In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Abigail Dean

 Name:- Abigail Dean

Job:- Author 

Website:- https://www.abigail-dean.com

Instagram- @AbigailSDean.

Introduction

Abigail Dean is a former lawyer turned author. She is the author of three books. Her debut novel Girl A was published in 2021 and was a SundayTimes and New York Times bestseller. She was one of the Observer's best new novelists in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize, Good Housekeeping Futures Award in 2022. Girl A won the inaugural Fingerprint Debut novel in 2022 and the CrimeFest E-dunnit Award. It was also shortlisted for the Barry Award, The British Book Award Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, Crimefest Sounds of Crime Award and Debut Novel, ITW (International Thrillers Award) and Macavity Award for Best First Novel, and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Her second book Day One was published in 2024.

Her third and most recent novel The Death of Us won the 2026 CWA Gold Dagger, was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and was longlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the CWA Twisted Dagger. The Death of Us was a book of the year in The Times, the Guardian, Good Housekeeping and iPaper, and film rights have sold at auction.  

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both) 

I’m editing my fourth novel, which tells the story of a little boy who disappears from his bed in 1970, the youngest son of a famous Cambridge scholar. We see his family and the investigators every five years as they change, age – and search. 

Why do you think anti-heroes are so interesting to readers 

I don’t think our interest in anti-heroes can be separated from our interest in good characters more generally. Characters who are purely bad can be great fun – I’m thinking of the vast majority of Bond villains – but those who harbour questionable motivations or are forced into heroism against their will are much more human and relatable.

How do you relax? 

I run, read, and watch films and TV. 

Which anti hero would you like to be on your side in a difficult situation. 

I’ll take Amy Dunne from Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, who seems capable of manipulating, lying or murdering her way out of any situation.

If you were to write a book involving an anti-hero where would you set it and why? 

I would take inspiration from Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and set it in an Italian coastal town. Months of research would surely be required.

How would you describe your latest published book? 

The Death of Us follows a young couple who are the victims of a terrible home invasion - and asks what romance can endure. It’s a love story interrupted by a crime novel. 

With Bad Apples: crime fiction’s enemies and anti-heroes theme at St Hilda's this year, who are you three favourite anti-heroes 

I love Jessica Jones, Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell, and Tony Soprano.

Which 3 films or television series featuring anti-heroes would you rewatch and why. I’ve been rewatching a few in preparation for my talk! I’ll always be happy to revisit The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Slow Horses.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's? 

Everybody else’s talks! There are a whole bunch of great, inspiring speakers, and I’m looking forward to stealing all of their wisdom.

The Death of us by Abigail Dean (HarperCollins Publishers)

It’s the story everyone wants to hear. That spring night in South London, when Isabel and Edward’s lives were torn apart. The night Isabel learned that the worst things wait, just outside the door. The night Edward learned that he was powerless to stop them. The night they never talk about. When their attacker is caught, it's finally time to tell the story of that night. Not to the world. Or to the man who did it. But to each other. This is a story of murder. This is a story of survival. But most of all, this is a story of love.

More information about St Hilda's and how to purchase online tickets can be found here.

#HCFW26

The Good, The Bad and The Morally Ambiguous – Creating Anti-Heroines in Thriller Fiction by Claire Parkin

I love writing about ‘difficult’ females. Women and girls who don’t fit into the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ trope, but adapt their behaviour depending on circumstance – even if that means behaving abominably. Alas, becoming a published author taught me something important about myself. 

I need to be seen as a ‘good’ girl.

Who’d have thought it? Fifty-seven-year-old-feminist me – who worked in the cutthroat world of women’s magazines for twenty years, raised insomniac twins, lifts weights (albeit not very heavy ones) and can force a worming tablet into the mouth of a cat that can’t retract its claws – falls apart when people think she’s anything other than ‘nice’. In short, I like to be liked. And, when you’re writing thriller fiction featuring morally ambiguous women, this can become a bit of a problem.

