Publication day

Villanelle and Eve are back.

For me, Killing Eve: Long Shot was a bit of a risk. It takes Villanelle and Eve out of the world they know, and into the British countryside. This is not the countryside of cosy crime. There are no vicars or picture-postcard villages. It’s set in the world of high-stakes horse-racing, where millions of pounds hang on the outcome of a single race, and international intrigue is a steady backbeat.

This is not our heroines’ comfort zone. From their warm Mayfair flat, they’re pitched into a chilly, rainswept East Anglian country house, where people play by very different rules. Muddy waxed jackets and scuffed riding boots are the order of the day; French and Italian tailoring looks a bit townie and try-hard. So it’s goodbye, or at least au revoir, to the ‘nice things’ to which Oxana is so attached.

It’s good to shake your characters up like this. To force them to feel their way in an unfamiliar world. It shows us who they are and what they’re made of. It pushes Eve and Oxana together in new surroundings, with new ground rules, so that they have to re-negotiate their relationship. For these two, love will always be a battleground.

Why did I think that Killing Eve readers would want to read about horses, and thoroughbred racehorses at that? I don’t know, I just did. I love them, and assumed you would too.

I hope you enjoy Long Shot as much as I enjoyed writing it. I had an email from Boldwood, my publishers, saying that they hoped I was doing something lovely to celebrate publication day. I am! I’m working on the next book, and it’s almost finished.

More soon, as ever - Luke