Writer made her debut during lockdown and it has now inspired the follow-up
UP-AND-COMING thriller novelist Louise Mumford is back with her second book – after beginning her career from Whitchurch in lockdown.
It has been a whirlwind year for Mrs Mumford. She published her debut novel Sleepless in December 2020 and has now announced that her new psychological thriller The Safe House will be published this year.
“The book is about a young woman called Esther, whose mother has told her that the only safe place to be is in the house,” Mrs Mumford told The Cardiffian.
“For 16 years, she hasn’t spoken to a single soul. All this comes crashing down when a stranger appears and tells her that her mother’s claims about the outside world are false.
“Now, Esther has to find out if her mother is keeping her safe or keeping her prisoner.”
Sleepless was a hit on pre-orders, jumping straight to the Kindle UK’s top 50 books – and was ASDA’s Karin Slaughter Killer Read pick for July 2021. The book has been optioned for TV, and a third novel is already in the works.
“I’ve written almost 30,000 words of the new book already,” the Caerphilly-born author said,” but whether they’re the same 30,000 that will end up in the book remains to be seen! Luckily I have the ideas, it’s just about having the time to write it.
“I think it’s Neil Gaiman who says you’ve got to sit there and write the bad words as well as the good ones. You’ve just got to get through them all.”
Sleepless played upon the exhausting, alienating experience of insomnia – which Mrs Mumford has struggled with herself.
Are there elements of herself in the new book? She joked: “Some people might say that growing up in a small Welsh town is a bit of a reclusive experience!
“My main character is very naïve and that’s definitely what I was in my early 20s.
“But the main inspiration actually came from a trip to India, experiencing the air pollution. We went during Diwali, so all the fireworks were going off and pollution was bad already. It affected my chest – and my character’s bad asthma is the reason her mother takes her to this secluded, sealed house.”
Mrs Mumford’s real life also blends with her writing when she draws upon her experiences as a teacher, a job she worked in for 15 years.
“A lot of writers are comfortable being behind their desk,” she said, “but when it comes to festivals and public speaking they struggle. I’m quite lucky that I can do all of that, and I’m resilient, too.
“If you’re a teacher you just get on with stuff. You don’t expect every day to be perfect because the teaching world isn’t perfect.
“You’re not going to write the perfect chapter every day, but you write what you can and make it better when you redraft.”
The hard work paid off for Mrs Mumford when she went to the Primadonna Festival in Suffolk with an early draft of Sleepless, and met an executive from HQ, the imprint of HarperCollins that eventually took the book on.
But lockdown meant Mrs Mumford could not meet many Sleepless readers – although she is optimistic this time around.
She said: “Fingers crossed, touch wood, touch everything, in May everything will still be open and I could have a launch party, which would be nice.”
Louise Mumford can be found on Twitter and Facebook, and will appear at Gŵyl Cymru Digital Festival in April and Llantwit Literary Festival in June.
- The Safe House will be published by HQ Digital on May 12, 2022 in eBook and paperback, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon.