My debut novel, The Final Hours of Muriel Hinchcliffe, featured two such ambiguous characters: sparky, opinionated carer Ruth and her ‘charge’, the tragic, glamorous Muriel, both equally capable of eliciting sympathy and revulsion, sometimes within the same sentence. I loved the fatally flawed pair of them to pieces. Both my future agent and my publisher at Pan Macmillan clearly loved them too – as did many readers. 

But a handful of readers didn’t, and I can see why. Ruth and Muriel are all kinds of messed-up and, at times, downright evil. ‘Thoroughly unlikeable characters’ was one reader comment. ‘So unpleasant!’ was another. For all the reviews praising the novel’s humour, plot, twists and turns and character development, it was the few bad ones I remembered – and took personally. ‘Horrible’, ‘unlikeable’, ‘unpleasant’. It didn’t help when a family member emailed me to say, ‘Loved the book, but blimey – those women you’ve created! What on earth goes on in that mind of yours? I hope I’m never left alone in a dark room with you!’

Then the penny dropped. I was finding negative responses so upsetting because I felt readers were conflating my characters with me.

The grown-up inside me said, ‘Suck it up, buttercup. It’s nothing personal.’ But the good girl kept wailing, ‘I’m nice! And my characters aren’t “bad” – they’re misunderstood!’ (I tried to shut her up with wine and chocolate, but to no avail.) Do male writers, I found myself wondering, struggle with the same level of self-doubt? Or face censure for creating morally ambiguous male characters?

Meanwhile, I was trying to get my head into Book Two – the book that would become my latest novel, Tell Tale, which featured, of course, a morally ambiguous female character. Only this time, the character was an eleven-year-old child – an outspoken busybody, gossip and stirrer. Oh, how I loved her. Not least because this child was also sharply observant, funny and had real chutzpah despite being brought up in less-than-ideal circumstances. And she does some truly terrible things. She – and I, as her creator – well, we just couldn’t help ourselves. But all the time I was writing her story, I couldn’t help self-censoring. Was Debbie-Marie Tunstall being too bad in this particular chapter? Would she come across sympathetically enough to the reader? Of course, it wasn’t Debbie-Marie’s reputation with readers I was worried about at all. It was my own. And that, I realized, was doing Debbie-Marie a disservice.

The first draft was shelved. I started on a second. It was weak, because Debbie was weaker, and therefore my writing was too. I just didn’t have the same belief in the world I was trying to build. I needed Debbie to remain her deliciously flawed self. I started a third draft – this time, my mind in a slightly happier place. I had adapted to being a debut author, having my book out in the world and feeling ‘exposed’ (yes, I had many recurring dreams about being naked in public during this time). My skin was thickening up. I told myself, ‘Remember who you were before you got the agent and the publishing deal. You were writing in obscurity and had the freedom to tell your characters’ stories honestly. You owe it to Debbie-Marie Tunstall, and all the other characters in Tell Tale, to do the same – warts and all. And if that means not being a “good” girl – which, at 57, you’re frankly wise and confident enough to deal with – well, so be it.’

Because being ‘authentic’ (I’ve been told by my young-adult twins that this is a buzzword in social-media land) is a moral victory in itself, and means I’m being ‘good’ after all.

And now that Debbie-Marie Tunstall is out in the world – well, it turns out that readers like her very much indeed.

Which, in spite of the above musings, I’m VERY relieved to hear.

 

Tell Tale by Claire Parkin (Pan Macmillan) Out now

How do you catch a serial killer when no-one believes you’re telling the truth? Wales, 1984. Llanfair's most notorious busybody, Debbie-Marie Tunstall, has really gone and done it this time. Her snooping and merciless announcements of observations written in her Kajagoogoo notebook have gotten her into so much trouble that even her mum can't defend her. She has no choice but to run away. And then finds herself the sole witness to a murder. From a decades-old tragedy to the immediate danger of a potential serial killer on the loose, Debbie takes it upon herself to piece together the mysteries. But even if she uncovers the truth, will anyone believe the village’s biggest tell-tale? Because in Llanfair, secrets are buried just beneath the surface, and what Debbie has inadvertently stumbled upon could unravel the very fabric of her community .

You can find Clare Parkin on Instagram @Clairepauthor.