I’m an established, award-winning author of YA novels and trilogies, many with a dystopian bent, like the Slated trilogy and Mind Games; others delve into the supernatural, like my newest, a ghost story called Scare Me. But I’ve spent the last two years pursuing a different path: a life of crime, written for adults. I played with multiple genres and ideas before deciding to go with The Patient, a psychological thriller, publishing on 13 February 2024 with Bookouture. But when I started writing this story, there was no book deal or any guarantee all the work would lead to anything. So why take the risk?
- I wanted a new challenge. Don’t get me wrong – writing for teens is hard work. And they’re not polite about it if they don’t like something. Conversely, part of the joy of this audience is when they love something, they really love it! But after fourteen books I wanted to stretch my creative muscles and try something new.
- I’ve been reading crime fiction I love and the first rule of writing – if there are any rules – is write what you love to read. I was gobbling up books by authors like Elly Griffiths, Sarah Pinborough, Alice Feeney, Ruth Ware. I was late to Elly’s Ruth Galloway series, only starting it after doing an event with her at CrimeFest last year, but I loved them so much that I read all fifteen in just months. I also devour page-turning psychological thrillers, like Behind Her Eyes, Daisy Darker, Insomnia and In a Dark, Dark Wood. As a reader I love being surprised: that moment when you get to an ending that you didn’t predict but just feels exactly right. Also, I met Sarah Pinborough on a panel event years ago with her YA novel, Thirteen Minutes, and I knew Ruth Ware previously as Ruth Warburton, a YA author before her adult thrillers. I love their voices in both their YA and adult fiction, and I could see how one translates to the other.
- As a writer, I’m drawn to darkness. As much as I’d theoretically love to write something funny and life-affirming, when I try, it doesn’t work. Things that worry me or scare me insist on coming out in my fiction. So once I decided I wanted a new challenge, crime fiction was a good fit.
- Fourth: page turning is what I do, as both a reader and a writer. Pacy stories where you just have to find out what happens next are what I love. It’s important that pace doesn’t come at the expense of character – I like my characters to be complicated and multi-layered. In the real world, people are rarely all good or all bad; the good person who does something wrong or the evil one who does something unexpected to help someone are far more interesting. But this doesn’t have to come at the expense of pace. It’s the quirks of character that give rise to plot, after all.
- Finally, there aren’t many limits on what you can write for teens these days, but there are some lines I personally wouldn’t cross. There were stories I wanted to tell that are better suited to an adult market. Plus, I can swear.
Teri Terry is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author of thrillers for young adults and adults. She has lived in France, Canada, Australia and England at more addresses than she can count, acquiring four degrees, a selection of passports and an unforgettable name along the way. Before writing full time, Teri has been a scientist, a lawyer, an optometrist, and worked in schools, libraries and for a charity. She now calls a village in Buckinghamshire home, where she lives with her husband and Scooby, a very cute and naughty cockapoo.
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