Goodreads asked Clémence Michallon:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Clémence Michallon I spent April 2020 living in a house upstate with my husband’s family. I was grateful to be there, but I was also struck by the disruption we were experiencing. After years of having our routines dictated by the rhythm of our respective commutes and jobs, we were suddenly spending a lot of time together, without reprieve. I found this fascinating. I mean, we know what our loved ones do for a living, but how much do we really know about their day-to-day activities?

This got me thinking about how our routines can be disrupted, and what the implications of those disruptions might be. Say, for example, someone had a dark secret they had been able to keep from their family because they were never in close proximity during the day. And then, suddenly, they were no longer apart (early 2020 in a nutshell!). This had the makings of a novel.

I began to play with a few scenarios in my head, eventually landing on a serial killer who keeps someone captive, unbeknownst to his family, thanks to the setup of his property. But then he must move, and as a result, his captive inches closer, becoming somewhat adjacent to his life and family. To me, there was something irresistible about this narrative of worlds colliding.

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