Carol Boyer asked Fiona Barton:

I am intrigued by the synopsis of your book and also even more so by your journalistic background that led you to the idea for this story. I also want to read The Widow and wonder what idea led you to write that book?

Fiona Barton Hi Carol, Thank you for your question - and apologies for the delay in replying (am on tour with my second book, The Child). So, in answer to your query: I have always been fascinated by the people on the edge of stories.
The Widow began for me as an image and a voice. The image was a wife, sitting in court, hearing in the most gut-wrenching detail, the crime her husband - the man she chose - is accused of. I covered a number of stories where the wife hovered, anonymously, on the edge of the main story and I always wondered what she knew or allowed herself to know.
The voice was Jean Taylor’s - the widow in the title. She was there from the start - my ear worm. And it was her phrase “No more of his nonsense” that set the mood of the book.
I wrote my first words in February 2009 – ten chapters and the ending – and then put it in a drawer until I was given a deadline (essential for a journalist!) and finished it in August 2014.
Hope this helps, f

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