‘Team Abbott’, as I call the highly prized group of people who help me to keep my head above water when I’m drowning in all the day-to-day tasks, have been as brilliant as ever. Tish McPhilemy continues to take on so many of the essential aspects of running a business, but perhaps more importantly she brightens my day with her wit and good humour. Molly Maine has joined the team this year, albeit mainly working from Thailand, and her work in marketing has been exceptional. Another year of being guided by publicist Maura Wilding has been as amazing as I knew it would be. The three of you are a joy to work with.

It is interesting to look back over the last seven years and consider the publishing decisions I have made. Without a doubt one of the best has been to sign with my incredible agent, Lizzy Kremer. I am so lucky to have her support and guidance and to be able to draw on the expertise of the whole team at David Higham Associates. Harriet Moore deserves a medal for her patience with this very demanding author, and thanks to the foreign rights team my novels are now available in over twenty languages.

I am blessed with great editors too. Clare Bowron gives superb editorial feedback and makes me realise when I have quite literally lost the plot. Hugh Davis – my copy editor – seems to find so many ways to improve my manuscript, and I always know my books are in good hands with him.

Finally, my thanks to John and the rest of my wonderful family for coping with someone who is only ever half with them, the rest of my mind almost always somewhere else. Your support means everything, and I couldn’t do any of it without you all.

READING GROUP QUESTIONS

READING GROUP QUESTIONS

WARNING: These questions and discussion points contain spoilers. Please do not read on if you haven’t already read Come a Little Closer

Summary

Come a Little Closer tells the story of a young woman who turns to a person she trusts in a moment of need, and finds herself lost in a life she doesn’t recognise but from which she can see no escape. But how did she get there?

Believing that she is never going to be able to rid herself of her boyfriend Ian, a man who has become increasingly manipulative in the time they have been together, she seeks refuge with an elderly couple she met on holiday until she can get her life back together again. But when she wakes up in the bath to find blood being washed from her body, she begins to think she is losing her mind. Is it true what they are telling her? Could she really have killed Ian?