BOOKS
My father said, quite matter of fact, that the problem was my first name and that I should switch to my middle name, Paul
Author Interview Sarah Hilary
Sarah Hilary’s first book after her Marnie Rome series is a standalone slice of modern Gothic
Alison Flood @alisonflood 20 1st October 2021
S
arah Hilary is the author of the excellent Marnie Rome series, in which DI Rome (possessor of the requisite tortured past, in Marnie’s case parents
murdered by her foster brother) investigates various brutal crimes around a brilliantly realised London. But aſter writing the sixth novel in the series, Never Be Broken, Hilary decided it was time to give Marnie and her sidekick DS Noah Jake a break.
“It was much more difficult to write than the other ones,” says Hilary of Never Be Broken, “partly because of the shiſting political atmosphere aſter the Brexit vote”. Hilary used to live in London, but moved out more than 20 years ago. “It was so obvious to me that I couldn’t write a book that would be truthful to Noah’s character in particu- lar, with him being Black and a policeman in London, without referencing the changed feeling in London,” she says. “Noah wasn’t put into the books so I could talk about racism or homophobia [he is gay] in the police force. But I knew I had to address these issues—I couldn’t just pretend
Photography: Matthew Andrews
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