THE ATTIC AT WILTON PLACE
Many authors, such as JK Rowling-Robert Galbraith, Stephen King-Richard Bachman, Agatha Christie-Mary Westmacott, Ruth Rendell-Barbara Vine have pen names.
I currently write as Caroline England and CE Rose and I very much enjoy wearing two hats, not least because the buzz and excitement of having my books published fairly regularly is addictive. But what sort of headwear do Caroline and CE sport and how do they differ?
Well, I certainly hope both types are fascinator hats (get it?) because all my twisty psychological suspense tales are absorbing, multi-layered stories which explore what goes on behind closed doors. They star a cast of characters with complicated relationships, not to mention the dark secrets they’re hiding.
Using the first person or a close third person narrative, nothing is ever quite what it seems, and Caroline and CE love to misdirect and surprise the reader wherever they can. And they both certainly like a jaw-dropping ending!
All their books have a domestic setting, a sense of unease and a web of intrigue, but what perhaps sets them apart is the hint of gothic that CE brings to her stories. By almost making each home a character in its own right, the atmosphere of mystery, fear and dread is, hopefully, enhanced.
CE’s first stand-alone novel, THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN SECRETS, is set in Ramsay Hall, a Grade II-listed Cheshire farmhouse hidden in acres of lush land with a long, winding driveway, a gatekeeper’s cottage, a maze and a dilapidated barn. Of course it is bulging with dusty drapes, panelled rooms, antiques and old paintings, but most of all with dark secrets so deeply hidden that they’ve almost been forgotten. Almost…
CE travelled to the Norfolk Broads for THE HOUSE ON THE WATER’S EDGE where the protagonist, Ali, visits her dead mother’s isolated cottage and is drawn into a dark web that threatens to destroy everything she believed about her childhood – and her very sanity.
For THE SHADOWS OF RUTHERFORD HOUSE, CE returned to her Yorkshire roots, pulling together the strings of three timelines, all of which come together in a thrilling finale in Rutherford House, a handsome but decaying stately pile.
CE caught the train down to London for her latest offering, THE ATTIC AT WILTON PLACE, out in paperback and ebook on the 30th March. What’s this one about?
Introspective Ruth Parker is desperate for love and attention. Overlooked as a child by her cold and critical mother, her pain manifests in loneliness and a crippling lack of self-esteem. When glamorous actress ‘Aunt’ Vanessa, her mother’s childhood friend, shows an interest in her, Ruth basks in the blinding light of her attention.
Once Ruth escapes to university in London, Aunt Vanessa invites her to Wilton Place, her stunning Belgravia residence. As she blossoms under Vanessa’s guidance, Ruth finds herself torn between student life and the hypnotic, luxurious confines of Wilton Place. Belgravia wins out, but when Ruth explores the gloomy attic of her new home and finds a hidden, locked door, she discovers that Vanessa is hiding the darkest of secrets from her childhood, secrets that threaten everything Ruth knew about her own mother.
What does Ruth find in that attic? How far will she go to find the truth – and how much does she really want to know?
Please dip into CE’s new gothic suspense to find out!
THE RETURN OF FRANKIE WHITTLE
SPOILER ALERT!
‘What inspired you to write the book?’
It’s a question us authors are frequently asked and sometimes it’s difficult to answer because:
- You are such an extreme ‘pantser’ (ie you create and write your stories by the seat of your pants) that the words have just appeared on the page and therefore the inspiration is hard to pin down.
- You had several stiff gin and tonics the night before and can’t remember much about anything.
- Revealing it/them might be a huge *SPOILER*
All three are probably applicable to me, but here’s my attempt at summing up what inspired me to write my latest psychological suspense, THE RETURN OF FRANKIE WHITTLE, out on the 8th February 2025.
The blurb is:
Once you enter the gates, will they ever let you leave?
Frankie Whittle has it all: a career in the City, a gorgeous husband and a baby on the way. It’s the perfect life, but it’s built on sand. In one terrifying night, everything she has worked so hard for unravels.
She needs a fresh start. When she discovers the very place she was born has been converted into a beautiful gated community, it feels like serendipity. After all she’s been through, has she found her dream home?
They say you should never go back, that the past is a foreign country, filled with devastating secrets. How far will those around her go to keep their secrets safe?
