We chat with author Susan Stokes-Chapman about The Shadow Key, which is set on an isolated estate in late-eighteenth-century rural Wales where a young English doctor uncovers dangerous secrets that may threaten his own life in this spellbinding Gothic tale.
Hi, Susan! Welcome back! How have the past 18 months been since we last spoke for the release of Pandora?
Hello, and thank you for having me back! Well, since Pandora was released in the US in January ‘23, the UK paperback was released at the same time, which meant I was back on the tour-run, and during the majority of 2023 I was still working on The Shadow Key which was released here in the UK this April just gone, which of course meant another tour-run. Together with all that, I’m working away at my third novel, plus a Regency short story collection too, so as you can imagine it’s all been rather full on!
Your latest novel, The Shadow Key, is out September 10th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Dastardly happenings in deepest darkest Wales (okay, sorry, that’s six).
What can readers expect?
I consider Pandora to be a ‘light, feminine Gothic’ novel whereas on the flip side I would class The Shadow Key as a ‘dark, masculine Gothic’ one. That’s because this novel is a much murkier beast which deals with some very interesting themes (some of which I mention below). Saying that, this doesn’t mean to say fans of my debut won’t enjoy my second because it still feels very much like a ‘Susan’ novel – there is yet again a rich cast of characters including my spunky heroine Linette who is a perfect foil to my troubled doctor Henry, a dastardly villain (or two, or three!), a mighty sighthound named Merlin, and they’ve all been mixed in with a little bit of Welsh myth and Occult magic, as well as a few moments of ambiguity to keep you questioning to the very end.
Where did the inspiration for The Shadow Key come from?
The initial idea for the novel had been lingering in my mind since 2006, and began when I would take walks with my mother in the hills behind her house during term breaks from university. My imagination ran riot with stories of Welsh myth and magic, and anyone who has walked the woodland lanes and mountain paths, and experienced Wales’ haunting strangeness and rugged beauty, cannot avoid the country’s folkloric heritage. Wales is called ‘Land of Dragons’ for a reason – here you’ll find stories of King Arthur and his knights, fearsome lake monsters, loyal hounds, mighty giants, and fay folk both pure and mischievous, so it was inevitable I would eventually write a novel set in Wales using these ideas as a springboard.
However, during the course of my research, the idea for the novel began to become a little more nuanced. I soon found that eighteenth-century Wales was also a deeply Christian country, and while ordinary folk believed in the ancient tylwyth teg they equally believed in Satan. But for many Englishmen, the advent of the Grand Tour allowed members of the aristocracy to broaden their understanding of other cultures and religious beliefs, and one result of this was the rise of ‘Hellfire’ clubs. The most famous Hellfire Club, the ‘Monks of Medmenham Abbey’, was founded around 1755 by Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer, and its members famously dressed in exotic costumes and partook in acts of drunkenness and debauchery. Rumour had it that some clubs even included Devil worship, and I found this cultural shift between the English and Welsh – as well as the tension between such belief systems – a wonderful juxtaposition, which gave me an opportunity to explore religion and superstition through a Georgian lens. Ultimately The Shadow Key became a tale of faith, elitism and exploitation …
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’m afraid I can’t answer that too deeply for fear of spoilers, but what I can say is that I really enjoyed reading up on all the many Welsh myths and deciding which to include. If you’re interested in them, a good starting point would be The Mabinogi, four distinct tales which are linked to Welsh narratives compiled some time between the latter half of the 11th century and the early 13th century.
In terms of characters, I do have a particular fondess for Henry as he was the character who was with me the longest, although Linette was an absolute pleasure to create! I think a lot of women will connect with her firey spirit.
Can you tell us a bit about your research process?
I feel I need to have an arsenal of research at my feet before I am ready to even put the first word to page. Typically, I will spend about three months researching. This often means reading up on secondary sources (e.g. non-fiction books on Welsh history and medicine), as well as looking through primary texts which could be found in the period in which I’m writing (in this case, Thomas Pennant’s A Tour in Wales, originally published in two volumes; 1778 and 1781). I also like to visit venues wherever possible to get a true sense of place. For The Shadow Key I visited a copper and a slate mine, as some scenes are set in a mine, which really helped me imagine what it would have been like down one – water dripping from the low ceilings, the sharp cold, the claustrophobic dark … I think, when writing fiction, imagination can only take you so far.
With this your second published novel, were there any key lessons learned between writing the two?
To not take the writing process for granted! I often call Pandora my ‘fluke novel’ because everything fell into place so easily and quickly – from research to final draft the process took ten months and it just seemed to take off without much stress. Rather naively I thought the same thing would happen with The Shadow Key, especially since the idea had been stuck in my head in some form or other for a decade. Alas, this did not happen, and I spent a good deal of time muddling my way through for over two years and ultimately discarding 100k of words before I was even close to having an acceptable first draft, and after that there were countless structural edits to get my head around. The whole process gave me such a sense of failure and imposter syndrome that I vowed to do things differently for the next novel: write up a detailed plan before putting pen to paper, and understanding that every book is going to have its challenges.
What’s next for you?
As I already mentioned, I am currently working on a third novel and a short story collection. The novel will be set in 1765 Prague and is a story of fate and reckoning and love and ambition, all revolving around the ancient city’s astronomical clock Orloj, which I first saw on a trip to Prague in 2013. The short story collection is something a little different for me – titled The Twelve Days of Christmas, it is a collection of seasonally linked vignettes inspired by the Christmas carol of the same name (the lyrics were originally written in 1780), and a nod to my admiration for Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, with whom my love of the Georgians first started. It’s not Gothic at all – this is a lighthearted Regency romp of a book meant to bring people some nostalgic festive cheer, and I’m really excited to be working on it.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
This is actually a really tricky question to answer because while I’m in the writing mire I don’t generally get a chance to read for pleasure, so my reading repertoire has been rather thin on the ground lately. Saying that, I really enjoyed Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment, as well as Elizabeth Macneal’s The Burial Plot, and Lora Jones’ debut The Woman in the Wallpaper, which will be released in the US next year. One book I have yet to read but am desperate to get hold of is The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable.
