1--What is the title of your latest release?
I DID WARN HER
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A luxurious yacht, a gorgeous crew with secrets and rivalries...and murder! To use Sara Ochs’ fantastic blurb, it is Below Deck with a body count.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
After my debut, I wanted to write another isolated setting, and the idea of something on the water was appealing. I am a massive fan of Below Deck and after watching it I knew a superyacht would be perfect for a thriller.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Maybe?! I DID WARN HER takes a multi-POV focus, with all the stewardesses having a voice, but for Sasha, the newbie who comes aboard with good intentions at the beginning of the book, I think she’d be the easiest to hang out with for sure. Whether she’d be someone I’d actively choose to hang out with might be telling!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Good-willed. Naive. Secretive.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Something that particularly shocked me was how well superyachts can evade legal action. If there is an issue on board, including the death of a crew member, there have been times when superyachts have simply sailed away, because they’re registered internationally and the owner isn’t even known.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I’m done! If I kept stopping and changing things, I’d never finish. Once I have that first draft, that’s when I take it apart.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Crisps, sweets, cheese—if it’s unhealthy, I probably love it.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
At the moment my writing space is the second bedroom of the two-bedroom flat I rent! There’s a sofa bed in here and other miscellaneous things, but there’s also a small bookshelf filled with my current and upcoming reads, and of course my desk. My desk has its own row of books bookended by two wooden cats that are mainly craft books but also copies of She Started It and the ARC of I Did Warn Her. To convince me that yes, I have written a book before and I can do it again!
10--Who is an author you admire?
I will always say Jacqueline Wilson, because her books were everything to my childhood. I read every single one. She’s the person who inspired me to be a writer from a very young age.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
There are so many books that I absolutely love, but for changed my life, I have to say The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson for the reason I said above. I still remember reading this book as a kid and thinking: This is what I want to do.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
For my debut, it is a complete blur. A very happy, buzzy blur. I remember my agent calling me, and me very nervously and seriously nodding along to her incredible news that William Morrow wanted to publish She Started It, and after the call was done, I sat there in utter shock. I talked to my partner to confirm this had really just happened and wasn’t a dream, and then immediately called my parents! For I Did Warn Her, it was such a wonderful moment. My amazing agent called again, and I felt this immense joy that it was really happening again, I was still somehow being an author!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Thrillers are of course brilliant—but I also love reading History non-fiction.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Oh, this is a hard one! I tend to have different favorites for different moods. The other night I rewatched The Devil Wears Prada and remembered how much I loved it!
15--What is your favorite season?
Autumn. It’s not too hot, not too cold!
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I am pretty simple—a nice birthday meal and small celebration suit me fine!
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I recently read Rumoured by The Mancaruso Sisters and it’s a thriller I will absolutely be recommending as one of the debuts of 2025! It’s out July in the UK and October in the US. They’re great friends of mine, but I promise I’d be recommending it anyway—the ending is brilliant!
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian—I love pizza and pasta!
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Read!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I am currently finishing up a draft of my third book. I don’t want to give anything away, but it might be my favorite so far.
A luxurious yacht, a gorgeous crew with secrets and rivalries...and murder! I Did Warn Her is a cunning locked room mystery set on a billionaire’s yacht, by the author of last year’s sensation She Started It.
The Ophelia is your typical billionaire yacht: ridiculously luxurious, owned by a ruthless money man, and staffed by a crew whose only job is to indulge the guests’ every wish.
Model-gorgeous Sasha is a last-minute hire for a weeklong Atlantic crossing. She joins fellow stewardesses Jade, Imogen, Euphemia, and Lola. The Ophelia’s stewardesses are almost identical—blonde and model-gorgeous—and all were lured to the Ophelia by high wages and a chance to leave their problems behind when they set sail. But despite its sleek opulence, the Ophelia isn’t as heavenly as it seems. A stewardess on the previous charter died under mysterious circumstances, the guests’ expensive jewelry keeps disappearing, and the crew grows steadily more and more suspicious of one another.
Then the yacht’s owner brings aboard his best friend and two more women, also beautiful. Also hiding something.
When a crew member turns up dead after a night of partying, everyone on the yacht is a suspect. Who is the jewel thief? Who is the murderer? What will happen when the lights go out, and the crew and the guests are finally on equal footing?
Endlessly twisty and delightfully voyeuristic, I Did Warn Her is a whodunnit on the high seas, where the dark secrets of the ultra-wealthy have nowhere to hide.
Thriller Psychological | Thriller Crime [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: June 17, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780063388505 / eISBN: 9780063388512]
Sian Gilbert was born in Bristol, UK. She studied history at the University of Warwick, before teaching at a comprehensive school in Birmingham for almost five years. She now lives in Cambridge with her partner.
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