Promising signs for debut thriller writer

Former high school English and drama teacher Samantha Lee Howe has been a full time writer since 2008, enjoying considerable success and a loyal following under the pen name of Sam Stone, but in a new departure, her first thriller, The Stranger In Our Bed, is being published for digital e-readers by Harper Collins’ imprint One More Chapter on February 14, with the paperback version to follow on April 16.

The book has received rave reviews on NetGalley and Goodreads from readers and also from fellow authors and recently hit number one in Amazon’s charts for British Horror Fiction and Christian Suspense Fiction – almost unheard of for a book that is not yet even published.

The gripping psychological novel is about the dark secrets in a perfect marriage where a woman has an affair but her lover disappears and his identity was a lie. It is actually adapted from on a true story and Samantha has developed and ‘fictionalised’ the facts.

Samantha said: “This is with a big publisher and a big change in career. The story came from a friend who told me about a friend of hers in America. It gave me goosebumps and so I re-wrote it.

“It’s very different from my usual stuff and is a lot harder to write mainstream because you have to be 100 per cent accurate about realistic stuff. You have to get medical and police facts right so takes a lot more research or reviewers can be brutal.”

She explained: “I felt I had done everything in horror - about 20 books and short stories - and wanted a new challenge.”

Samantha lives with her husband, David, and two cats.

She is doing a £5 ticketed event at Lindum Books in Bailgate, Lincoln, on April 20 when the paperback is released and she guesting at a large event in Los Angeles this week.

You can get it here: www.amazon.co.uk/Stranger-Our-Bed-absolutely-psychological-ebook/dp/B07V651GSF

She said it would be wonderful if it were to be adapted for film.