I do hope you have enjoyed reading Closer, my seventh psychological thriller. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, please do sign up to my email list below to be sure of getting the very latest news, hot off the press! Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. You can also connect with me via my website, on Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.

The idea for this book initially grabbed me because I am a mother myself. My daughter is a wonderful young woman now, but I can clearly remember her as a ten-year-old. Those pre-teen years are strange for a parent, I think. We see our young person growing, developing their own opinions and preferences, hopefully against the backdrop of parental guidance. And yet ultimately they are still very much a child and need protecting.

Life has a funny way of throwing challenges and complications at us, and I got to thinking about how, if parents are distracted with their own problems, it might be surprisingly easy to take your eye off the ball briefly. Just long enough for a negative influence to sneak in and turn your child’s life upside down.

As adults, we like to put the past in a box, control it as we see fit. Sometimes there are happy memories, sometimes events best forgotten. It’s a constant source of fascination to me how the past has a bearing on our present, and although we like to think we can set previous bad experiences aside, they have a nasty habit of resurfacing just when we could most do without them.

Another occurrence that contributed to Closer was that I happened to watch an emotional interview with a pre-teen girl and her mother who, happily, had survived the child’s anorexia and emerged from the other side stronger and chatting openly about their experience.

One thing I took from their interview and from subsequent research on anorexia in young people was that parents very often have an inbuilt alarm when it comes to ‘just knowing’ something isn’t right with their child. Doctors and friends and family may cast doubt because clear, measurable evidence isn’t always there, particularly at the beginning of an eating disorder. It’s often the pure gut feeling of a parent who refuses to rest that gets to the truth of what is happening in their son or daughter’s life.

I chose to explore the mother–daughter bond in writing Closer. I do hope you enjoyed taking the journey with me.

If you would like more information about or help with any of the issues covered in the book, there are many excellent resources that can be accessed by searching online.

Closer is set in Nottinghamshire, the place I was born and have lived all my life. Local readers should be aware that I sometimes take the liberty of changing street names or geographical details to suit the story.

Reviews are so massively important to authors. If you’ve enjoyed Closer and could spare just a few minutes to write a short review to say so, I would so appreciate that.

Until Book 8, then…

Warmest wishes,

Kim x