People always say “write what you know,” which is great advice—until you’re writing about murder. Don’t worry, I’ve committed exactly zero crimes. (Unless you count procrastination. Repeatedly. With intent.)
When I set out to write The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin, my biggest challenge wasn’t figuring out how to hide the bodies—it was deciding to ditch the usual whodunnit formula. From the start, we know whodunnit. Ellendunnit. The real question is: why did she do it—and will she get away with it?
I wanted readers to root for someone who absolutely shouldn’t be rootable. Which meant creating a character like Ellen: magnetic, flawed, and complicated as hell. Think Dexter Morgan with a better skincare routine, or Villanelle with a pension plan.
Ellen is ambitious, smart, and very much an outsider. She’s a Black woman trying to thrive in the old boys’ club of financial services. She’s a bit of a nerd—Star Wars, live music, spreadsheets—but she also has a dark side creeping in. The book is about that tug-of-war between light and dark, success and sabotage, justice and revenge. Ellen’s not just looking for a man in finance. She’s eliminating them.
The first rule of crime and thriller writing is tension : so once I had her voice, the next challenge was suspense. As there was no mystery killer, where would the tension come from? For me, it came from deep-diving into Ellen’s psyche. I spent a lot of time in imaginary conversations with her. And yes, she lied to me. Unreliable characters don’t stop being unreliable just because you invented them.
That dialogue between me and Ellen—her dodging, me pushing—became central to how the story unfolded. Sometimes she surprised me. Sometimes I had to wrestle the plot back from her. That push and pull created the most unexpected twists.
Balancing all that with pace and tension was its own kind of high-wire act. But in the end, I wanted readers to feel conflicted. To root for someone they probably shouldn’t. To wonder what they’d do in her shoes.
The second rule? A satisfying conclusion.
Did I manage to hinge this all on a moral payoff or an emotional provocation rather than just tying up loose ends? Oh no—I’m not telling you that…
Author of The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin out now in paperback by Vintage
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