Three little girls missing.
One family torn apart.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Louise Jensen's The Stolen Sisters! A huge thank you to HQ for inviting me to be part of the tour, and for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion.
When I read The Family by the lovely Louise Jensen last year, I was blown away. It made my top 10 books of 2019 list, and I honestly wondered how she was going to top it. But she's done it again.
The Stolen Sisters is a gripping and wonderfully-written psychological thriller that tells the heartbreaking tale of the Sinclair sisters, Carly, Marie and Leah, who were kidnapped twenty years ago and locked up in a terrifying, filthy room in a derelict RAF site. The mystery is not about how they manage to escape, because what happens after is so much worse.
We meet them as adults. Physically, they're doing fine. Mentally? That's a whole other story. The Stolen Sisters delves deeply into how people cope with trauma. And with Carly's extreme trust issues, Leah's battle with contamination OCD and Marie's struggles with addiction, they are definitely not coping with the trauma. As the twentieth anniversary of the kidnapping looms ever closer, a catastrophic chain of events unfolds and sends the reader rocketing towards a series of twists and turns that are as unpredictable as they are clever.
Told from multiple perspectives and two different timelines, you'll climb right inside the head of each sister and you'll be thinking about them long after you turn the last page. I absolutely adore Louise's style of writing, how she writes about such harrowing, terrifying things with prose that is drenched in beauty, and constructed with such strong imagery.
Be warned: you'll fall victim to the 'just-one-more-chapter' trap. Louise is the master of foreshadowing, leaving you hanging on by a fingertip as she ends each chapter. She sends you hurtling down one road, only to whip the carpet from beneath your feet and leave your head spinning. This was an unbelievably tense read, and oh-so dark and twisty.
Ready to meet the woman behind the masterpiece? Louise Jensen, author of 5 bestselling psychological thrillers, joins me on the blog today to discuss The Stolen Sisters.
Welcome to the blog, Louise! It's no secret that I loved The Stolen Sisters, so I'm thrilled to be part of your blog tour. This is such a terrifying story from start to finish... can you tell me what sparked the idea for it?
My son went missing from primary school, many years ago and I’ve never forgotten the utter terror of that day. The sense of helplessness and hopelessness as the police searched for him. The immense relief when he was found hours later. I’d always said, as an author, I couldn’t bear to write about missing children but the Sinclair sisters lodged themselves in my head and wouldn’t leave. The only way I could approach the story was if readers found out straight away that the girls had survived their ordeal without any abuse.
The setting for the kidnap is so scary and felt so real! Is it based on an actual place? If so, where?
It is! RAF Norwood is based on RAF Upwood in Cambridgeshire. As in the story, Upwood is being demolished to build houses on but the landowners generously invited me to have a look around. I bought the items the girls have in the book and took some very creepy photos. Here’s one:
There’s a medical condition in the book I’d never heard of, and it's fascinating. In fact, I can't believe it's a real thing! What made you want to include this in The Stolen Sisters?
My youngest son, Finley, is so curious about the world, and is always discovering new things. He found a short film on YouTube about this condition (which I can’t name because of spoilers!) and I was both intrigued and saddened. I researched it and knew I had to include it in a story.
What was your favourite scene in The Stolen Sisters to write? On the flip side, what was the most difficult to write?
The epilogue was both my favourite scene and also the most difficult. Each time I had to go back and edit it I cried! Partly, I think, because it’s such an emotional scene, but also because I had to say goodbye to Leah, Marie and Carly and I’d grown to love them all so much.
Have you ever written anything so terrifying you've scared even yourself?
This book! Because it brought back a lot of feelings for me it was an emotional roller-coaster to write.
Do you find inspiration in real-life events or news stories?
I rarely read or watch the news because it terrifies me but I’m certainly interested in real-life medical conditions. The Gift features cellular memory, the concept that a donor heart can store memories which can be passed along to the recipient.
The Date is centred around Prosopagnosia (face blindness). Surrogacy really interested me and inspired The Surrogate, and brainwashing in The Family. You spend such a long time writing a book you need to be interested in the subject.
You've recently launched The Life We Almost Had, under the pen name Amelia Henley, which is definitely not a thriller... how are you finding juggling two genres that are so different?
It’s been a busy few months! I’ve taken everything I’ve learned as a thriller writer, taking an unusual concept and applying suspense, cliff-hangers at the end of chapters and a few huge twists so although The Life We Almost Had is, at its core, a love story, writing it used the same principles. Having two names on social media gets a little hectic though!
2020 has been interesting, to say the least. Has lockdown changed your approach to writing? Has it made it more difficult, or easier?
Definitely harder. I’ve been launching and promoting two books, editing two books for next year while homeschooling. I haven’t written anything since March and I hugely miss it. I’ve put ‘WRITE' in my calendar for every day in November.
Can you give us any hints about your next thriller?
It’s the story of a family who are all keeping secrets. It’s by far the darkest book I’ve written so far. There’s one scene in it that actually turned my stomach!
So exciting! I can't wait to get my hands on it. Thanks so much for joining me today, Louise!
This dark and twisty masterpiece is out now in paperback, audiobook and ebook. Grab a copy from your favourite bookshop today.
It's unmissable.
Roxie
@RoxieAdelleKey
Louise Jensen has sold over a million English language copies of her international no. 1 psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift, The Surrogate, The Date and The Family. Her novels have also been translated into twenty-five languages, as well as featuring on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller’s list. Louise's sixth thriller, The Stolen Sisters was published on 1st October by Harper Collins.
The Sister was nominated for the Goodreads Debut of 2016 Award. The Date was nominated for The Guardian's 'Not The Booker' Prize 2018. The Surrogate was nominated for the best Polish thriller of 2018. The Gift has been optioned for a TV film. The Family was a Fern Britton Book Club pick. Louise was also listed for two CWA Dagger Awards.
When Louise isn’t writing thrillers, she turns her hand to penning love stories under the name Amelia Henley. Her no. 1 bestselling debut as Amelia Henley, The Life We Almost Had, is out now.
Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire. She loves to hear from readers and writers.
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