When it comes to Sandie Jones’ hit new thriller, trust me, expect the unexpected. The Other Woman has more high-powered twists and turns than a roller coaster, and even veteran readers will never see them coming.
As a critic, I pride myself on predicting major plot twists. Rarely does a book surprise me the way this one did, and I can’t say enough good things about Jones’ writing.
At its heart, The Other Woman is a story about a woman falling in love, only to find out that the woman who’s set to become her mother-in-law is truly awful. Now, on some level, a whole lot of people can relate to that. Not everyone is blessed with a loving, supportive set of in-laws, but few will ever come across someone as despicable as Pammie, an over-protective and manipulative mother who doesn’t think anyone is good enough for her son, Adam. Unfortunately for Emily, the story’s protagonist, accepting Adam’s hand in marriage means accepting Pammie as part of her family, which doesn’t go . . . smoothly.
On par with some of the year’s best suspense thrillers, The Other Woman is a must for readers in search of a nail-biting page-turner. Read my short Q&A with Sandie Jones below, then pick up your copy, now available wherever books are sold.
THE OTHER WOMAN: Five Questions with Sandie Jones
TRBS: This book is really fantastic! How did you come up with the plot idea?
Jones: “It started to form after numerous chats with friends and acquaintances about their struggle with the in-laws. Everyone seems to have a story to tell and I thought I’d have a go at writing a light-hearted, humorous take on the stereotypical mother-in-law. But as I wrote, the tone of the book took a sinister turn, which I wasn’t expecting! Pammie suddenly became this evil monster of a woman and once I started I couldn’t stop!”
TRBS: What is your writing process like? Do you have a target word count you try to hit each day, do you outline?
Jones: “I don’t plan or outline, I just write whatever comes into my head. I’ve found that I can sit staring into space with a pad and some post-it notes for a very long time without coming up with anything. Yet as soon as I start writing a scene, something else takes over and it almost writes itself!
“I always try to write at least 1000 words a day and am ecstatic on the rare occasions that I reach 3000!”
TRBS: There are so many twists and turns in this story . . . without giving anything away, do you know those twists before you actually sit down to write the book, or does it come to you later?
Jones: “As I say, none of The Other Woman was planned! I see authors with color-coded charts and literal arcs across their walls and I’m slightly jealous of their forward thinking. My brain doesn’t work like that so I just got the story down on paper, leaving each chapter at a point whereby I hoped the reader would need to turn the page to see what happened next. Obviously, during the editing process, my fabulous editors would suggest a different course of action or would say, ‘If Pammie’s motivation was X at this stage, wouldn’t she just do Y?’ Their input is invaluable.”
TRBS: When I read The Other Woman, I saw the whole thing playing out in my mind like a movie. Any chance readers might see this on the big screen someday, and if that ever happened, who would be your dream casting choices for Emily, Pammie, and Adam?
Jones: “That’s good to hear! It has been optioned by a production company in the UK and I couldn’t be more excited! It’s still in the very early stages, but if I could wave a magic wand (and if money was no object!) I’d love to see Lily James playing Emily, Henry Cavill as Adam, with the piece de resistance being Meryl Streep!”
TRBS: Lastly, now that The Other Woman is out, what’s next for you?
Jones: “There’s a second novel in the making, a thriller based on the secrets and lies between a husband, wife, and her best friend. I wrote the first draft very quickly after The Other Woman and as every author will tell you, the second novel is notoriously difficult! So it was perhaps no surprise to find most of it on the cutting room floor! By the time you reach the fourth or fifth draft you hope it’s going to be knocked into some kind of shape that you’re happy with. I’m at that stage now. I’ll work on perfecting it between now and Christmas, ready for its release next Spring!”
The most twisty, addictive and gripping debut thriller you’ll read this year.
HE LOVES YOU: Adam adores Emily. Emily thinks Adam’s perfect, the man she thought she’d never meet.
BUT SHE LOVES YOU NOT: Lurking in the shadows is a rival, a woman who shares a deep bond with the man she loves.
AND SHE’LL STOP AT NOTHING: Emily chose Adam, but she didn’t choose his mother Pammie. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants: Emily gone forever.
The Other Woman will have you questioning her on every page, in Sandie Jones’ chilling psychological suspense about a man, his new girlfriend, and the mother who will not let him go.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.