I write as if I'm someone reading the book - often people ask if I write one strand first and then go back and seed in the other, but I don't think I could keep track of who knows what, and the tension would come out wrong, so the answer is no - I write it more or less in the order you read it.

I'm not 100% sure 'Rebecca' qualifies as a thriller, given it's three parts screwed-up love story and two parts ghost-story-without-a-ghost, but the mystery at the heart of the novel is what happened to Maxim's first wife, the eponymous Rebecca, and it's unravelled with the pacing and finesse of the finest psychological thrillers out there.

One of my desert island books, 'The Leopard' is not so much a novel as a eulogy for a way of life and a Sicily that was already lost by the time Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was writing.

I found the success of 'In a Dark, Dark Wood' really distracting when I was writing 'The Woman in Cabin 10,' but in a way, the fact that 'Cabin 10' was doing well felt quite freeing while I was writing 'The Lying Game.'

The interesting thing about the Internet is that it has created a kind of alternative circle of friends for people.

I think we're experiencing a resurgence of fantasy-type conventions in general because people want to get out around kindred spirits. Cons are a great place to meet people you've been tweeting and FB'ing with, and since you've had an online relationship with them, it's not like meeting for the first time.

A huge number of women are shopping for beauty products based on recommendations from friends, and we really look to be that friend.

People want to marry me for companionship. No thanks! I've got my cats for that!