The USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair returns with another delicious, twisty novel–about a grand estate with many secrets, an orphan caught in a web of lies, and a young woman playing a sinister game.
We had the pleasure of chatting to author Emma Rous about her new novel The Perfect Guests, book recommendations, and much more!
Hi, Emma! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Hi, thank you for inviting me! I’ve always been a voracious reader, but I worked as a small animal veterinarian for eighteen years before I became a writer. I live near Cambridge in England with my husband and three sons, and when I’m not writing I enjoy getting out into the surrounding countryside with my dog, and swimming and kayaking when the weather allows.
2020 was an incredibly bizarre year, and it’s rolling on into 2021. Have you set any resolutions for the year?
I don’t usually go in for new year’s resolutions in a big way, and definitely not this year — I’m just taking it one day at a time!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
When I was a child, maybe eight or nine. I used to make and write tiny library books, and force my two younger sisters to borrow them on a weekly basis. I’m pretty sure my sisters still owe me late fines from decades ago, actually — I must chase them up.
Your new novel, The Perfect Guests, is out January 12th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
An engaging and intriguing mystery.
Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?
The Perfect Guests is told across two timelines. In 1988, fourteen-year-old Beth goes to live at Raven Hall, where life with her foster family seems idyllic until she’s drawn into playing an unsettling game. And in the present day, struggling actor Sadie accepts a well-paid gig at a Murder Mystery weekend at Raven Hall, which has been refurbished after a fire there thirty years earlier. But as the seven glamorous guests sit down to dinner, Sadie begins to suspect that their unseen host has an ulterior motive for inviting them…
What was the inspiration behind this novel?
Raven Hall is a grand, isolated (fictional) house set in the middle of the flat, marshy Fens in eastern England. I live on the edge of the Fens, and I loved the idea of a family who could glance out of their windows and spot anyone approaching their home from any direction. The potential for hiding secrets was too good to resist. I was also drawn towards writing about a gathering of strangers at a glamorous event, and the location works beautifully for that too.
This is your second published novel! What was the writing and publication like for The Perfect Guests?
Writing a second novel with a contract already signed felt very different to writing my first book, when the prospect of being published was nothing more than a dream. Thankfully, I was approaching the copy editing stage when the pandemic took hold last March, as I’ve found it much harder to be creative with Covid concerns constantly in the background. The lead up to publication has certainly felt different this time around, compared to with my first novel, The Au Pair, in the relatively carefree days of 2019. But the marketing and publicity teams at Berkley have been utterly fantastic despite the tough circumstances.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best has to be: just sit down and write something; you can go back and change every single word if you like, but you need to start somewhere. As for the worst — I’ve seen plenty of writing advice that leaves me cold, but I just ignore it!
Lastly, what are you currently reading and what 2021 book recommendations do you have for our readers?
I’m just about to start Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, which was a Christmas present. And I’d recommend looking out for Helen Cooper’s The Downstairs Neighbor in February 2021, and Lindsay Cameron’s Just One Look in July 2021 — both brilliantly thrilling books.
