HIDE AND SEEK is the third book in the Jess Tennant Mysteries series, and we’re thrilled to have Jane Casey here to share more about it.
Jane, what was your inspiration for writing HIDE AND SEEK?
Hide and Seek is the third book in the Jess Tennant crime series and I wanted to write about mother-daughter relationships because Jess and her mother are extremely close. Jess seems like the responsible one a lot of the time, and she has to deal with the fall-out from her mother’s decisions, but there’s a huge amount of love between the two of them. There’s another mother and daughter in Hide and Seek who have a very different dynamic, one that is quite dangerous and unstable. I’m also fascinated by those people who live by exploiting others. I think there’s some truly evil behaviour in this book!
What did this book teach you about writing or about yourself?
I wrote two completely different versions of this book. I was really lucky that my editor gave me some terrific notes on the first one. I don’t think she thought I’d go as far as to write a whole new book as a result, but it turned out to be easier to start again. I think there’s about 15% of the first version in the second version, scattered here and there. I needed to write the first one to see that it didn’t work, but it was a battle all the way through and I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult. When I wrote the second manuscript, it was just a joy – the story flew. I learned to listen to my instincts. When a book is wrong, you know it, and no amount of work will make it right. So try again. ‘Fail better’ is a good motto for a writer.
Was there an AHA! Moment along your road to publication where something suddenly sank in and you felt you had the key to writing a novel? What was it?
I didn’t write for years – I was working as a children’s books editor and loved my job. I also didn’t have the self-confidence to write. It was as if I was waiting for someone to give me permission to try. I had a story running through my head that I thought about in every spare moment, but I was still a reader, still an editor, still consuming other people’s work. One day, I felt restless. I couldn’t find a book I wanted to read. All I wanted was to read MY book, the one that had been stuck in my head for two years. So I wrote it for myself. I knew the odds were against getting published: through my job I’d been writing (nice) rejection letters to other writers for a long time. But there was something magical about taking these scenes out of my imagination and making them real. I loved it then and I love it still, and I think that’s the key to it, for me. Nothing else could be as satisfying.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Hide and Seek
by Jane Casey
Hardcover
St. Martin’s Griffin
Released 8/25/2015
Jess Tennant’s classmate is kidnapped right before the Christmas holiday in this third novel in Jane Casey’s brilliant young adult mystery series.
It’s Christmas in Port Sentinel, the tiny English town where Jess Tennant has been living for more than a year now. She wasn’t sure how she felt about moving away from London when her mom dragged her to Port Sentinel right before the beginning of high school, but even Jess has to admit the town has completely outdone itself for the holidays. There’s a Christmas market complete with mini ice-rink, and fairy lights decorate the bare trees all over town.
For one of Jess’s classmates, though, the Christmas season is anything but magical. She’s been kidnapped and is being held in a dilapidated cottage near a deserted beach. And Jess might be the only one who can figure out where she is in time to rescue her.
Hide and Seek is another delightfully clever young adult mystery from beloved author Jane Casey.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Crime is a family affair for Jane Casey. Married to a criminal barrister, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life, from the smell of a police cell to the darkest motives of a serial killer. This gritty realism has made her books international bestsellers and critical successes; while D.C. Maeve Kerrigan has quickly become one of the most popular characters in crime fiction.
Her novel The Stranger You Know won the Mary Higgins Clark Award and she has also been shortlisted for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award four times as well as the CWA Dagger in the Library Award.
Happy reading,
Jocelyn, Shelly, Martina, Erin, Lisa, Susan, Jen, Sam, Lindsey, Sandra, Kristin, and Anisaa
