1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE BLACK HIGHWAY
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A headless, handless body washes up on the banks of the river Thames in the heart of London. The only clue as to the identity of the body is something the killer wrote on the victim’s arm – P.Brannigan. At first they think it might be the man’s name until one of the detectives assigned to the case, Dr Laughton Rees, realizes it refers to the Penthouse of the Brannigan Building, close to where the body washed up, an address she knows well because it’s where she lives, and also where their teenage daughter Gracie is currently home alone.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
When I lived in London I found out about Dead Man’s Hole, an open-air morgue built into the foundations of Tower Bridge where they used to display all the people who drowned in the Thames so people could help identify them. They built it there because the curve of the river and the currents combined to gather all the bodies there, and I always wanted to include this fact and location into a story - now I have.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I kind of do as she’s based on my daughter, Roxy, who - like Laughton Rees - is tiny but with big person energy, fiercely bright and doesn’t suffer fools.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Resourceful. Vulnerable. Brave.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that the US coastguard had conducted scientific studies to track the movement of a body in water by dressing up dead pigs in human clothes and putting GPS trackers on them. Apparently, pigs have a similar flesh density to humans.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I go along, but only in large chunks. I’ll write about 30,000 words, or the first hundred pages then go back and edit those before carrying on. Similarly, when I get to 60,000 I’ll go back and do another whole manuscript edit before writing the final act. I find that finessing acts 1 and 2 really helps me figure out and nail act 3.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Probably chocolate. You could pretty much dip anything edible in chocolate and I’ll eat it.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I used to have an office, but I never used it so now I tend to work all over the house. My two eldest children are both at university, so I often work in their bedrooms when they are away as they both have desks, and it keeps me out of the way.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Stephen King. I read him when I was a teenager, he’s still writing great books, has been married to the same woman for over fifty years, and he isn’t afraid to use his fame and platform to speak his mind. He’s an example to us all.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Killing Floor, by Lee Child – the first Jack Reacher book. He wrote this when he had just been fired from his TV job in England. I read it at a time when I was working in TV in the UK and wanting to do something more creatively fulfilling. I read the book, read his bio and thought ‘worked for him’, so I quit my job and wrote ‘Sanctus’, my first book which became an international bestseller and changed my life.
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.
The call I remember was when my agent rang to say that four publishers wanted to publish my book and an auction was underway for the rights. I didn’t even know what a rights auction was, but then three publishers in the US all wanted the rights too, so I suddenly had two auctions going on at the same time. It was very exciting, and my agent told me it never happens, so I’m a lucky author.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I just like reading good books, doesn’t matter what genre they are in.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Singin’ in the Rain. It’s utterly joyful.
15--What is your favorite season?
Winter. I love Christmas and eating stews and roasts and pies, and wrapping up warm, and reading and writing by the fire.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Fun fact, I was born on Feb 29th, so I only celebrate my actual birthday every 4 years and as long as there’s Italian food, a warm fire and chocolate on offer I’m happy.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
TV show – Culinary Class War, a Netflix show which is like Squid Game meets delicious cooking.
Movie – Emilia Perez, also Netflix, I know it got cancelled because of the main actor’s comments but it’s still an amazing film.
Book – late to the party but I just finished “Fatherland” by Robert Harris, which supposes that the Nazis won the Second World War and is about the investigation of the death of a senior Nazi who knew about the death camps – which have been covered up by the regime. It feels very timely, somehow.
Podcast – Against the Rules, by Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball and The Big Short), which examines the way certain areas of American life have radically changed in the last few decades and how it affects all of us – referees, coaches, fans. He’s from New Orleans so has got a very soothing and warm voice, which makes it an easy listen.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian. It’s the best, hands down.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Play tennis. My thirteen-year-old daughter is already really good so I’m trying and keep up with her.
Laughton Rees #3
A Gripping Summer Thriller of Family Secrets, International Drug Trafficking, and a Mother's Fight to Protect Her Daughter Amidst a ... for Summer ReadingA Gripping Summer Thriller of Family Secrets, International Drug Trafficking, and a Mother's Fight to
Laughton Rees is back in the latest novel from the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy—this time, with a case that hits uncomfortably close to home and threatens the thing Laughton values most: her daughter.
Forensic specialist Laughton Rees is not ashamed of her checkered past—after all, her youthful indiscretions led to the birth of her daughter Gracie, the person she loves most in the world—but when Gracie’s father unexpectedly turns up in their lives again, Laughton is automatically wary.
Shelby Facer is a dangerous man, formerly imprisoned for his involvement in an international drug trafficking ring, and no matter what Laughton once felt for him, she doesn’t want him anywhere near Gracie. But when Shelby claims that he has information about an especially difficult murder case she is working, she can’t turn him down.
A body with no head or hands has recently turned up in the river Thames, and the police are at a loss until Shelby identifies the man. The victim was part of a highly secretive smuggling ring Shelby was involved with during his and Laughton’s youth—which Laughton’s father, former commissioner for the Metropolitan police, was investigating before he died.
Laughton throws herself into her father’s old files to try to trace the connections between past and present, but as she and DCI Tannahill Khan circle closer to the truth, the case becomes dangerously personal. When another body turns up, mutilated just like the first, the victim is no stranger to Laughton. She’ll have to face the darkest parts of her past to find the man behind the murders—before he takes away everything she loves.
Thriller Psychological [William Morrow, On Sale: June 24, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780062329851 / eISBN: 9780062329868]
In December 2007 Simon Toyne quit his job and sailed for France with his wife and two children on the midnight ferry. After a stormy, sleepless crossing they arrived exhausted and immediately abandoned all plans to drive eight hours south to their new home. Instead they headed inland to Rouen, where in the pre-dawn light Toyne was mesmerised by the twisted spires of Rouen Cathedral rising up into the lightening sky. This image, seared on his imagination that cold morning, would become the fictional Citadel of Sanctus, relocated to the far eastern fringes of Europe, among the oldest continually inhabited places of the world. Sanctus is Simon Toyne's first novel. It has to date been translated into 17 languages and will be published in 27 countries.
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