 Setting plays a bigger role in my books than readers might realise. A psychological thriller isn’t just about plot and characters — it’s about atmosphere, and location plays a huge part in that.
My earlier books were set in Bristol, where I used to live. I left that city nearly eight years ago, though, and I don’t feel comfortable now using it as a backdrop for my novels. Cities change quickly, and if I’m writing about a place, I want it to be real and current. These days, I only use Northumbria as a setting. The coastline, castles, and open moorland — it’s beautiful, but also remote. The kind of place where secrets could stay hidden for a long time, and that works well for a psychological thriller. The area also has some unexpected features; while working on Unlocked Lies, I found myself researching local caves — not something Northumbria is especially known for. All part of the writing process! Some of the most memorable thrillers use location in exactly this way. Think of Rebecca — Manderley isn’t just a backdrop, it’s part of the story’s psychological grip on the reader. The house, the isolation, the atmosphere all deepen the sense of unease. What about you — do you enjoy stories set in remote, atmospheric locations, or do you prefer the tension of a busy city?
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 Why are so many of us drawn to dark stories, the kind that feature in psychological thrillers? I think it’s down to a mix of curiosity and fascination. We want to understand people — especially when their behaviour doesn’t make sense. A thriller lets us step into that headspace, exploring motives and decisions we’d never encounter in everyday life. All from a safe distance.
For me, the most satisfying thrillers aren’t just about twists. They’re about why things happen — the hidden motives, the choices that lead to darker places. Those are the stories that are the most memorable. Not only for what they reveal, but for the hidden truth — that people are often far more complicated, and unpredictable, than they first appear. What about you — what draws you to psychological thrillers?  I’ve always believed that, in many areas of life, less is more. For example, I loathe clutter, and my house reflects that. My pet peeve? When someone talks too much (often mostly about themself!)
It’s often what’s not said that carries the most weight. I’ve been reminded of that again recently — both in my writing and, oddly enough, in my garden. I’ve just bought some secateurs to tackle the overgrown areas, and it struck me how similar the process is. You can improve plants by cutting them back, and writing a psychological thriller works in much the same way. Chopping out words often has a bigger impact than adding them. It speeds up the pacing, and stripping back repetition can make a character’s motivation clearer — and sometimes more unsettling. Of course, an author can overdo it. It’s possible to prune too much, the same as with plants. Just as I hate clutter but am not a minimalist, I try not to overedit. Sometimes an extra word makes the sentence flow better, and that’s more important. As I continue editing Unlocked Lies, I’m doing a lot of pruning. Not always easy, especially when it means cutting something I like, but it’s making the story leaner and stronger. And hopefully, harder to put down.  I’ve just finished reading the latest draft of Unlocked Lies — and it’s been somewhat of a reality check.
There’s a solid story in there, which is always a relief. A lot of work will be required to dig it out, though. Some scenes need to be added to strengthen the tension. Others will be axed. I’ll tighten the writing throughout, and a few characters aren’t pulling their full weight on the page. That will change! They need to earn their place in the story. There’s also an important plot issue I haven’t cracked yet. At the moment, I’m leaving it alone and trusting that the solution will reveal itself as I work through everything else. That’s often how it goes — clarity tends to come from momentum rather than staring at the problem head-on. None of this is unusual. In fact, it’s very much part of the process. First drafts (and even second or third drafts) are often about getting the raw material down. The real work comes in shaping it into something sharper, leaner, and more compelling. My plan is to tackle the straightforward fixes first — the obvious cuts, the line edits, the smaller improvements. Once those are out of the way, I’ll move on to the more structural changes, which always take more time and thought. I’m hoping to resolve most of these issues over the rest of April. We’ll see how cooperative the story and its characters decide to be!  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 Facebook: Marrisse Whittaker Author Website: https://marrissewhittaker.com Instagram: @marrissewhittakerauthor Tiktok: Marrisse Whittaker Author  There’s a time in almost every psychological thriller I write when a character simply refuses to cooperate.
