Robert Gold is the author of the new novel Twelve Secrets. He works in sales for a British publishing company, and he lives in the Putney neighborhood of London.
Q: What inspired you to write Twelve Secrets, and how did you create your character Ben Harper?
A: Twelve Secrets is my first full-length, published novel. Like so many authors, I’d always wanted to write, but alongside a full-time job and day-to-day life never quite seemed to have the time.
I had written an unpublished novel which remains hidden in the bottom drawer of my desk as well as a number of unperformed stage plays.
Prior to Twelve Secrets, I wrote three short novels, Bookshots, with the American author James Patterson. I learned so much from him and he gave me the belief I could write a full-length thriller.
I tasked myself to do it and sat down at the start of the year with the aim of finishing the novel by Christmas. Working every single weekend, I did, and that is how Twelve Secrets was written.
The first thing which came to me was the title. Playing in my mind was the idea of countdown; a novel written in 12 parts, where at the end of each section a new secret was revealed.
I loved the idea of a small community where on the surface everybody knows everybody, but hidden beneath all the characters held a secret. None of us know everything about our friends, neighbours, and families and that was the idea behind the story.
Once I had that idea, Ben Harper was born. I didn’t want to write another police procedural novel so I needed a lead character who could realistically become involved in crime investigations.
Ben is an investigative journalist which give me scope to have him happily involved in lots of different crimes. Twelve Secrets tells the story of Ben investigating the horrific crimes which have impacted his own family and that felt like a great place to start the series.
Many years ago, I worked as an intern as CNN in their investigative stories unit and I’m sure that served as a small inspiration for Ben. All of my friends tell me Ben shares some of my own characteristics but I’m not sure!
Q: The novel is set in suburban London--how important is setting to you in your writing?
A: As an author, but especially a debut author, you are juggling many things. Writing Twelve Secrets, I wanted to tell the best possible story with the most engaging and intriguing characters.
One of the things I learned from James Patterson is all authors are in the entertainment business. We are competing with the vast amount of entertainment options people have for their time, so we need to deliver an entertaining product. I needed my story and characters to deliver!
Knowing that, I decided to adapt my hometown London setting of Putney to create the fictional setting of Haddley. Anyone who knows the London suburb of Putney well will easily be able to recognize all of the places we see in Haddley. I decided to fictionalize the town as I wanted to give myself the freedom of not every place being exactly where you expect it to be!
Basing Haddley on my own hometown made it much easier for me to visualize the settings. I would often wander outside and sit in the actual places I describe and imagine the scene taking place.
I love the way readers have reacted to the setting. Haddley has a small-town feel and has become incredibly important in creating the claustrophobic sense of a tight community.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: When I started writing the novel I had the central plot in my head and knew exactly how I wanted it to end. What I didn’t know was how I was going to get there— or the secrets to be revealed along the way, which hopefully carry the reader forward and keep them intrigued.
The twists and turns within the story all developed as I wrote the novel. It was a huge amount of fun linking them all together to deliver the final surprise.
The great British writer Agatha Christie was probably one of the first crime writers to seed clues and information throughout her stories for readers to pick up on. I’m an enormous admirer of her stories and I similarly tried to share information with the reader.
I never want to write a novel where the reader gets to the end and thinks “that’s just impossible.” I always say, “The clues are there.”
Q: The writer Gilly Macmillan said of the book, “An unforgettable and nuanced cast of characters, a claustrophobic setting, and a suspenseful and chilling examination of the dark and destructive power of secrets.” What do you think of that description, and what do you see as the role of secrecy in the novel?
A: That is a wonderful and very generous quote from Gilly. When I started writing, all of the characters were only partly formed in my head. As I wrote the novel, I developed them and always had in my mind the idea that no one should be one hundred percent good or one hundred percent bad.
I think that really helped me. I hope even the most detestable characters in the novel have some redeeming features which give the readers a moment to pause.
Secrecy drives the story throughout the novel. The worst possible secrets surround the crimes committed against Ben’s family. At the same time, some secrets are kept with good intentions, but those sometimes prove to be the most damaging.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: As an author I’m always incredibly grateful to readers who take the time to choose and read my novels.
For many years I’ve worked in the publishing industry and am well aware of the enormous number of books published each year. For anyone choosing to read mine, a big thank you and I hope Twelve Secrets keeps you entertained until the very last page.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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