Book after Book

By Alice Clark-Platts Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Synopsis: The Flower Girls. Laurel and Primrose. One convicted of murder, the other given a new identity. Now, nineteen years later, another child has gone missing. And the Flower Girls are about to hit the headlines all over again… How did this book end up in my hands? I read a 10-part serialisation of this book in January via The Pigeonhole . Was it a page-turner? OMG, totally. I could have read it in one sitting given the opportunity and – having read the comments written by my fellow readers – I know I am not the only one to think that. This is one of those novels that make you suspect just about every character and change your theories every few chapters! Having read the synopsis, did the book meet my expectations? I knew after reading the tagline - Three children went out to play. Only two came back. – that this was going to be an unsettling book but the reality definitely exceeded my expectations. ...

Hi Alice! First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of The Flower Girls , whose serialisation on The Pigeonhole I loved! Can you please briefly tell us what it is about? A: 3 girls go out to play but only 2 come back… One of them, Laurel, aged 10, is convicted and imprisoned. Her sister, Rosie, aged 6, is instead given a new identity. Flip forward 19 years to a windswept coast in Devon where Rosie is staying for New Year’s Eve and another little girl goes missing… The Flower Girls is a novel about nature versus nurture. It asks at what age can you become culpable of a crime and whether anyone can ever be truly rehabilitated. Did you have the plot entirely figured out when you started writing the book or did it take an unexpected turn as the characters grew on the page? A: I always change my mind half way through writing a book! The characters become so much more developed for me as I get going writing the book – it throws up loads of other ideas that...