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Any ideas gratefully received, Nunzia!

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Dec 6, 2023Liked by Luke Jennings

Keywords: kidnapping and new killer. Anyway good work! We love Villanelle and her adventures!

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Seizième! No idea where the series appt was supposed to be. It was constructed on a set somewhere off the M1 motorway

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I think the speculations around that theory are some of the first scenes of S1 where Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is showed walking around Saint-Germain-des-Prés turning next to Le Balto's corner, which is located in the 6th, and that scene ends up with Villanelle going upstairs to her appartment. I'm now on an article about Parisian queer spaces and sapphic genealogies (and of course Villanelle is part of it) and found French, Spanish and English-speaking articles on that. Reviewed deeply the 1-3 books this weekend looking for such reference (didn't find it, of course) and this indeed makes much more sense, thanks a mil for the confirmation Luke. Priceless! :)

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Happy to help, Carlota!

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"somewhere off the M1 Motorway" -- didn't see that coming. As Carlota described it, I thought I vaguely recognized the area where Villanelle walked along in series one. But of course a luxury apartment overlooking the park makes much more sense.

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Trust me, any similarity with the show, esp S4, entirely coincidental!

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Hi Pru, good to have you aboard!

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Hi Luke it’s a pleasure, I’m so excited , Your Villanelle books are my favourite

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Get well soon, Desirée. Wishing you a full recovery from the surgery.

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Thank you very much for the well wishes! I should hopefully leave the hospital today. ❤️‍🩹

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Smart move...

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Dec 6, 2023Liked by Luke Jennings

What a masterpiece and mastermind 😭

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Ok...I'm hooked, thank you @TheGuardian for the article

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Good luck!

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OK!

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Thanks Julie - are you a writer?

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Dec 10, 2023Liked by Luke Jennings

Hi Luke, I am published for non-fiction commercial magazine articles. Shortlisted for a UK award for my non-fiction book. Honourable mention for my first unpublished novel in the USA. Now teaching as I am getting interest from agents, but no bites! Thanks for sharing your new work. It is good practice for me to assess how you put things together and drip feed atmosphere to set up your later conflicts! Appreciate you sharing this.

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Hi Luke, I feel like I'm experiencing this story unfold like a reader of Dickens waiting for the next installment of a novel in Household Words. It actually feels very indulgent to be drip fed the work as it encourages you as a reader to read slower and soak up the langage and atmosphere.

I'm dipping in and out of different schools of thought for creative writing at the moment. Becoming very disillusioned with the constant barrage of add a prologue. Jump straight into the centre of the events which galvanise your character... This story is working for me because you are letting it breath. Nothing is happening for Eve, because nothing is happening. That's life. You haven't felt the need to give her anything to do and that is a hard thing to do sometimes. Yet, on the otherhand that simple comment of hers in part (2) about being lied to has the potential to blow the whole relationship between the two women sky high. I am more worried about that, as a reader, than the 12 reappearing.

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Each chapter makes you want the next. Nice writing Mr. Jennings.

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I hope that you will keep Eve interesting and not needy and whiny. Thank you for doing this

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Going to have to speed up on my reading here as way, way behind.

On this extract I love the casual evoking of the scenery V is travelling through. For us Nevsky Prospekt and Griboyedov embankment sound exotic. I went and checked them on Google street view. Wow the liberty style store on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt is fabulous. But you don't get distracted or bogged down with description, you just get on with it. Great restraint! Less is more. Evocative but not indulgent.

Also love V's casual integration of Russian terms which, although we might never have heard them before, make perfect sense in the context. 'Tyolki' anyone? We know them from the explanation and the context. Over thin women with eating disorders, plastic surgery at 21 and aspirations to look like Barbie... Like overstrung gazelles. I looked up the word, apparently transposes as ' young cow'! Slightly bovine in brains as well... The contempt towards them from V is refreshing and she is right. Even a killer can be pure because she can see through the hype and the false veneer.

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Your comment was a little marvel of literature in its own right!

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Villanelle's Parisian appartment overlooking the Bois de Boulogne... That's not quite the 6th Arrondissement that many sources were commenting Villanelle's appartment is set on in Paris based on the series, right? That's located somewhere in the Right Bank, 16th or 8th arrondissements, maybe? :)

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But "overlooking the Bois de Boulogne" sounds really, really nice, doesn't it? And much more Villanelle style.

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Absolutely!

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