I’ll sit down at my desk with a clear plan. I know what the scene is meant to achieve, what secrets need to be hinted at, where the tension should build. And then… the character tells me they want to do something unexpected. Something that’s not in my chapter plan. This isn’t surprising. In real life, people are often illogical. We hide uncomfortable truths, both from others and from ourselves. That messy emotional reality is exactly what makes psychological thrillers such fun. But it also means that fictional characters can, and often do, develop a will of their own. They’re telling me that the scene I’d planned could be better, stronger, if I change the script. Some of my favourite twists in my novels have come from moments like this — when I stopped forcing the story along its pre-planned track and instead followed where the character was leading me. After all, the most unsettling thrillers aren’t just about shocking events. They’re about people making choices we can hardly fathom… even when we wish we could. Right now, as I work on my current manuscript, I’m once again negotiating with a particularly stubborn character, my antagonist. Where this will lead, I don’t know. I suspect they’re hiding something significant. Whether they’ll reveal it on their own terms or mine remains to be seen. ‘Unlocked Lies’ is undergoing revision and editing, with a publication date yet to be determined, but probably summer 2026. Watch this space!  I’ve finished the revised draft of my next psychological thriller, Unlocked Lies. Such a relief! The messy drafting stage is behind me. I’ve done the structural changes. The new scenes are in place. Now comes the part of the writing process I enjoy most: editing and revision.
This is where the real shaping happens. I try to notice where tension dips. If a scene lingers too long. When a character’s motivation needs sharpening. Psychological thrillers live or die on precision. Suspense isn’t only about shocking twists or dramatic reveals — it’s about emotional pressure, secrets festering beneath everyday life, the slow tightening of tension until people snap. Editing like this is less about fixing mistakes and more about deepening impact. It’s about making sure every chapter earns its place. Each scene serves the story. Every revelation lands exactly when it should. For the initial edit, I’m going old-school. A printed version of the manuscript, along with a pen or pencil, a comfy seat, my phone on silent. I’ll scribble notes all over the text. ‘Axe this scene.’ ‘Tighten tension here.’ ‘More sensory details needed.’ Once I’ve completed my read-through, I’ll decide how best to put all this into place. What needs to be done first, which parts require most input, etc. Then I’ll create a plan and a timeline to get it all done, ready for another read-through. I’m lucky in that I read very fast, because I do many, many read-throughs during the editing process, always refining and tweaking as I go. Unlocked Lies explores a mystery rooted in abandonment, obsession and the dark shadow of an unhappy past. I find something exciting about knowing the book exists in full — that the mystery is there, waiting — and my job is to make it as gripping and unsettling as possible before it reaches you.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been back working on Unlocked Lies, the psychological thriller that’s been sitting quietly on my hard drive while life — and a bout of burnout — took centre stage.
Opening the manuscript again felt like walking into a house I hadn’t visited in a long time. Everything was familiar, yet somehow different. The rooms were all where I remembered them, but I noticed details I’d overlooked before. When you’re deep in the middle of writing a novel, it’s easy to lose perspective. Scenes blur together. Plot threads start to tangle. You can spend hours staring at a paragraph without being able to tell whether it’s working or not. Stepping away — even when the break wasn’t planned — changes that. Coming back to Unlocked Lies, I saw the story with fresh eyes. A scene that once felt stubborn and difficult now seemed easier to shape. A character’s reaction that had never quite convinced me was clearly wrong, and fixing it was much simpler than I’d feared. It reminded me that sometimes the most productive thing a writer can do is step back. Psychological thrillers in particular rely on delicate balance. Secrets have to be revealed at exactly the right moment. Suspicion needs to build slowly enough to keep readers guessing, but not so slowly that the tension disappears. That kind of pacing is hard to judge when you’re too close to the manuscript. As I worked through the chapters again this week, I was reminded of one of the reasons I love writing psychological thrillers. They allow you to explore the uncomfortable question of how well we really know the people around us. And… how well we know ourselves. Stories built around secrets and hidden motives often reflect something very human. Most of us carry things we’d rather keep private. Small truths we avoid saying out loud. Pieces of our past that we quietly hope will stay buried. In fiction, of course, those secrets have a habit of refusing to stay hidden. Returning to this manuscript after time away has reminded me why this story grabbed my attention in the first place. