The Librarians' Q&A: with bestselling writing duo Nicci French

January 26th 2026

Like you, our librarians love to get the latest on upcoming new books, as well as dive into the minds of our favourite authors. Introducing The Librarians' Q&A, our regular news feature where librarians ask the questions!

Nicci French open up about their writing routines and reading habits, whilst taking us behind the scenes, giving insight into their narration process and key themes in their new gripping thriller, What Happened That Night.

What themes can readers look forward to exploring in your latest thriller, What Happened That Night?

The book is about a reunion of ex-college friends who haven’t met for thirty years and it’s the story of a murder. Some of us find the idea of a reunion more frightening than the idea of a murder. Over the course of a single evening that turns into a morning, this group who used to be friends have to face up to what happened to the young people they used to be. We’re interested in the anxieties of ordinary life and this is a story of the fears we have about our friends, because they are the people who have seen us at our most vulnerable. Nobody can betray you like your closest friend.

As a husband-and-wife team, what’s your writing routine like?

The actual writing is only one part of creating a novel. We do the planning together, often on long walks. We do the research together. But we write separately - and in separate places. One will write a section, then send it to the other, who can edit, rewrite, cut. And because we’re a husband and wife, we never leave work. Whatever else we’re doing, there’s always a part of us thinking about the book.

What was your relationship with libraries growing up? Do you think public libraries are important, and what was the last book you (both) borrowed?

We have to answer this separately.

Sean: I was lucky enough to grow up in a house full of books, but even so I’ve always haunted libraries from when I could first read. I’ve read in libraries and I’ve written in libraries. The last book I borrowed was a book about William Blake, a poet I’ve been trying (and mostly failing) to understand since I was a teenager.

Nicci: Every Saturday, from when I was about five or six, my father used to drop me off at our local library while he went and did the weekly shop, collecting me about an hour and a half later. I would always borrow six books, and begin reading the first while I waited for him. The last book I borrowed was, I think, a wonderful book by the Dutch psychologist and memory specialist, Drouwe Draaisma, The Nostalgia Factory.

Are there any fiction writers or books you've been inspired by? 

Sean: I’ve been inspired by dozens of books. Just limiting myself to books that have inspired me as a thriller writer, I owe a huge debt to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories (Sherlock Holmes is a much more compelling hero than Father Brown, Chesterton’s plots are far constructed than Conan Doyle’s). Also to John Le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. And many, many others.

Nicci: So Sean’s stolen some of the books I would have mentioned. But I’ll add Jane Eyre, and the great Gothic thrillers by Wilkie Collins. And as for a writer not a book - Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, who used to write her novels in the kitchen, with her children on her lap and under the chair, and a pot of stew brewing on the stove….  

You have narrated some of your books (which is an important way into reading them for some people); how do you find that process? Can you give us some behind the scenes on how the decision on who narrates them is made? 

I was never supposed to narrate the books. It happened by accident because of a clash of dates and a reader being unavailable at the last minute. These days I only narrate the Thorne books (the Miller books are narrated by the brilliant David Threlfall) but I enjoy it enormously.

It’s much more tiring than you might expect it to be and I always turn up to the studio having forgotten that I’ve given characters all manner of bizarre accents. Some of them can turn out to be a…challenge. I can only apologise to the Scottish, Welsh and Irish readers I may have offended while attempting their accents.

What are your reading habits? Do they change when you're writing? 

Sean: At any particular time, I’m also reading a work of fiction and then all kinds of non-fiction: biography, science, history, psychology. At the same time I’m usually reading for research for our current or next book. The books on my bedside table are like a giant pyramid.

How do you choose your next read?

Sean: with fiction, I like to find something different from what I’ve just read. With non-fiction it’s just something that I find interesting.

Nicci: I’m different from Sean; I binge on authors. If I read a book I love, I’ll read all the rest. And then if someone tells me about a book they have been captivated by, I’ll read that as well.

What’s next – do you have any other projects coming up?

We’re always working on a new book. It’s our way of exploring the world together.

What Happened That Night After nearly thirty years in prison for the murder of his university friend Leo Bauer, Tyler Green is finally free. Meeting up with the group of friends who were there the night that Leo died, Tyler is looking to reconnect - but he's also looking for answers. When another friend is found dead that night, his new found freedom is put in jeopardy. Detective Maud O'Connor is called to investigate - but can she discover the truth, or is Tyler Green never going to be free? DISCOVER

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