Book Title: SPIDER
Character Name: Sophie
- How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I’ve been blessed with lovely parents and had a wonderful childhood. They gave my brother and I everything. My father’s a dentist and my mum used to be an air hostess before they were married. I’ve always been a daddy’s girl. He lets me get away with anything.
- What was your greatest talent?
I’ve always been an entertainer. As a child I used to play Happy Birthday on the recorder at parties when it was time to cut the cake. Sometimes I would even recite a poem, something by Ted Hughes or maybe a Shakespearean sonnet, but that got a bit tricky when my aunties would make me translate the whole thing into Punjabi so I stopped doing it.
- Significant other?
I’m married to Tariq. He’s a lawyer… I’m sorry, it’s hard for me to talk about him… I was finally happy, really and truly happy when we got married. We had a wonderful life together, but it was cut short when he disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to him.
- Biggest challenge in relationships?
Where do I begin? Untrustworthy partners with secrets, usually involving other women, are my biggest issue. Obviously bigamy is something I won’t tolerate. But “harmless” flirting or being fixated in the innocent memory of an old flame are also a problem for me.
- Where do you live?
In a lovely old house in Bradford. It’s a beautiful building full of character. My husband’s from before we married. I was in the middle of redecorating, putting my own stamp on it before this all happened… I bought new rugs and artwork. Now I just don’t know if I can bring myself to carry on.
- Do you have any enemies?
I’m sure there are people that don’t like me. That’s bound to happen when marriages break up. Though both of my ex-husbands are still quite civil towards me, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were members from the extended family network that hate me.
- How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I loved this home when I moved here to be with Tariq. But now he’s gone, it can be frightening at times being in such a big place with only Zain. Sometimes I feel that I’m being watched.
- Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have a little boy, Zain, who’s the most important thing in my life. And we have pets. Not the cute fluffy sort, though. A big tank of beautiful tropical fish in the conservatory. I love sitting in there just watching them swimming around in their own world.
- What do you do for a living?
I’m an actress. And soon to be co-producer if all goes to plan. My friend and I are setting up our own film company. We have a script ready to go- a thriller set in a hospital. I’m going to be playing a doctor who gets kidnapped by a mentally disturbed patient.
- Greatest disappointment?
Obviously, my failed marriages, but everything happened for the best. I met my dear Tariq after my two bad experiences. Monty and the Ghost was a big letdown too, but never mind. It’s become a classic even if it is for all the wrong reasons. Have you seen it?
- Greatest source of joy?
My darling son, and my work. There’s nothing like the feeling of being on stage or in front of a camera and knowing that all eyes are glued on you, hanging off your every word.
- What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I like to watch old films, the classics. Gone with the Wind. Rebel without a Cause. They’re a pleasure, an indulgence, but they also help me learn my craft.
- What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Not having progressed in my career as much as I would have liked. But I’ll get there.
- What keeps you awake at night?
Wondering where Tariq is. It drives me mad. We were so much in love… I don’t know which horrible, crazy person has done this.
- What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Finding my husband!!! There is another problem I have but it’s not something I can share.
- Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Apart from what I just told you, yes, a little financial security would be nice.
- Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
I suppose I’m what you call a “jobbing actress”. I will make money one day, I’m sure, but right now it’s a struggle to make ends meet. There’s not much money in doing ads, especially for the Asian channels. They pay you peanuts. Hopefully, once production gets going with our new film, and it’s a success, everything’s going to change.
Every marriage has a secret
When her missing husband is found dead in a car crash far from home, a charismatic actress must find out the truth in this utterly fresh take on the domestic suspense novel.
Sophie is an aspiring British Pakistani actress whose only claim to fame – despite her vast and unscrupulous ambitions – is the unplanned on-camera birth of her son, a clip which has become something of a cult favourite on the Indian B movie scene. Her husband, Tariq, is a pillar of Bradford’s Muslim community and her perfect match, until his sudden disappearance under mysterious circumstances. When a body is found, presumed to be his, but disfigured in a way that makes identification difficult, Sophie is distraught.
Tariq was her ‘third time lucky husband’. Her first, Amir, came out of a childhood sweetheart relationship that couldn't last, and her rebound marriage to doting Faraz, a recent immigrant to the UK and obsessed with the Royal Family, was even shorter lived. Is Sophie just luckless or is there more to her than meets the eye? And maybe, just maybe, one of her exes has something to do with Tariq’s untimely death. Might one of them be responsible for the threatening letters? Sophie herself is guilty of something, but is murder part of her ambition?
In Sophie, Dar has created a flawed yet hypnotising female lead: a cunning, narcissistic character for fans of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer. It is just a matter of time before her intricate web of lies begins to draw tighter.
Thriller Domestic [Watkins Publishing, On Sale: April 11, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781915523006 / eISBN: 9781915523013]
Azma Dar is an author and playwright. She has written three full-length theatre productions, several short plays, a radio play for BBC Asian Network and has a forthcoming play entitled NOOR at Southwark Playhouse in November 2022. Her debut novel, The Secret Arts, was published by Dean Street Press in 2015.
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