Claire Douglas Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Claire Douglas is a suspense and thriller author from Bath. She has said that writing is something she always wanted to do ever since she was a child. She was always making up stories that she narrated to her sister. This would often get her into trouble with her father since the stories sometimes caused her little sister to have nightmares. Douglas was also a huge fan of reading growing up and would often be found with a book. Since she wanted to become a writer, she decided to become a journalist as it seemed the more viable career as compared to fiction. But the desire to write fiction proved overwhelming and she started penning some manuscripts. However, none of those early scripts were never published until “The Sisters” in 2015. As for the inspiration for her characters, she cites Jane Eyre and to some extent The Time Travelers’ Wife’s “Henry.” She remembers her teacher talking to her junior school class about authors and she thought there is nothing I would rather do. As a child, she read a lot of Enid Blyton and believes that it was novels such as “Mallory Towers, ““Faraway Tree” and Philippa Pearce’s “Tom’s Midnight Garden” that made her fall in love with stories and storytelling. The latter was a favorite of her and still brings tears to her eyes even when she reads it as an adult. Other authors she looks up to include Nicci French, Harriet Lane, Clare Mackintosh, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson, Stephen King, Donna Tartt, Philip Pullman, Kate Morton among many others. She published her debut novel “The Sisters” in 2015.

When Claire Douglas is not writing her novel, she loves to watch movies and read perhaps because she did a BTEC in Media Studies and Film Studies at the A Level. Moreover, she does believe that studying film has been instrumental in how she constructs her story structures and plots. Before she got started writing novels, she was a journalist and worked for the likes of “Take-A-Break,” a woman’s magazine where she wrote true life features. After quitting her job, she teamed up with one of her friends and set up a small press Agency in Reading. Douglas second love was psychology since she loves understanding the motivations and drives of people. She has asserted that if she was not an author, she would have pursued a career as a psychologist. When she is not writing her novels, she loves to read and take a walk in the park with her children.

While Douglas always wanted to become an author, she found herself working as a journalist. Nonetheless, it did not take long for her to realize she was not cut out for career in journalism. She started off in the news but she could not bring herself to be pushy enough and hence she decided to venture into human interest feature writing. Just like many of her contemporaries, the journey to publishing was hard and arduous and she only got a book deal after querying several agents. The breakthrough was a Marie Claire novel competition in 2013 where she submitted the first three chapters of a contemporary manuscript she had written. She submitted the first 10,000 words of a manuscript that would later become her debut novel “The Sisters.” Claire never expected to win and hence was shocked when she got a call from the organizers saying that she was the winner. At the time she believed they were calling her to ask her to renew her magazine subscription. The caller was Juliet Mushens, an agent who wanted to present her and when she agreed, she got her a book deal with Harper Collins. The novel would go on to become an award winning and bestselling title in the year it was published and from there she got several deals including one from Penguin Michael Joseph.

“The Sisters” by Claire Douglas is an adept piece of storytelling that pulls in the reader right from the very first page. It introduces Abi, a girl that is still dealing with the pain of losing her twin sister. She is also fragile and needy and is experiencing terrible guilt and grief. She meets and becomes involved with Ben and Beatrice who are a set of privileged and glamorous twins. They seem to have a perfect life as they live in a five storied house in the city complete with a brace of artist lodgers and artworks. Abi is shocked but delighted when the twins invite her to join them in the house so that they can become housemates. She finds the set up irresistible and can only say yes to Beatrice. The house seems not to have any locks on its doors but with so much freedom, boundaries are easily crossed and this in turn can result in suspicion and distrust among the best of friends. It is a beautiful house but beneath the frontage is a disturbing world of betrayal, jealousy, secret desires and obsessions.

Claire Douglas’ “Local Girl Missing” tells of two best friends Frankie and Sophie who have been friends ever since they were teenagers. But then romantic entanglements had made them grow apart thought they had recently come back together to try to rekindle their friendship. Then one-night Sophie had gone missing from the Oldcliffe-on-the-Sea Victorian pier. The mystery is even more complicated because her body had never been found until now. Frankie had received the news from Sophie’s brother Daniel who phoned in with the news that the body or at least what remained of it had been found. He needed Frankie’s help in trying to resolve the mystery of his sister’s disappearance and subsequent death. But when she arrives in town and settles into the apartment opposite the pier where her friend had vanished years past, she starts seeing Sophie’s ghost. As soon as she teams up with Daniel and they start their investigations, she starts getting messages slipped underneath her door both threatening and taunting her.

Douglas’ “Last Seen Alive” is the story of Libby Hall a woman that love to remain anonymous. But everything changes when she is the hero in a daring fire rescue where she got two children out of a burning building. She now finds herself front page news fodder and it is a horrifying situation as it brings back memories of what had happened nearly a decade past. It was the last time she had set her eyes on her friend as she swapped house and went to live with Jamie her husband in a secluded but beautiful house in Cornwall. They finally have a chance to salvage their marriage and put a stop to the secrets that have been tearing at it. But the Cornish home is not the perfect getaway they thought it would be. They make disturbing and bizarre discoveries about their house even as Libby feels that she is being watched even though they are out in the country and presumably all alone. Is she being paranoid and will she ever get her husband to tell her the secrets he has been keeping or will the past and its lies come back to haunt them?

9 Responses to “Claire Douglas”

1. Patti Somma: 1 year ago

   Just read The Couple at Number 9 and could not put it down! Excellent!

   Reply
2. Julie Ireland: 2 years ago

   Claire Douglas is an awesome story teller and I enjoy her books immensely just finished couple at number 9 couldn’t put. It down

   Reply
3. Pauline: 2 years ago

   Just read the Girls who Disappeared – great read – just hope the reporter Jenna will appear in the next book

   Reply
4. Jay gee: 2 years ago

   Just finished ,Last seen Alive,wow so many twists & turns , an amazing read, loved it, just going to order the two books I haven’t read by this author!

   Reply
5. Mandie: 2 years ago

   The couple at no 9 definitely a 10/10 couldnt put it down does anyone know the title of the book at the end there is a chapter of another 2022 book of hers

   Reply
   • The accident: 2 years ago

     I just read it and was looking for The Accident but can’t find it not sure if it’s out yet?

     Reply
   • Lucy Millar: 2 years ago

     It’s called The Girls who Disappeared

     Reply
6. Jay green: 2 years ago

   First read of Claire douglas, couple at No.9,
   Fantastic book, I’ll definitely read another one of her books.

   Reply
7. Miss Rainy Eke: 2 years ago

   just started reading the couple AT no 9 cant put it down

   Reply