The latest novel from C.J. Tudor, The Other People, delves into perhaps one of the scariest scenarios any person could be faced with: Your daughter has been taken, never to be seen again. Gabe commits the next three years of his life driving up and down the motorway in search of his lost daughter, Izzy, in the hopes that she isn’t long dead, as everyone else says.
The Other People certainly gives a new look and feel for horror in 2020.
While a lot of horror authors are chasing the “big bad monster” money, Tudor continues to keep things a bit more stripped back, and wholly more terrifying.
Her third book in three years, Tudor is certainly working fast alongside Penguin Random House, with whom she is contracted with.
Tudor became a breakout author when her 2018 debut novel The Chalk Man was endorsed by legendary horror author Stephen King.
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Her second novel, The Taking of Annie Thorne, continued her trend towards the blurred line between a horror and a horrifying thriller.
So then, it isn’t surprising that the continual comparison to King is being made – with some publications dubbing Tudor as the British version of the legendary writer.
Both of Tudor’s previous novels reached the Top Ten Bestsellers in a number of lists, including the Sunday Times, putting some pressure on the third entry in her repertoire.
Express.co.uk recently had a chat with Tudor about her third novel, how she came up with the chilling idea, and why she has been looking to change the way her novels read for this entry.
“The Other People was a real life situation,” Tudor explained.
“We were sat in traffic and I was sat behind this beaten up old car with a faded stickers, and it looking like it should have been driven by somebody from a Stephen King novel.”
Tudor said she felt “there should be something creepy and dark about it,” before adding: “And that’s exactly where the idea came from.”
“I wanted to do something I think every author wants to do,” she went on to explain. “I want to do something different each time and progress.
“Obviously, people very kindly mention Stephen King in relation to The Chalk Man, [and] The Taking of Annie Thorne – and that is amazing!
“But I wanted to do something with book three that really felt like it was my own book, and my own voice, and perhaps move away from that a little bit.”
While The Other People certainly does flow in a new and different way, it is still very much a Tudor novel.
Drenched in mystery and an air of violent threat, The Other People will no doubt keep readers entranced in Tudor’s iconic voice, even if it is structured a little differently – but that isn’t the only new thing about the novel.
“The first two books I wrote in first person,” she explained. “And The Other People is third person, and multiple characters and view points, which obviously worked for the structure of that book.”
On making the decision to make such changes, Tudor confessed: “I suppose I wanted to push myself a little bit, and do something that’s a bit different from the first two books.
“And I hope I’ve done that. I guess you always want to push yourself as a writer and see if you can pull it off.”
The Other People is out now, and is being published by Penguin Random House for £7.99.