Q and A with A. A. Abbott

Lies at Her Door by A. A. AbbottEarlier today I reviewed Lies at Her Door by A. A. Abbott.

The following is a Q&A with the author conducted by Lauren Carr, Senior Virtual Book Tour Coordinator and owner of iread Book Tours.

Why the pen name “AA Abbott”?
It was a shameless attempt to place my books right at the front of your bookshelves! I’ve seen from surveys that roughly half of readers file their books alphabetically. Others might arrange them by size or color. My system is more basic: I confess that my house overflows with books, and they’re shoehorned into crannies everywhere.

Do you write about what you know?
I was certainly inspired by real life, especially when a sinkhole appeared in a nearby garden. Like Lucy Freeman in “Lies at Her Door”, I live in a tall, thin house in the English city of Bristol. My home is part of a gracious old terrace painted white. I think of it as resembling a wedding cake. However, although I draw on my own life for inspiration, Lucy is nothing like me. She is much younger, for a start! I can assure you, too, that “my” sinkhole was devoid of skeletons. Lucy, her neighbors and the crescent where they live are very much fictional.

How do you research your books?
For Lies at Her Door, I read manuals on British police procedure and sent copious questions to retired police detectives, forensic specialists and a fellow writer who lives in France. (At one point in the book, the British cops have to get information from their counterparts in France.) A former detective also read my first draft and pointed out my mistakes. I am hugely grateful to all my helpers for giving their time so generously.

What’s the best advice you had from your editor on Lies at Her Door?
My editor, Katharine D’Souza, is also a writer. I’d recommend her book, “Park Life”, to all women over the age of forty. She is incredibly good at describing her characters’ emotions and she urged me to focus on Lucy’s feelings in particular. Thanks to her, we can taste Lucy’s chocolate, feel her sugar rush and sympathize with her guilt.

You publish a dyslexia-friendly edition of all your books. Why?
All my books are published in ebook and conventional paperback formats. Although I’m not dyslexic, some of my relatives are, and accessibility is important to me. As an indie author, I can publish different editions easily, so I chose to have dyslexia-friendly versions printed. They use a large sans serif font and are super-easy to read. One of my books (“Bright Lies”) is also available as an audiobook.

Where to Find Lies at Her Door and other books by A. A. Abbott

Read Lies at Her Door free with Kindle Unlimited, or buy it in ebook, paperback, hardback, large print or dyslexia-friendly print. Follow author AA Abbott on Twitter and Facebook, and find out more about her at https://aaabbott.co.uk/.

 

Lies at Her Door

Lies at Her DoorLies at Her Door, by A. A. Abbott, seems to be a novel dealing with characters whose lives are not what they seem or had envisioned. Who, if anyone, is telling the truth? The mystery at the center seems to highlight what’s missing from the lives of Neil Slater and Lucy Freeman. And even Sebastian and Dan Freeman. Lucy wishes she was thinner and not responsible for the care of her invalid mother. Lucy feels unloved—her mother calls her a pig and fat, and otherwise derides her daughter. Jennifer and Sebastian, Lucy’s parents used to deride her for the inability to keep a pet alive for even a short while. But Lucy cooks for the household and helps dress and assist her mother since her mother contracted Parkinson’s. Why the derision of a daughter who is competent, kind, and at least nominally pretty? Is something else at work?

Why does Dan, Lucy’s brother, stay away from home? Is it just that he enjoys the superstar lifestyle since his band became popular? Or is there something more sinister? Why does he live alone with just a bodyguard?

Neil wishes his girlfriend, Gemma, would move in with him. But Gemma professes that she loves living in the country. Neil’s job as a detective keeps him in Bristol.

Jason Jardine, one of Dan’s fellow band members, goes missing. Lucy even gets blamed for Jason’s disappearance. Then Jason’s skeleton is found in a collapsed cellar only accessible from the Freeman house. When Lucy finds her mother’s diaries while clearing off a bookshelf, she hopes to find out the truth of what happened. But Sebastian disposes of the diaries before Lucy can read them. Why?

Why is Lucy Freeman the nexus in the mystery of Jason’s death? Neil think Lucy is the murderer. Why? Does Neil even remember that Lucy babysat him once when he was four? And supposedly gave him a drug-laced brownie? Drugs meant for the members of Dr. Sweet, Dan’s band. Was Lucy even aware of the drugs in the brownies? Why does Lucy remember almost nothing from the last time she saw Jason?

Lies at Her Door is a slow, but inexorable crawl to the denouement in the search for Jason’s killer. Lucy is a well-drawn character. Her father, a professor, is fairly well drawn. Jennifer, Lucy’s mother is just a shell of a woman for the majority of the novel due to her illness. But she impacts the story, nonetheless. The plot, although a bit slow, benefits from Abbott’s tight, straight on prose. Alternating the narrative from the perspective of both Lucy and Neil provides more information than would otherwise have been possible.

This was a fairly good read.

I received a free copy of this book from ireadbooktours.com in exchange for an honest review.

Lies at Her Door
By A. A. Abbott
© 2022
Perfect City Press