They say to write what you know, so I guess my days as a criminal, divorce and professional indemnity lawyer always worm their insidious ways in – dark family secrets, love affairs and the moral grey area, the psychology of those who turn to crime, the misunderstood, misled or misdiagnosed versus bad or evil arguments, the breaches of trust by those in positions of power, the mistakes ordinary people make and the lies they tell to cover their tracks…
Real-life stories and social issues also have an impact, the desire for human beings to procreate, the deep frustrations and traumas of those who struggle to conceive, the lengths someone might go to have a baby.
Then there’s fiction. I’m always inspired by other people’s imaginations, the entertainment, mystery, adventure and suspense of crime fiction and the sizzle and psychology of modern horror, the way it gets under your skin, both in books and on screen. I’ve given a nod to some of them in FRANKIE, such as the brilliantly thought provoking Handmaid’s Tale and Midsommer, the chilling Get Out and The Stepford Wives.
And of course there’s the setting. What could possibly provide more food for thought than strolling around a modern gated community built on the site of a Victorian workhouse, once inhabited by poor and destitute ‘inmates’, whose rules included:
Obey the Governor and Matron in all their reasonable commands… and … WHOEVER shall offend … will be punished by confinement in the stocks, or in the dungeon, or by distinction of dress, by abatement of diet, loss of gratuity, by such corporal or other punishment …
So be aware if you go through these particular gates.Once you enter, will they ever let you leave?
MY HUSBAND’S LIES
Writers are often asked what has inspired their writing. For me it’s both authors and real life!
I discovered Roald Dahl’s Switch Bitch and his other short story collections as a teenager. I loved the intriguing spiteful tales with their dark twists. Crime fiction has always been my first choice of reading, from Agatha Christie as a child through to Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and more recently Mark Billingham and Jo Nesbo. And now I’ve found all the fab members of the CWA! I adored Mary Wesley’s slightly risqué stories and I’m a big fan of Maggie O’Farrell and Kate Atkinson’s contemporary books. Though my novels are not standard crime fiction, I think my writing has been influenced by the blend of these two genres, so I write about contemporary lives but with intrigue, complications, dark edges and secrets. And, of course, love.
By profession I’m a solicitor. As a trainee I worked mainly in criminal law, representing burglars, car thieves and even one or two murderers! After that I practiced divorce and matrimonial work, then went on to do professional indemnity, representing professionals such as solicitors and surveyors who’d made a mistake – or not – as the case might be. All these experiences influence my writing as I’m captivated by people and the human condition; how we’re all different but the same, how we’re all flawed and frail but put on a brave face, when there’s so much going on beneath the skin! Whether dealing with crime, divorce or professional negligence, a solicitor is like a counsellor, you’re seeing people naked, effectively; raw, human emotion! When I left the law, I became a volunteer mediator, which again was fascinating. This time I heard not one, but two or more points of view, two or more versions of truth, which is very much what story telling is about.
The Duchess of Dark Domestic Noir and THE SHADOWS OF RUTHERFORD HOUSE
I was once a solicitor who spent each working day dealing with heinous crimes, difficult divorces and professional negligence claims. Now I’m Caroline England/CE Rose author, the ‘Duchess of Dark Domestic Noir’, who writes about them!
When I turned from lawyer to scribe, I penned accounts of imperfect but relatable characters who had complicated relationships and deeply buried secrets, some of which happened to involve a misdemeanour or two! It turned out my multi-layered, dark and edgy ‘psychological suspense’ tales snugly fitted into the ‘domestic noir’ genre, one categorised by its household setting, its family and friendship ties.
My five ‘Caroline England’ novels – BENEATH THE SKIN, MY HUSBAND’S LIES, BETRAY HER, TRUTH GAMES, THE SINNER – are all character-led stories with a dark narrative and a sense of claustrophobic danger between couples or parents or friends, with secrets ready to explode. I’m also a sucker for romance, so parts of each twisty saga are wrapped around love or deep attraction between people and the resulting moral grey area…
My three ‘CE Rose’ books all have the word ‘House’ in the title, so it’s no surprise that these dark mysteries also have a domestic arena. However, I have added a hint of gothic by using the settings – be it an ancient Cheshire farmhouse, a cottage by the River Bure or a stately pile in Yorkshire – as a character itself.
THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN SECRETS is set in a Grade II-listed farmhouse bulging with dusty drapes, panelled rooms and antiques, but most of all with dark secrets. What’s going on behind wealthy widower Hayden Ramsay’s watchful eyes? His barrister son Jack has done something dreadful which haunts him day and night. And why is easy-going Hugh living in a shabby caravan at a farm up the road? When Serena arrives with her daughter to take up the role of housekeeper, she unearths the disturbing past. But what is she hiding from? Has she a dreadful secret of her own?
In THE HOUSE ON THE WATER’S EDGE, new mum Ali Baker is a million miles away from the polished barrister she has worked so hard to become. When her mother unexpectedly dies, Ali can’t forget her last words: there is something I really need to tell you… Heading back to the Norfolk Broads to sort her mother’s things, Ali is plunged into memories of her family’s picture-perfect summers on the river. But as she starts to uncover shrouded clues within the isolated house, she is drawn into a dark web that threatens to destroy everything she believed about her childhood. Ali may finally discover her mother’s secrets… but at what cost?
THE SHADOWS OF RUTHERFORD HOUSE, out on the 10th November, is set in an ancient, decaying mansion in Yorkshire. Christie is still coming to terms with the sudden and unexplained disappearance of her mother, over twenty years ago, leaving her unable to move on. Through her work as a psychiatric nurse, she becomes drawn to a troubled patient, Lillian, similarly haunted by the loss of her own mother. As she tries to help Lillian leave the hospital and return to her stately childhood home, Christie finds herself fascinated by the mysterious Rutherford-Percy clan. Why is Lillian so terrified of Rutherford House? Why is she so reluctant to embrace her aristocratic legacy? The more Christie learns about the family and their ancestral past, the deeper the mysteries seem to run – until she finds a clue that could help uncover what happened to her own mother. Desperate for answers, Christie puts her job, her family and even her very life on the line. But how much of the truth does she really want to know?
THE SINNER
Are you a saint or a sinner?
When it comes to my psychological suspense novels, I’m a counsellor, therapist and particularly a psychologist. How I love to excavate my characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings and find out who they really are behind the facade, why they are flawed, or even evil; why they lie, cheat, betray or commit a crime. Or why they fall in love with someone they shouldn’t…
Yet do I really limit my amateur psychology to my fictional cast? Well, I do confess to absorbing some people’s life stories like a sponge, but that’s because the old adage is right: truth is stranger than fiction, something I shockingly discovered when I decided to specialise in divorce law when I qualified as a solicitor in my mid twenties. Hearing tales of controlling behaviour, violence, dishonesty, hidden vices or sexual deviance in apparently normal people was a steep learning curve about the dark side of relationships and human frailty. But what about my analysis when it comes to me, the author? Do I turn the tables on myself? Is writing a therapy?
Experts say that successful creative writing is about language and craft rather than self-expression. I understand overly self-referential writing is a no-no in fiction, but don’t we all add something of ourselves or our history in our characters or stories? Can we experience some transformative healing processes, personal development or self-insight in putting words on a page? Even confess?
Perhaps I should quickly backtrack here, as my ‘domestic noir’ stories peer behind closed doors and explore dark secrets, complicated relationships, love affairs, guilt and the moral grey area. None more so that my next psychological suspense, out on the 16th June, which is most aptly called THE SINNER…
So, what is this vicarage-set tingler about?
EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST
To the unsuspecting eye Dee Stephens has a perfect life as the vicar’s wife: a devoted marriage to her charismatic husband Reverend Vincent, an adoring congregation and a beautiful daughter.
EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE
But beneath the surface, Dee is suffocating. Vincent is in control, and he knows her every sin. Desperate, Dee escapes into a heady affair with Cal, an old schoolmate.
EVERY CONFESSION HAS A PRICE
But is Cal the saviour she thinks he is? What dark secrets does he harbour? And to what lengths will Vincent go to when he uncovers the truth?
Yes, it’s a twisty story about sins. But who is the saint and who is the sinner? And what, exactly, are the sins which have been committed? Please do buy a copy to find out!
THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN SECRETS
You might not be surprised to discover that my first CE Rose gothic-tinged psychological thriller, out on the 14th April, The House of Hidden Secrets, revolves around – well, a house. Fictional Ramsay Hall is a Grade II-listed farmhouse in Cheshire set in acres of lush land with a long, winding driveway, outhouses, a gatekeeper’s cottage, a maze and a dilapidated barn. And of course it is bulging with dusty drapes, panelled rooms, antiques and old paintings. But most of all with dark secrets…
For those who’ve already read my Caroline England psychological thrillers, you’ll know that I’m very keen on characterisation, putting ordinary folk in challenging, extraordinary situations, or stripping back layers of who they appear to be on the surface and exposing the real person beneath. Those individuals are often flawed – they do something bad, they fall in love with someone they shouldn’t, they betray or make the wrong choices, maybe even commit a crime. Some are more than just misguided; indeed, they’re downright evil, but they are still human beings, so I try to make them as realistic as I can within the context of a twisty-turny thriller.
How do I do this? Like most authors I observe, steal bits of friends or relatives or people I know, or I draw on my days as a criminal and divorce lawyer. In The House of Hidden Secrets we have the master of the house, Hayden Ramsay. He appears friendly beneath his imposing frame, but what’s going on behind his watchful eyes? Then there’s his barrister son, Jack. He’s done something dreadful and it haunts him day and night. And what about easy-going Hugh? He’s living in a shabby caravan at a farm up the road. Why did Hayden throw him out?
When calm and efficient Serena starts as their housekeeper, she shakes up their lives and unearths buried secrets. But what is she hiding from? Has she got some of her own?
As I wrote The House of Hidden Secrets, it eventually occurred that Ramsay Hall was a personality too! Authenticity was a little more tricky for this character. Strolling around a Grade II-listed farmhouse at anytime – let alone during a pandemic – is a challenge, so it ended up being a Frankenstein house – made up of the many creaky old properties I visited on the internet – but perhaps also because it accommodates a monster…
THE HOUSE ON THE WATER’S EDGE
Love Letters Straight From The Crime Writer’s Parents
Childhood memories – the good ones at least – are wonderful things, but how do you bottle them, especially those from the days when a photograph was an exception rather than a rule? How I’d love to have more images of my rose-tinted infant holidays on the Norfolk Broads – the sparkling River Bure, the showy white lilies, the sausage-headed river reeds, the slithery black eels and orange-beaked, stately swans. Then there’s the melting red strawberries, plump glossy cherries, chubby plums and rosy-cheeked apples. As for my seventies-clad, gorgeous mum and dad…
Well, the answer is to put pen to paper and write them down. I did this by condensing all those incredible memories in my latest domestic suspense thriller, THE HOUSE ON THE WATER’S EDGE. After her mother’s unexpected death in a road accident, my protagonist, Ali Baker, travels to Norfolk to sort out her affairs, but she’s increasingly haunted by both the past and her mother’s last words to her: there is something I really need to tell you… What on earth did her mum mean? Could it have something to do with her father’s death immediately after their last perfect summer in Norfolk, twenty-five years ago?
But there’s another twist in this real life tale. My long-dead parents helped me write it, not only by inspiring the story but from their own written contributions! After my dad died, my sister found a bundle of letters in a lovely leather pouch and gave them to me. When I was in the right head space, I took a deep breath, pulled at the ribbon and discovered thirty or so love letters written between my parents from when my dad was in a men’s sanatorium, suffering from tuberculosis. As you can imagine, it was quite an emotional experience; I didn’t need a photograph to picture them, as their personalities flew off the page – my dad’s humour and his clear adoration of my mum; her more circumspect affection and dry wit. But separate from the rest was a lone letter from my dad with some of the pages missing. The tone was a far cry from his usual lighthearted patter, so that set my imagination off. What did the rest of the letter say? What was the reason for the dramatic change in mood? Though it was entirely in my fervid mind, similar to Ali Baker, I went on a voyage of discovery, and wrote up my findings in THE HOUSE ON THE WATER’S EDGE.
I’m sure my brilliant parents will forgive my intrusion into their twenty-one and twenty-three year old lives and are proudly reading the words over my shoulder. And at the end of the day, though the location and the love letters are real, the remainder of this twisty tale is shocking, dark and entirely fictional.
