Karen welcome to Waterstones.
Thanks so much for having me
One Of Us Is Lying was a massive hit, I think we can say that without
equivocation and now your new book, Two Can Keep A Secret is here. Could you
first of all tell us a little bit about Two Can Keep A Secret?
Sure. Two Can Keep A Secret is set in a small town that has a tragic past where history might be
repeating itself. So the main character Ellery moves into this hometown of her
mom where her aunt disappeared many years ago. She meets Malcolm, whose
brother was suspected but never convicted of killing his homecoming
queen girlfriend. As soon as Ellery gets there, mysterious
threats start appearing around town saying that the killer might be striking
again and then a third girl disappears. So they're trying to figure out what's
happening now, what happened back then and is it all connected?
- I love this... intrigue! - Full of secrets
We're gonna have a bit of intrigue now we thought we could have a bit of a fun
game based on the title of your first book One of Us is Lying. Holly and I have
a series of statements that we're going to make and in each round one of us
will be lying and the question is can you work out whose telling he truth.
Are you ready for this? I threw up on stage at the Royal Albert Hall while
performing in my school choir. And my first one is when I was 10 I stole our
neighbor's cat and hid it in my room for two days before my mum found out.
I really want yours to be true, I'm gonna go with that one.
You think mine is true?
Ready? Yeah. The truth is... it's a lie. I wanted that to be true!
You know it sounds good doesn't it? It does sound good!
I'd never do that. ... a little stealthy pet
I once caused a bomb scare at Kensington Palace.
Whilst interviewing Tim Peake I
knocked his Yakult over his suit which he was wearing before a posh evening function.
They're both so compelling I'm going to go this time with yours being true.
Mine being true? We can reveal that you're right, it is true. Karen, when
we're off camera I will explain to you exactly why I caused a bomb scare.
I'm a little nervous now!
I applied for a Guinness World Record
to be the youngest person to play Abba's I Have A Dream on the recorder.
I once danced to Ravel's Bolero in front of an audience of thousands.
I think yours is true.
- We can reveal that it's actually me telling the truth. - I am not good at this game!
I have a black belt in judo. I wrote Tesco to complain that the
raisins in their fruit and fibre were too chewy.
I think that's true.
You are... absolutely right.
So at least I got a split.
You got a split. Holly is the consumer champion and I'm no use to you in a fight.
Did you get an answer?
I did. They sent me two free boxes of fruit and fibre and a ten pound voucher.
So Karen, it's not fair for us to put you on the spot like that without us
you know having a go to. So you can now tell us two facts about you and
your writing and one of those of course will be true and the other will
be a lie. We have to guess which is which.
So, I do my best writing at 6 o'clock in the morning
That's statement one and statement two...?
My nine-year-old son
named one of the characters in One of Us is Lying.
Those are both very, very believable. So my gut instinct is actually that the
first is the truth because I once went to an
author event and she had a young family and she talked about her best writing, she
did before the kids even woke up. So it was when she was most awake and wasn't
exhausted. And then you went on with your following statement about having a son.
Although is that true?
It had, immediately, the ring of truth the idea of getting your best work done
first thing, so should we say that we think that's true and the other's a lie?
Okay we're gonna go for A is true and B is a lie...
Wrong!
I'm not even awake at 6 o'clock in the morning!
I write at nine o'clock at night and my son named officer Hank Budapest in One
of Us is Lying.
That is an amazing fact. Okay. Very, very good.
So for the final part of these shenanigans with Two Can Keep a Secret
as our inspiration and two of us here, we thought you could tell us a secret and
we will keep it.
Will you really keep my secret?
Yeah I mean what do we need to do?
Do we need to sort of cut our hands, make some kind of, do some kind of special salute.
We promise to keep this secret.
Are you ready? This is Top Secret.
Are we reading it in turn? No, let's read it together.
*read massive secret*
That's actually really good. So that is a secret about a forthcoming book.
We can say that much? Yes you can.
Okay so we actually know something genuinely exclusive!
And on that bombshell we will leave things there. Karen, thank you
so much, it was great to hear about your new book, to find out something about
another book but you've been a great sport as well so thank you so much.
Thank you it was really fun to be here.