One of the questions I’m frequently asked is how much research I do before I write my novels. My answer, normally, is ‘it depends’. Some books require huge amounts of research, others require little more than my imagination

Many of my books are set in places I know well (Bristol, Brighton, London) but, for Her Last Holiday, I travelled abroad to Gozo to research the setting for the story’s past thread – a wellness retreat that ends in tragedy.

I could have watched YouTube videos of Gozo and re...