A Dark and Secret Place

A DARK AND SECRET PLACE

A NOVEL

JEN WILLIAMS

For Juliet, the devil on my shoulder who whispered: ‘write a scary book’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THIS BOOK ESSENTIALLY owes its entire existence to my brilliant agent and friend, Juliet Mushens. We had long shared an interest in true crime, swapping stories and Wikipedia links, and one day, when I joked about passing off all my dodgy internet activity as book research, she fixed her eye upon me – via Whatsapp – and said, ‘well why don’t you write a thriller, Sennifer?’. Thank you, Juliet, for being the kick up the bum I needed, and of course for being one of my dearest, wisest friends.

So, A Dark and Secret Place was a new genre for me, and never has a single book taught me so much. I’ve been lucky enough to have an extraordinary team of excellent minds to lead me through it and very kindly teach me all the things I needed to learn. Huge thanks to Natasha Bardon at HarperFiction, who saw through to the bones of this book immediately and made it work. Enormous gratitude also to the team at Crooked Lane Books, who made me feel so welcome and have kept on top of everything with such enthusiasm – Faith Black Ross, Melissa Rechter and Madeline Rathle, you all rock. Many thanks also to Jenny Bent, another agent who has had my back at every step.

I happen to be writing these acknowledgements in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, which is certainly not a sentence I ever expected to write, to say the least. We’ve been in lockdown for around three months now, and it’s not an easy time to do anything creative, let alone write fiction. The two brilliant bookshops where I work, Clapham Books and Herne Hill Books, haven’t seen me for a while, but my colleagues have been so supportive and brilliant during a period that has not been the best of times (for various reasons). Nikki, Ed, Sophie and Roy – thank you so much.

As ever, I am grateful to have had the backup, moral support and effervescent company of a bunch of writer friends. Den Patrick, Andrew Reid, Adam Christopher, Alasdair Stuart, and Peter Newman – thank you for being the best sounding boards and drinking buddies. I would also like to give a shout out to the Onesies; I hope to get back to adventuring with you soon. And, of course, unending gratitude and love to my mum and the rest of my family, some of whom might even read this book because it has murders rather than dragons!

Lastly, all my love to Marty Perrett, my partner and best friend, who I think has always been slightly concerned by my interest in missing persons and body disposal. It turns out it was all for a book, after all. Love you babe.