TRUTH GAMES
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Everybody has a secret. Yes you do! A study revealed that the average person keeps thirteen secrets, five of which he or she has never shared with anyone. Go on, count them! They can range from the little things that some people don’t feel are too bad, such as not mentioning too much change at the supermarket or exaggerating mileage at work. Or they might be major crimes such as a hit and run, robbery or even murder! Then there are affairs, betrayals and hidden relationships which can have devastating consequences, to easy small lies to cover looking for another job or concealing the early weeks of pregnancy. Or perhaps a person’s secret is simply unhappiness. Don’t we all do it at times? Put on our bright facade for the Facebook posts and photos to hide the the sorrow inside?
What about family secrets? Ones which only come out when Grandma has a few too many sherries on Christmas Eve: your great uncle was a bigamist; your parents married when you were two; your aunty was arrested for shoplifting a Rampant Rabbit.
Then there are the deadly secrets in my psychological thrillers… Those which are so dark and deeply hidden that they’ve almost been forgotten. Almost…
BETRAY HER was released in UK paperback during lockdown this July. Jo and Kate have been close friends since they met in a musty dormitory, aged eight. But is their friendship all that it seems? There are dark secrets, lies and jealousy beneath the surface that have shaped the women they are today. With a man in the mix, there’s a tinderbox of emotion waiting to explode.
TRUTH GAMES ebook and trade paperback will be released during another lockdown! Family is everything to Ellie Wilson. When an old friend from university re-enters her life, dark memories from her past begin to resurface. Memories that have been buried for a long time. As she starts to unravel some shocking and sinister realities, she realises she must choose between keeping the family she loves – and facing the truth.
OK, I admit it; I’m a tad obsessed with secrets and lies and the human condition. I’m an ammeter psychologist who drives my family bonkers with my interpretations of people’s behaviour, what they tell us and what they don’t. But isn’t it fascinating to find out what goes on behind closed doors – or indeed, inside the pages of a gripping crime suspense novel? Do secrets burrow into our psyche and poison us? Or are they sexy, powerful and make us strong?
I probably have thirteen secrets; maybe there are five I haven’t told anyone. Come on, spill the beans – what are yours?
THE STRANGER BESIDE ME
I love to consume a character-driven story myself, so I’m always delighted to see reviews that say the reader identified with some of the cast, felt they knew them or walked the story arc in their shoes. I’m equally as pleased when a bookworm says they couldn’t stand a character or two, or began disliking them at the start but changed their mind as the narrative progressed. Or indeed vice versa. My aim is to evoke intrigue and emotion, so if you fancy or admire him or her, or if you shout, roll your eyes or even cry, my mission is accomplished!
Like most human beings, all my dramatis personae are flawed in some way, but I hope they are compelling and realistic. Creating my line up, giving them parents or children, jobs, homes and hobbies is such fun. Deciding on age, height and hair colour. Dressing them, shaping their personalities, tics and frailties. Giving them a history, a past, a childhood. Exploring how the child moulds the adult we become. Making them fall in love with people that they shouldn’t! And of course furnishing each person with a dark secret that is threatening to explode…
And that’s is why I’m so excited to introduce my new cast of characters in THE STRANGER BESIDE ME – Sibeal and Gabriel Matthews, Katy Henry and Doctor Harrison – to the big wide world. What will you make of them? Will you like or loathe them? And more to the point, will you trust them?
THE STRANGER BESIDE ME is my latest gripping and shocking psychological suspense, set in Cheshire and South Manchester. So who are these people I’m dying for you to meet?
Sibeal is clever, feisty and a brilliant business woman, yet for all her outward confidence, she only has one real friend, her brother Gabriel, with whom she has a startlingly intense relationship. But when her lover Robin dies, she can’t share her agonising grief as he was a married family man. So she deals with her devastation by turning to booze and stalking Robin’s four year old son.
When Sibeal meets single mum Katy and they start a fierce friendship, she finds someone to confide in and share her anguish. Yet Katy has troubles of her own. Since her mother died in a car crash, she’s been plagued by fatigue and anxiety, and she’s isolated herself. Her steps into her new world are tentative and haltering, but she finds herself flowering again when she meets a newly separated doctor, Harry.
However, as with all my twisty novels, nothing is quite what it seems. When Sibeal’s drinking spirals out of control, is she a threat to Katy’s son, Milo? Why does Katy dream about her mother’s car crash even though she wasn’t there? Why is Gabriel always short of money and so secretive about his trips to London? Is Harry’s scar on his chin from his ‘boy racer’ days significant? Can anyone really be trusted?
And finally, who is ‘me’? Who is the stranger? Please read the book to find out!