Is there anything more satisfying than a good thriller? I know many of you are thinking about the stack of books you plan to take on your Spring Break vacations and thrillers are usually one of those genres that make for the perfect beach read. Today’s author, Sarah Pinborough, might be a new one on your radar, but she actually has twenty published books out already. Today I’m interviewing her about her latest book, Behind Her Eyes, which I am sure is going to be one of the biggest buzz books this year. It’s the one that you finish and just have to talk to someone about it.
If you need someone to talk it through, I’m over here!
Behind Her Eyes is a fun and highly imaginative psychological thriller. Her marketing team started the hashtag #wtfthatending that you can tweet when you finish. As a seasoned thriller reader, I thought I had it solved and then I didn’t… And then I REALLY didn’t.
It’s impossible to talk about this book without a big reveal so let’s focus on the generic plot points and say that this is a love triangle between a gorgeous wife, her dashing husband, and the slightly frumpy secretary. When the wife decides to pursue a secretive friendship with her husband’s secretary, a game of cat and mouse begins.
Here’s the thing, the reader will never guess the cat or the mouse and I told my husband, bewildered, that I was almost finished with the novel and still clueless where it is going. And then…well, #wtfthatending.
Based on the reviews of my favorite follows on GoodReads, you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. I sat in the middle for a bit, not sure what to think about it. I will say, in the end, I appreciate that this wasn’t the same old, same old, BUT a reader must set aside a bit of reality for this genre-bender.
I included Behind Her Eyes in this month’s must-reads list and couldn’t wait to share this interview with you today after that wild ride of the book.
Grab your coffee and let’s chat with Sarah today!
Let’s go there without going there! The hashtag that was created for your book promotion is #wtfthatending. As someone who generally can see twists a mile away, I will say that I may have, indeed, said this aloud when I finished those last few pages. Did it worry you at all that your readers would be diving into your book with an expectation for a wild twist at the end?
Yes! I love the hashtag but it did worry me that it might be setting me up to fail. But it did create a massive buzz for the book and it seems that the vast majority of people are still blinded by the ending. So, I can live with that!
Behind Her Eyes is a bit of a genre-bender, isn’t it? In a past interview I read, you answered this a bit by saying, “I’ve created my own genre of female-centric thrillers, which is writing books where you can’t say what they’re about or you’ll give it away,” Do you think saying this book is in the genre of psychological thriller is misleading for a reader? If you are a bookseller, what section of your store would you put this book in?
I would definitely call it a psychological thriller. It hits all the beats of that genre and plays out like one. Even the ‘other’ elements that are included play by the rules of a thriller – there are clues all the way through the book so it doesn’t cheat the reader. It shouldn’t anyway. To anyone who says that it was impossible to guess the ending, I say read the book again – there are clues throughout. I’m a great believer in not cheating the reader so I wanted to be sure that the book played out as a thriller.
This book had a very Hitchcock feel to it which I absolutely loved. What artists or writers have brought the biggest influence to your work?
I’m glad you said that, because with this book I really wanted to have the kind of characters and situation you get in a Hitchcock movie – an ‘ordinary’ person becomes drawn into a claustrophobic unsettled secretive situation involving beautiful glamorous people – but I wanted to add some of the paranoia and passion and madness of a Polanski film. In general though, I guess the people who have influenced me are writers like Daphne Du Maurier, John Connolly, Stephen King, John Wyndham and so many others. In fact, every book I enjoy influences me in some way or another.
I understand that movie talks are already in the works on this one. Can we expect to see this love triangle come to life on the big screen?
Big screen or little screen – lots of talks on going with several parties but as yet no decisions made. But we shall see;-)
This is my first book that I have read of yours, but you are the author of 20 novels! I know many readers are just being introduced to your work, like me, so I’d love to hear what book of yours we should read next, especially if we enjoyed this one?
If you liked this one, then I’d say the one to read next is 13 Minutes which is a YA thriller (but as twisty as any adult one and does contain a lot of adult themes) about a 16 year old girl who’s pulled out of a frozen river and when she’s revived she can’t remember the two days leading up to her ‘accident’, if it is indeed that. It’s about the dark side of teenage friendships.
Behind Her Eyes was published through HarperCollins UK and sold for six figures. As a writer, that is HUGE and such an amazing feat! Did you treat yourself to anything special after securing this advance? How has your experience with HarperCollins helped in the success of this novel?
I can’t remember if I bought anything! I’m not much of a ‘things’ person so I probably just went out for a nice dinner with friends. I’ve been very lucky but HarperCollins on had UK/Commonwealth rights and so my agent also did a very good deal for the book with Flatiron in the US (we had an 8 way auction) and we’ve also sold it to about 20 countries worldwide thus far. But all that came because of HarperCollins’ support of the book, and they’ve really gone all out with marketing and putting everything behind it. I have a great publisher. But I have to say Flatiron in the US have been equally amazing. We’re all #TeamBHE;-)
STEPHEN KING (!!!) tweeted about your book and said it was, “What Brits call a thumping good read.” What a surreal moment for you as a writer. What was it like to see someone so prolific speak so highly of your work?
This is going to sound so cocky, but this is the second time he’s talked about one of my books. He recommended The Death House in the New York Times a couple of years ago which was amazing. I actually cried.He then sent a blurb through for the paperback cover. So yes, it was of course brilliant when he tweeted about Behind Her Eyes and it definitely had an effect on sales. He’s one of my heroes – I think for anyone of my generation, he’s our superstar. I grew up reading and loving all his books so it was such a touchstone moment to have him read one of mine. To have him read a second was just amazing.
I understand you are already working on your next thriller. Can you give us a little of the scoop on what you have in store for us next?
It’s another twisty thriller with female central characters and again it’s hard to talk about. It’s a straight thriller this time though – no weird elements – and I guess on some levels it’s about abusive relationships, but I can’t really say more without giving the central twist away. It’s called Cross Her Heart and should be out in the UK in May of next year.
I’m always thankful for these moments with writers and I hope you will pick up this amazing book! You can always connect with me on GoodReads, through our books section of our site, and you can read our entire Sundays With Writers series for more author profiles. Happy reading, friends!
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