Deborah O’Connor Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Deborah O’Connor is an English author that has succeeded both in publishing and television production. Deborah is best known for ‘My Husband’s Son’, her debut novel.

+Biography

Deborah O’Connor was born in Teesside which is in North East England. That is also where she grew up.

Deborah attended Newnham College and Cambridge where she studied English. The author spent a summer tour managing Footlights before getting her first Television Job.

Working on The Big Breakfast opened many a door for Deborah who went on to work on and produce a multitude of shows. Deborah loves two things; television and books.

She got to indulge in her love for books when she wrote and published her debut novel in 2016. The book was praised for its killer twist, setting Deborah O’Connor on the path to becoming a publishing and television juggernaut.

+Literary Career

Deborah O’Connor attended the Faber Academy in 2010 where she enrolled for their ‘How to Write a Novel’ Course. Faber Academy was a life-changing experience that put Deborah on the path to publishing success.

Deborah’s journey was by no means easy. She had a full-time job in television at that point. She was also contemplating starting a family. So she wasn’t too sure that she had the strength to raise a child, nurture her career and write a novel at the same time.

Deborah was fortunate that she started writing her debut novel while at Faber Academy. Her teacher was a woman by the names of Louise Doughty who gave Deborah considerable support in her writing efforts.

Deborah remembers the day she expressed to Louise her fears that having a baby would destroy her writing and publishing prospects. Louise, who was also a writer, went on to reveal that when she had her own children, she became a better writer because the stakes were heightened.

She was no longer working for herself. She had other lives to think about and that gave her an uncontrollable drive. Every time she sat down, she was writing for her family and she experienced great success as a result.

That particular conversation put Deborah at ease. She continued to write ‘My Husband’s Son’ and by the time she left Faber Academy, her first draft had begun to take shape.

Deborah fell pregnant soon after. As she had predicted the months that followed were tough. She still had a full-time job and things were busier than ever. She woke up exhausted on most mornings.

She barely had the strength to meet her work obligations and it took every modicum of mental strength she had to achieve her regular writing goals. It occurred to the author that if she was having such a tough time coping during her pregnancy, her writing would suffer significantly once the baby actually arrived.

She determined to finish her first novel before she gave birth. And to her credit, Deborah completed her first draft a whole week before her daughter arrived. Life as a mother was just as time-consuming as she expected.

She spent every hour of her nights and days attending to her newborn. There were days where Deborah had to survive on two or three hours of sleep. She was often so exhausted that she couldn’t think straight.

And with each passing week, she became more certain that her writing dream was slipping away. Deborah had another conversation with Louise during those first three months.

Louise told her to stop worrying about her novel. She assured her that her daughter would become less of a nightmare in due time and the opportunity to write would present itself once more.

That assurance settled Deborah O’Connor’s nerves. In six months, things changed. Deborah’s child was sleeping for several hours a day. In turn, Deborah was getting to sleep for much longer.

She was less exhausted in the day and she found that she had the strength to finally return to her first draft. The several months she had spent away from it gave her clarity. She could see all the mistakes and she knew how to fix them.

Before long, Deborah had a new rhythm in her life. She found a schedule that allowed her to spend time with her daughter, sleep, and work. Of course, the author had to sacrifice time with her friends.

She made a point to discourage visitors from coming around. She used every hour available to either sleep or write. And she definitely had a lot of rewrites to execute.

By the time her maternity leave ended, Deborah was hardly finished. Still, she found time on the weekend to get the redrafting process completed.

The author believes her pregnancy was the best thing that could have happened to her because of the months it forced her to spend away from her manuscript.

+My Husband’s Son

Heidi lost her daughter to a deranged murderer. That was six years ago. Jason can understand her pain. His son Barney disappeared five years earlier. That shared sense of loss is what brought Heidi and Jason together.

And it has kept them together.

Everything changes one day when Heidi meets a boy. Heidi is certain the boy is Barney. However, his father is quite certain that Heidi is mistaken.

Heidi doesn’t know what to think. She begins to suspect that Jason is hiding something. That puts her on a quest to find the truth. But she knows that their marriage is already quite fragile and her prodding might shatter it to pieces.

Deborah O’Connor’s debut novel picks up with a boy being kidnapped. The readers are introduced to Heidi and Jason, two individuals that have each lost children to horrible crimes. There have been many false sightings of Jason’s son.

Heidi stumbles upon a boy one day and because she’s certain that he’s Jason’s son, she begins to investigate. She hopes to surprise Jason by bringing his son home to him. However, things don’t work out quite as planned.

+Potentially Dangerous People

The world has been overtaken by crowd-sourcing. The concept allows people to resolve problems and attain simple answers to complex questions by appealing to the masses online and soliciting contributions.

The wisdom of the crowd always seems to prevail. This Deborah O’Connor novel imagines a time when these crowds throw their weight behind the purpose of solving a crime.