrote drama scripts for long-running series. When I’m not writing, I like to travel and often come up with new ideas for stories whilst I’m on the move.

What have you written to date?

A Body of Lies will be my sixth crime thriller and is currently a standalone story, though it could be the start of a new series. My first book, The Magpie, was written in 2020 when the covid lockdown struck and I was trapped in a hotel room in the Canary Islands. The Magpie was published in May 2021. This was closely followed by The Devil’s Line, published in Nov 2021 and The Mad Hatter Murders, published February 2022. The main character in all three books is Billie Wilde, a young and wild female police detective based in the North-East of the UK. The spin-off series from this, Wilde & Darque, follows Billie Wilde and Ellis Darque as they set up a PI agency and face challenges in different locations, including across Europe.

Where do your ideas come from?

The idea for A Body of Lies first came to me when I started to receive strange and increasingly spooky deliveries through the post, with no idea who had sent them or why. The first chapter of the book begins with a similar scenario and does include one item identical to one that I received.

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer to see where an idea takes you?

I work on an outline plot, with similar story beats to that of a screenplay, as my background is in TV writing and production. I create scenes first, rather than chapters and I always visualise the end scene before I start writing. Once I get going, I always veer off from the plan, but the main story beats and turning points that I need to make sure the plot works are positioned on my skeleton plan and so help ensure that I don’t end up in a tangled mess.

Thanks, Marrisse! You can find out more about Marrisse and her books here: 

https://geni.us/BodyofLies
YouTube https://youtube.com/shorts/NM5raSrs14c
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Website: https://marrissewhittaker.com
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