Literary agent and debut author Sarah Hornsley talks to us about her new thriller 'Bad Blood' which is set in Essex and shares the authors she regularly enjoys reading.
Sarah Hornsley works as a literary agent. After graduating from Durham University with a First Class Honours in History, Sarah worked at a publishing house followed by a short stint in script development before becoming a Literary Agent in 2015. She was named a Rising Star in The Bookseller in 2019. Sarah’s debut novel, Bad Blood is published by Hodder on 27th March. You can also find Bad Blood on the Suffolk Libraries catalogue.
I’m pretty sure I’ve been surrounded by books my whole life, thanks to my parents, but one of my earliest memories of reading is being taken to my local library to take part in their summer reading challenges, collecting stickers as I went, and having a photograph taken by my mum with every book I’d read that summer and earning pocket money per title!
I feel very grateful to say that Bad Blood was the first thing I’d ever written with a view to publication, and I began drafting that in 2020 during the pandemic, much like many other writers! I’d had the idea for a couple of years but in 2020 with little else to occupy me (other than a newborn baby!) I decided to give it a go. I wrote the first 30,000 words and then put it in a drawer for another eighteen months before dusting it off and forcing myself to finish it.
I wrote Bad Blood with a really strict routine. I’d have a shower, make a coffee and light a candle… every single time. I also wrote every other day before work 6-8am and then 9-12pm on a Sunday. Very rigid! But it was the only way to find the time and to keep on track!
Bad Blood is a crime thriller set in Maldon, Essex. It follows Justine, a criminal barrister, who is handed her first lead prosecution on a double murder case to find the defendant is her first love who disappeared without a trace 18 years prior. It leads Justine back to the town they grew up in as she looks for answers. Is the man she once loved really capable of the crimes he’s charged with? And why did he disappear all those years ago? Faced with having to return home to a place full of secrets, it’s not long before Justine’s own past starts to catch up with her.
The plot definitely came to me first. In my job as a literary agent I’m always looking at the market and thinking about how commercial an idea is, so I think it was natural for me to come at this from that angle first. I came up with the idea and then it took me a little while to think, ‘okay, so what else do I have to say? What else can I bring to the table and talk about?’ and that’s how Justine, with all her complexities, was born. I wanted her to be a product of everything that had happened to her, and that took more time to develop.
Yes it’s based in Maldon, which is where I was living at the time of starting writing it. It’s a beautiful little town that has a kind of holiday feel about it set around a magnificent promenade park right on the Blackwater estuary. It has such a unique sense of place, and I loved living there for a few years.
I’m currently hard at work on book two, which is a standalone thriller set on a luxurious private island in Essex, but I have to say that finding the routine this time round has been a little more challenging! Perhaps I need to be more rigid about it again!
When I’m not writing or reading the work of my own wonderful clients, I can be found reading Claire Douglas, Harlan Coben, Mhairi McFarlane, Nicholas Sparks and keeping up with the latest hot debut releases from publishers.
I would jump at the opportunity to travel around Sri Lanka again, and I most certainly would never agree to go waterfall jumping again.
I used to be a very dedicated synchronised swimmer!
