My new book is out today!!!
I do love a good crime story, and so I decided to write one!! My newest novel, Paper Girls, comes out today, published by Zertex. It’s a fast-paced and furious story about a police detective in the UK who is also a single dad to three girls. Here’s the blurb!
The one case he couldn't crack was the one that finally broke him.
Haunted by his inability to track down and save his missing wife, DCI Robert Kett leaves the Metropolitan Police behind and moves to Norwich with his three young children, hoping to heal their broken family.
But his newfound peace doesn’t last. Two newspaper delivery girls have gone missing in the city, and the clues point to a serial kidnapper.
Kett is dragged into the centre of one of the darkest cases of his career — a case that pits him head to head against a horrifying evil.
And a case that might uncover the terrible truth of what happened to his wife.
Terrifying and unputdownable, the first crime novel from million-selling author Alex Smith is officially “a gripping debut” (J. D. Kirk).
So, why this story? I have had the idea in my head for a while: a man who is left as a single parent to three young girls after his wife is kidnapped. I always knew it was going to be a crime novel, and for a while, as I mulled the idea, I thought it was going to be a cosy crime—so not too gruesome. As you probably know, I have three daughters at home who are a constant source of annoyance. I mean inspiration. Every day they give me new ideas for stories. So it was inevitable that one day they would end up starring in a story!! They do say write what you know, and I certainly know what it’s like to be in Robbie Kett’s shoes.
As I started writing, though, I realised that this book was going to be waaaaay too dark for a cosy thriller. I mean, it is me, and I do like scary stuff. As soon as I had the idea for the missing paper girls I knew that this was going to be a fairly terrifying novel, and I just ran with it. I’m used to writing about supernatural monsters (and human monsters inside supernatural stories), but writing about human monsters in a human world was a real challenge—mainly because I find this kind of villain terrifying, and all too real. I hope that the bad guy in Paper Girls rivals any other villain I’ve created (although not Colonel Panettiere, of course, because she’s the worst).
Anyway, it’s something a little new for me, but I hope I’ve done the story and the characters justice. It’s a crime thriller, but I do think crime thrillers are, at their hearts, horror stories. So really I haven’t ventured too far from home turf. If you do read it, I would LOVE to know what you thought!! :-) Let me know here, or leave a review on Amazon, or just spread the word!! Thanks so much!!