Secrets, Mystery, and a Tale of Friendship – An Interview with Susan Lewis
By Ekta Rajagopalan
Susan Lewis is a force to be reckoned with: the author of fifty books which have sold more than three million copies in the UK alone. At the age of just twenty-two, Susan moved to London to work for Thames and later saw her career in TV prosper in California and LA before moving to the South of France to pursue “the novelist’s dream.” After finding love at fifty, her life experiences are nothing short of inspirational and remarkable.
Susan prefers to live in the present, but her literary self sees success in the past tense, “Having worked in TV drama for some time I was used to dealing with the present tense and so made the mistake of using it for my first attempt at fiction. As soon as I received guidance to write in the past tense everything seemed to come to life.”
Susan is an internationally bestselling author of fifty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs which detail her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s. Just One More Day and One Day at a Time are books about losing her mother at a young age and her relationship with her father, respectively. She was advised by her therapist to write the first memoir Just One More Day and believed “it really was a cathartic experience.” She also notes that “so many good things happened as a result. [she] treated them more or less like novels, as [she doesn’t] know any other way.”
Susan’s personal life and history is as fascinating as one of her novels. Whether it be having a love affair with one of the FBI's most wanted in the South of France, or being George Clooney’s neighbour and being dog walking buddies with Steve Martin – the list is impressive! She also worked in production for almost eighteen years so when asked which one of her books she would like to see produced as a film/TV series, she asked “Do I have to keep it to one? If so, I’d probably choose I Have Something to Tell You. Or maybe it would be the No Child of Mine trilogy. (See how I managed to get four in there?)”
Susan’s fiftieth book I Know It’s YOU was published last month and is available now. True to her style, this book is a successful page-turner to devour it in one sitting and it’s the perfect mystery thriller for the autumn season.
A manuscript arrives on Marina Forester’s desk and being a publisher, she assumes it’s another novel by an aspiring author. As she receives the chapters, one by one, Marina is transported back to the past as the book seems to talk about events that are unnervingly similar to her past: the trial, the trauma, the secrets, the scandal and most of all, the friendship. Marina cannot relive her past, not when she’s just now managed to stop thinking about it. She starts to question everyone near her, can anyone be trusted? Most of all, can she trust her husband? This manuscript lays out one story that can never be published. Can Marina’s desperate attempts prevent it from coming out? The novel is rollercoaster journey of 372 pages: emotional, suspenseful with a promise to keep you on the edge of your seat.
With such an impressive career behind her to date, we asked Susan what her relationship with success is like, and what’s next for her: “I’m afraid I have a horribly demanding ambitious streak, and so instead of seeing what I’ve achieved I’m always looking to what I haven’t. I guess it’s what keeps me going in a way, although the biggest driver of all is the amazing feedback I receive from readers. And the fact that I still enjoy doing it.”
Susan is currently working on book fifty-two, Nothing To See Here, while book fifty-one, A Sicilian Affair, is hitting your nearest bookstore in April 2024. Meanwhile, she’s also hoping her future includes a TV series, and who’s to say it won’t?
Grab your copy of I Know it’s YOU because behind every secret lies a story and this story does not disappoint!