The inspiration behind Sophie
By Mark Edwards
Before I was a full-time writer, I worked as
a marketing manager for a small publisher in London. It’s where I met my wife,
Sara. We worked together for several years, at one point sitting at adjacent
banks of desks. We were together 24 hours a day, talking about work when we
were at home, chatting about home when we were at work.
After our first child was born, Sara went on
maternity leave. When she returned seven months later, she was promoted
immediately and became the manager of a small team. Over the coming months, I
watched her deal with enormous stress – pressure from above and below, an
enormous workload that meant she could never switch off, lots of issues with
the people she was managing. As well as that, she felt guilty about the amount
of time she was spending apart from our daughter, who was in full-time nursery.
And on top of all that, there was always a huge amount of psychodrama in our
office. Politics and gossip and power struggles. It was intense, and Sara
eventually left to become a much happier freelancer.
When I came up with the idea for The Devil’s Work – a psychological thriller
about colleagues from hell, where paranoia is fully justified – I immediately
decided I wanted the main character to be a woman. I had written from female
points of view before, but the protagonists in my solo books had previously
always been male. I was a little nervous. Could I make Sophie, the central
character, convincing?
I didn’t realise at first that I was
writing about the situation Sara had found herself in a few years before. Or
that Sophie was based, in some ways, on my wife. She didn’t recognise herself,
though. In fact, when I showed the first draft to Sara she said that Sophie was
more like a female version of me! It seemed that I had based Sophie on a hybrid
of Sara and myself. But I feel confident that I have created a convincing woman.
One early reviewer told me she had to keep reminding herself that I was male –
the only instance when that is a compliment.
There are strong echoes of our marriage in
the relationship between Sophie and her husband, Guy, too. The way Guy tells
Sophie she worries too much and she tells him he doesn’t worry enough. His
habit of describing everything as a nightmare and her irritation at that.
But there is one big difference between
Sophie and Sara and me. Sophie has a dark secret in her past, something that
comes back to wreck her life, and neither Sara nor I do.
At least, I don’t think Sara has a dark
secret…
About Mark Edwards
Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers.
His first solo novel, The Magpies (2013), reached the No.1 spot on Amazon UK and has sold 300,000 copies to date.
This was followed by What You Wish For (2014), Because She Loves Me (2014) and Follow You Home (2015).
He also co-writes with Louise Voss,
including a series featuring Detective Inspector Patrick Lennon, starting with From the Cradle (2014) and The Blissfully Dead (2015).
Mark grew up on the south coast of England
and starting writing in his twenties while working in a number of dead-end
jobs. He lived in Tokyo for a year before returning to the UK and starting a
career in marketing. He now writes full-time and lives in the West
Midlands, England, with his wife, their three children and a ginger cat,
Billie, who was named after an actress from Doctor
Who.
Find Mark Edwards on his website and on Twitter - @mredwards
The Devil's Work
By Mark Edwards
Published by Thomas & Mercer (13 September 2016)
Publisher's description
The Devil’s Work is an exhilarating and chilling grip-lit novel that follows Sophie
Greenwood, a young mother who unwittingly accepts a job at the office from
hell! Re-entering the workforce after having her first child, Sophie thinks
she’s found her dream job in the marketing department of an iconic children’s
publisher.
But very quickly Sophie comes to find that
someone is out to get her and that the dream job may turn out to be a
nightmare. A mouse nailed to her front door… A stranger following her home
in the shadows… Unexplainable whispers in the office late at night…
As her life begins to fall apart at work
and at home, Sophie must confront dark secrets from the past and race to
uncover the truth about her new job… before it kills her. What is her ambitious
young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie’s
predecessor?
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