The Secrets of Strangers #author Jess Kitching

After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband, Kamal, need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs to work on her next manuscript.

But the peace of their new village life is disrupted when longtime local Alexa Clarke goes missing. Did she leave her husband, like some people suspect? Or is there credibility to the rumours that something more nefarious has happened to Alexa?

Frozen by writer’s block, Janine stumbles into investigating Alexa’s disappearance, and the more she discovers about Alexa’s life, the more complicated things become. Nothing is as it seems, and Janine begins to realise that there are disturbing parallels between Alexa’s life and her own.

What starts as curious procrastination quickly spirals into a tangled web of secrets, lies and a truth Janine may not be ready to face … if she survives.

To connect with Jess ....
https://jesskitchingwrites.wordpress.com/about-me/
https://www.instagram.com/jesskitchingwrites/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, beautiful. Thank you. Jess, it's good morning for you. Jess Kitching. Welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Good evening to you.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

We're in different hemispheres. You gotta love this. Jess, congratulations. Your newest book. I know it's available for pre-order, but pretty much, you know, out any day now. Congratulations. We both have copies, aren't we? Lucky. Yeah, you've got a beautiful arc copy.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

The secrets of stranger. Congratulations. You're like this acclaimed international author. I'm so privileged to have you on. Tell us about your latest book.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. That's the kindest thing anyone's ever said. Um, The Secrets of Strangers is my fourth thriller. It's a standalone, and it's about a woman called Janine who is an author who's been really struggling with some grief and loss. So she thinks that a move to the countryside with her husband will fix this. Um, has anyone anyone who's ever gone through those kind of feelings will know that actually sometimes withdrawing and isolating yourself in those kind of locations actually doesn't help. Um, so she's struggling with this grief and she hears about this kind of mysterious disappearance of a local woman called Alexa Clark. Nobody can tell is she actually missing? Has she left her husband? Kind of what's going on? And so to get away from um, I guess her writer's block, Janine kind of tentatively begins looking into the disappearance. But as soon as she realizes she has this moment of quite small but very profound connection with Alexa Clark, that's it. She is hook, line, and sinker, investigating this with quite dangerous consequences.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yes, and definitely a twisty thriller. I I would describe this. Lots of emotional depth.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, yeah. You hid it all the aims. I tried for it. It's one of the things I just I just mentioned, it's my fourth thriller, and I think it's my favourite twist I've ever written yet. But all the reader reviews are just like that twist. I was like, thank goodness the twist comes across. That's how I hoped it would.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

And and so layered. I love that. Uh Jess, do you want to tell us if if anyone's watching who's not familiar with your previous work or you know is curious about you, do you want to tell us a bit about you as a writer, your writing journey, and uh anything we need to know?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, of course. Um, so my name is Jess. I grew up in Bradford in the north of England. That's the kind of accent you can hear. It's just from your but I moved to Australia um kind of at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019 to go travelling and did the classic thing of falling in love with the beautiful country and everybody there. Um and I think just that distance, I always wanted to write, but I was quite shy about it. So sometimes that distance, I think, when you're in a new place and you can kind of step into your ambitions a little bit more without someone you know who knew you from when you were 10, going, but you wanted to be a dinosaur or something. Um so I kind of I got it a little bit more confident, I guess, in Australia, and then since then, kind of it a lot of hard work behind the scenes, but it's taken off. So I've written um three thrillers before this, and then I got a new book deal with Simon Schuster and wrote a contemporary romance last year called Life Experiment, and then now there's the Secrets of Strangers.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah. Uh and Jess, what um what do we need to know about um the book if we're watching and we're curious? So definitely like twisty. Um anything else you want to tell us?

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, my thrillers have always been described as thrillers with heart, which I really like. So I was like, oh, that's lovely. Um, because there's of course all the things you can expect, like the twists and the misdirects. That's my most favourite part, is when readers message me is like, I'm on to chapter 22, and I think I know who it is, and I'm like, I put that clue there on purpose for you. Um, but that's that's lovely. So there's all the kind of twists, but there is an emotional depth, as I mentioned in kind of the blurb. Janine's going through some loss. There's um her story's got story's got heart to it, essentially. So I think if you're looking for a thriller with really intense twists and shocks and kind of an ending that you have to talk to somebody about, but also I guess one that stays with you for a little bit longer and maybe think about the feelings and the characters, um, then I think this is one for you.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah. And just beyond, I mean, you're gonna enjoy this book launch. You've got lots of I've seen your itinerary, lots of events coming up. Um, do you is that is that the plan for you just to keep writing? Like, is that is that the dream?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

That is the dream. I would love that to be the dream. Um, I really enjoy writing across different genres as well. So the life experiment, like I said, totally new genre. I didn't really realise it was a contemporary romance till um the marketing department told me, and I was like, cool, yes. Um, because that has twists too. So I was like, well, I guess it's a thriller. Um, but but I found out it wasn't. So I think, yeah, just writing and writing books that I would like to read as a reader. I mentioned to you before we started recording, I see myself as more of a reader than a writer. And I always write books that I would like to read. So I think the joy comes from that, and hopefully I get to keep doing this for a very long time.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, uh, somehow I think you will. Jess, if we're curious about the latest book, if we're curious about your work and you you've got a website, Instagram, point us in the direction. I'll put it in the show notes, I'll put some notes into events that are coming up for you. Tell us, tell us where we go.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I think the main place is yes, social media. Um, as you mentioned, kind of I'm in the UK at the minute, but I'm live in Australia, so there's a whole whole kind of global situation going on at the minute. Um, but Jess Kitchen Rights is kind of the name that I write under. So that will be my Instagram and that will be my Facebook and different things, and there's kind of a secret official Jess Kitchen reader group that you can join and find out some early access information to.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I love it. Jess, and thank you so much for joining us. I'm feeling very energized, even though it's evening for me after talking to you. Feeling incredibly privileged, and uh, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. All the best.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Cheers.