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this story world again. I’m curious about something. When you read psychological thrillers, what draws you in most — the shocking twists, the hidden secrets, or the complex characters who may not be telling the truth? If you’ve been meaning to try one of my books — or fill a gap in your collection — March is a good month to do it. I’m running limited-time Kindle promotions on three of my psychological thrillers across the UK, USA and Australia. After She's Gone  99p (UK) / $1.49 (Australia) - available throughout March 2026. Lori Golden’s family has had more than its fair share of troubles. But through it all, Lori and her sister, Jessie, have always supported each other. Then Jessie is killed. And Lori’s world turns upside down. Devastated, Lori struggles to cope with her loss, and to learn to live in a world without her bright, bubbly sister by her side. Around her, her already fractured family starts to fall apart. And as Lori and her mother try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, secrets long thought buried are coming painfully to light. Faced with the unthinkable, Lori is forced to ask herself how well she really knows those who are left behind… His Kidnapper's Shoes 99p (UK) / $1.49 (Australia) - available throughout March 2026. On some level deep inside, Laura Bateman knows something is wrong. That her relationship with her son is not what it should be. That it is based on lies. But bad things have happened to Laura. Things that change a person. Forever. For twenty-six-year-old Daniel, the discovery that his mother is not who he thought comes close to destroying him. As his world turns upside down, he searches for sanity in the madness that has become his life. Daniel is left with nothing but questions. Why did Laura do something so terrible? Can he move past the demons of his childhood? And the biggest question of all: can he ever forgive Laura? She'll Never Tell  99p (UK) / 99c (US) - March 2 – March 8 only
The sudden death of her mother shatters Olivia Gilchrist’s world. Grief turns to shock when a post-mortem reveals Sonia has lied to her daughter in the cruellest possible way. Angry and hurt, Olivia vows to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Olivia’s neighbour, Elena, harbours a dark secret. Now the past has caught up with her, forcing Elena to go into hiding. Then Olivia discovers Elena was involved in Sonia’s deceit. She has questions she’s desperate to ask her former neighbour. Olivia suspects, however, that Elena is warped and unstable. Tracking her down may be difficult and dangerous. The temptation proves too strong, and a game of cat and mouse with a vengeful woman ensues. One that has the potential to turn deadly…  It’s been a while since I last published a new novel - December 2022, to be precise.
If you’ve been wondering whether I’ve disappeared, the answer is no. I’ve been working quietly behind the scenes. Over the past few months, I’ve taken the opportunity to step back and strengthen the foundations of my author business. Some of that work isn’t very glamorous, but it matters. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
All of that groundwork is now in place. Which means I can return to what I love most: writing. I’m now diving back into Unlocked Lies. There’s still a great deal to do - drafting, tightening, deepening character arcs, sharpening the tension — but it feels good to be back at the desk with a clear plan. I’m looking forward to sharing more as the year unfolds. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of what Unlocked Lies is about: Deep in the wilds of Northumbria, two babies lie starving and abandoned in the cellar of a derelict farmhouse. Upstairs is the body of the brutally murdered homeowner, William Mostyn. The only clue is a bracelet inscribed: ‘Mariah—mine forever.’ Despite a massive police investigation, the babies’ identities and their connection to the dead victim remain a mystery. Years later, Lottie Ryan is all grown-up and seeking answers. Who dumped Lottie and her brother Gabe in that cellar? Was Mariah their biological mother, and did she kill William Mostyn? As Lottie delves deeper into a twisted web of lies, she realises that the enigmatic Mariah holds the key to unlocking the truth. Mariah is long gone, however, taking her secrets with her. Can Lottie ever uncover what happened that fateful night? A gripping novel of obsession and deceit, Unlocked Lies unravels the mystery that has darkened two women’s lives for decades. |
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