The Setting is Everything: A Guest Post from Sam Carrington @sam_carrington1 @AvonBooksUK

Happy Sunday everyone! I’m really excited to share a guest post with you today as part of the blog tour for Bad Sister! I haven’t had time to read the book yet, but the cover is whispering in my ear every night!!! I’d like to thank Avon Books for inviting me to be part of this tour!

The gripping psychological thriller everyone is talking about, from the author of Saving Sophie.

Sisters. Allies. Liars.

Stephanie is scared for her life. Her psychologist, Connie Summers, wants to help her face her fears, but Connie will never really understand her. Stephanie’s past has been wiped away for her own protection. Stephanie isn’t even her real name. But then, Dr Summers isn’t Connie’s real name either.

And that’s not all the women have in common. As Stephanie opens up about her troubled relationship with her brother, Connie is forced to confront her own dark family secrets.

When a mutilated body is dumped in plain sight, it will have devastating consequences for both women.

Who is the victim?

Who is to blame?

Who is next?

Gripping, tense and impossible to put down, Bad Sister will have fans of Sue Fortin, B A Paris and Linda Green hooked till the final page. 

Praise for Saving Sophie

‘This book is not only gripping, but it ends with a gasp-out-loud twist.’ Closer

Sam Carrington – Choosing the setting for Bad Sister

Having used my local area for the backdrop to my debut novel, Saving Sophie, I wanted to keep the same general location for Bad Sister. I chose to have the central location as the town of Coleton – this is where some of the action takes place and where the police station is situated. Coleton is a fictional town; however, I drew heavily on a town I know well. I also used other local towns for Saving Sophie, some of which I kept their names, some I changed.

For Bad Sister, my main character, psychologist Connie Summers, lives in Coleton – so again I’m using this town. The difference in this second novel is that Connie works in Totnes, which is a real market town situated at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon. I’ve chosen to use a real place because it’s always been somewhere I’ve loved and visited since being a child.

There are many wonderful little shops in Totnes; I can spend hours in just the main street. I regularly visited with my children when they were smaller: picnics, visits to the castle, days at Dartington Glass, walks along the river feeding the ducks and watching the riverboat go in and out, playing on the pirate ship and making pottery at China Blue. It’s also somewhere I went regularly with my late mother – lots of cream teas were consumed over the years! So, I have many fond memories.

What I have done though is alter some things when writing about Totnes in my novel. As a writer, you might want certain things to be in slightly different locations to real life. I suppose that’s why it’s easier to have fictional places, as readers with knowledge of the area will question your geography! I have put an ‘author note’ in Bad Sister so that locals will realise I’ve meddled with a few details in view of being able to tell my story in the way I want.

Another familiar location that features in Bad Sister is Dartmoor, a real place that I also used in Saving Sophie. It is an area of outstanding beauty, yet full of mystery as it’s so vast, therefore a fantastic place to feed the imagination of a crime writer! I have a view of the moors, and particularly the granite rocks of Haytor, from my house and love nothing more than gazing out of the window every day (usually when doing the dishes!) and admiring its beauty. I’ve lost count of the number of photographs I’ve taken of the sunsets over Dartmoor!

For me, living in a location that is halfway between the coastline and the moors, is perfect and it would be a travesty not to include these places and areas in my novels. I’ve kept Totnes, Coleton and Dartmoor in book three as well, and I’m guessing they will continue to feature in further novels. Sometimes I wish I could live closer to London, where all the action takes place in terms of the publishing world, but as much as I enjoy my London visits, the second I see the Devon sign I breathe a sigh of relief! I think the Devon countryside is where I belong – and it’s now where Connie Summers belongs too.

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I always pay close attention to the setting when diving into a story. Whether the places are familiar or not, I love to dissect how the author transports me there and it plays a big part in how I’ll react to the plot!

Thank you so much for this great guest post, Sam!

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Sam Carrington lives in Devon with her husband and three children. She worked for the NHS for 15 years, during which time she qualified as a nurse. Following the completion of a Psychology degree she went to work for the prison service as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator

 

Get a look at the other different stops on the tour for more info on what looks to be a riveting read!! My review will come very soon!