How Lisa Jewell’s switch to crime fiction saved her writing career | Books | Entertainment

Bestselling author Lisa Jewell says her career was saved by switching to a life of crime – writing, that is. Acclaimed today as one of Britain’s leading psychological thriller writers, she has published an impressive 24 novels over the past 27 years.But she first found fame for her 1999 debut Ralph’s Party, which followed the lives of three roommates and their romantic entanglements with unsuitable partners leading up to the titular party.

It was a massive hit along with several ­follow-ups and Lisa became a leading light of the Noughties rom-com revolution that made several of her contemporaries household names before they faded into obscurity. Lisa, 57, avoided this fate by switching to crime fiction at just the right time, with 2015’s The Girls starting her shift towards gripping psychological thrillers solidified in I Found You and Then She Was Gone over the following two years.

When asked if this move had extended her career, she replies: “Completely, absolutely. Obviously we’re not going to mention any names but I know a lot of writers who were riding the crest of the wave – they were massive, every WH Smith or Waterstones you walked into they’d be piled up high [with their latest books] but that petered out.”

Lisa admits to a certain sense of “imposter syndrome” when first turning her hand to crime writing and years of anxiety about being accepted. “Just feeling like, ‘Am I allowed in here? Do I belong here? Do people want me here?’” she explains. “That was it, ‘What the heck is she doing here, this chick-lit writer in my space and I’ve been writing crime or psychological thrillers for years and she’s just suddenly rocked up with a girl locked in a basement’. I did feel for quite a long time like people might question me.”

It has taken being asked to be the programming chair for this summer’s Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s longest running and most prestigious celebration of the genre, supported by the Daily Express, for her to finally put this to rest. Lisa says helping pull together the four days of panels and events at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, from July 23 to 26, has been “dreamlike”.

She adds: “This journey that I’ve been on, I do think it’s extraordinary and I did come sort of sideways into the crime writing community which makes it even more special to be invited to do Harrogate.

“I mean, this is the ultimate gig isn’t it? As a crime writer when it comes to festivals, it’s magical.”

Previous programming chairs have included Lee Child, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin and, last year, Slow Horses creator Mick Herron. The festival brings fans from all over the UK and further afield to the pretty North Yorkshire spa town and has become a highlight of the crime-writing calendar.

Headliners appearing at the Old Swan this year include prolific US thriller writer David Baldacci, Alex Rider creator Anthony Horowitz and Shetland and Vera author Ann Cleeves, appearing with actress Brenda Blethyn – who brought Vera Stanhope to life in the popular ITV drama.

The winner of the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, supported by the Express and Waterstones, will be announced on the opening night. Overall, the festival features more than 140 writers – making it the biggest event ever in its 23-year history. Other star writers onthe bill include Richard Armitage, Ardal O’Hanlon, Andi Osho, Denise Mina, Adam Kay, Abir Mukherjee, Elly Griffiths, Vaseem Khan, Val McDermid and M W Craven.

But Lisa is especially excited about some of her fellow psychological thriller writers appearing for the first time, including a ­powerhouse trio of female authors.

This includes former lawyer Gillian McAllister, whose novel Wrong Place, Wrong Time was acclaimed as a book of the year by critics, Alice Feeney, whose His & Hers was recently adapted into a hit Netflix drama starring Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson, and Holly Jackson, a bestselling young adult author whose first adult novel, Not Quite Dead Yet, became a global hit last year.

She also mentions another lawyer-turned-crime writer Nadine Matheson, whose novels include The Jigsaw Man and The Kill List.

Lisa’s own latest thriller It Could Have Been Her will be published three weeks before the Harrogate festival and features a minor character from last year’s bestselling novel Don’t Let Him In, Jane Trevally.

She explains: “She’s very lightly alluded to in Don’t Let Him In. She doesn’t come with a lot of context, so I didn’t have much. I knew that she had four dogs. I knew she lived in the countryside. I knew she’d been married twice before and I knew she was very glamorous and loud and that she was 55. That’s all I really had on her but I just knew that I wanted to spend more time with her and get to know more about her.

“So I was able to spend a lot of time developing her character and putting her in a completely different world that was nothing to do with the first book.”

The new thriller sees a young Jane, newly-divorced, agree to accompany a man she doesn’t know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath, North London. After being offered a drink she goes inside but when she hears a scream and something falling upstairs she flees.Twenty-five years later she finds herself outside the same house, trying to return a small white dog found near her home in the country and she catches a fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window, which sends her on a mission to uncover the house’s secrets.

Lisa, a married mother-of-two who lives in North London, describes this book as “a very dark, complex story”. She adds: “Pretty much everyone in the book is broken and damaged and traumatised to an extent that I don’t think I’ve ever written about before.”

Asked if this darkness can be hard to escape after immersing herself in it, she says: “Most crime writers are really grounded, nice, normal people. You absolutely have to have what I call a clean psyche to be able to do that.

“Number one is to be fascinated by the dark side and number two is to be able to spend nine months or a year inside those people’s heads, inside those worlds, while you’re writing. You have to be untraumatised, unbroken, undamaged – kind of like a clean-slate sort of a person.”

Lisa adds that she is not goal driven and just focuses on the book she is writing, but she does admit to pinching herself about what she has achieved so far

She adds: “If you had told me when Ralph’s Party came out that in 2026 I would be writing psychological ­thrillers, that wouldn’t have blown my mind. But if you’d told me that I would have made such a success of it and had such a profile within the genre that I’d be asked to be Harrogate’s programming chair… that would not have computed in any way. It’s extraordinary.”

Simon Theakston, chairman of title sponsor T&R Theakston Ltd, said: “We’re extremely proud to support this world-class event for an incredible 23rd year and welcome over 140 writers for what promises to be our biggest and boldest ­festival ever. Lisa Jewell and the committee have delivered an outstanding programme packed with legends, massive internationally bestselling authors, rising stars, thrilling panels and exclusive events. We look forward to an unforgettable festival as we celebrate the very best in global crime writing.”

• Weekend and Day Rover tickets are on sale now, with individual events on sale from May 13. Call 01423 562 303 or email info@harrogate-festival.org.uk or visit harrogateinternationalfestivals.com