Fran Dorricott does not shy away from the reality of child abduction in her page-turner AFTER THE ECLIPSE. While portraying events sensitively, she knows how to make the reader’s blood run cold. Dorricott sets her tale in the magical small town of Bishop’s Green in the Midlands. While searching for a missing eleven-year-old girl, we watch a young journalist find the truth about her own story. 

As both bookseller and bibliophile, Fran Dorricott is an emerging master of the British mystery. Dorricott’s millennial protagonist finds herself up against powerful forces beyond her control. There is no shortage of dark secrets and cosmic coincidences in AFTER THE ECLIPSE. Fran Dorricott’s delightful talent transports readers to a place both timeless and terrifying.

AFTER THE ECLIPSE felt haunted by secrets, dreams, and ghosts. Do you think small British towns still carry echoes of the many peoples who inhabited Britain? 

Oh, absolutely. It’s one of the things I love so much about living in Britain – this vast sense of cultural history that stretches back for hundreds of years. During summer holidays with my family, I would beg to visit every castle and monument within a twenty-mile radius. I devoured books about people who had been dead for centuries – the deader, the better! I love to imagine the ghosts of people walking the same hallways that I am walking now.

In AFTER THE ECLIPSE, I tried to emulate some of that sensation of being so haunted by the past that it appears in everything. This novel is just as much about the victim as it is about the detective. I couldn’t let Olive be forgotten as some victims in crime novels are. There is something inherently spooky in watching something unfold from a distance, unable to change the course of history.

Would you say that mystery-writing is a British tradition? Why do you think that is?

It started with the likes of Agatha Christie. The British crime genre grew out of these locked-room mysteries in country manors, featuring families and towns with a lot of secrets. I also think British mysteries are what I’d call ‘softer’ because historically they have relied less on violence. I wonder how much of this has to do with our climate. I think the sort of damp, soft atmosphere we have here is hard to pin down until you read a lot of literature written by British authors. Then I think you can almost feel it. 

The Triplet Stones seemed like a monument to pattern-seeking. Do you think the ancient stone-circle builders read the sky like your readers will read this book?

I think that there is some order to the chaos of the world. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what the builders did. I’ve always loved symmetry and patterns. Personally, I pictured the Triplet Stones almost as the Maiden/Mother/Crone trio watching over Bishop’s Green and its inhabitants. It’s a very natural kind of thing, very organic despite their man-made origin. They’ve become such an integral point of the landscape, much like the solar eclipse or the lunar phases.

Was there a strategic method behind writing a thriller like AFTER THE ECLIPSE? Or does it come effortlessly to you?

It certainly never comes easy! I wish I could say the novel fell onto the page exactly as you read it. A great deal of hard work and passion goes into writing crime novels. I always knew I wanted to write mysteries though. I devoured them from a young age. Plus, I was always the child that asked ‘Why? Why?’ about everything! The other trick to writing something like AFTER THE ECLIPSE is not being afraid to revise, to make it as tight as possible, and to catch all eventualities. 

The girls find themselves in such danger. Has anyone suggested that it might be too scary for some young readers?

As somebody who grew up reading books aimed at readers much older than myself, I’d be reluctant to prescribe a set age for AFTER THE ECLIPSE. But having said that, there are definitely some scenes that may unsettle younger readers. So, I’d advise that readers should probably be adults. 

Do you think kids born in 2030 will read physical books? Or will it be a niche activity like listening to chamber music?

I’d certainly like to think they will! I work in a book shop and we’ve seen a brilliant shift to people buying physical books again. E-readers are incredibly handy for travel or for people who read with large print or audio options available. But, I do think there will always be a place for physical books, in the same way, there is still a desire to hand-write sometimes. I think it engages a different part of your brain. 

Your story engaged my desire to make connections and discover the answer. Do you find yourself doing that in daily life? And if so, what do you think the big reveal will be at the end?

I’m definitely a puzzler. I overthink everything and I love to find answers or solutions to problems. Maybe this is why I love writing and reading mysteries so much. I’d like to think I won’t be able to guess my final reveal until right near the very end though. So perhaps I won’t go looking too hard for that particular answer.

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