Freida McFadden is the master of biting thrillers – and we have a glimpse of his neighbor. “The intruder” begins with a dark and stormy night, like so many strange tales.
“”The intruder “talks about a woman trapped in her cabin distant by a terrible storm, and she invites to a pre-adolescent girl that she finds crouching in her tool hangar. But overnight, she discovers that the girl could be even more dangerous than the storm that rages outside, “McFadden told Teday.com in an interview by e-mail.
Although it is a successful author on several occasions, writing is in fact the bustle of McFadden. During the day, she is a doctor specializing in brain damage. In fact, Freida McFadden is his pen name.
In his books, like “The Boyfriend” and “The Housemaid”, the twists and turns come quickly (and unexpectedly). Where does these intrigue find?
“I am always tempted to answer:” My brain “! I definitely have a very analytical brain, ”she says. “When I was a teenager, I was in the math team and resolving puzzles was very fun for me.
“But it seems that readers expect a twist these days because everything has already been done. You have to get out of the box:” The suspects were a, b, c, d and a is the killer. “It is not even enough to say that he is the killer,” she adds. “It must be E is the killer because he is actually B and was the mother of the victim and his daughter, and was also dead all the time.”
She notes that it can be frustrating to have a “good idea” but that it always lacks “great twist” – “yet it is always exciting and satisfactory when I find it”.
Her novels tend to show women using their intelligence to overcome dangerous situations and people. This time, the inspiration for Ella, one of the main characters of “the intruder”, was close to his home.
“One of my greatest inspirations for this book was my own daughter, who is about the same age as Ella, and in my opinion, just as much a hard to cook,” she said.
Below, read an overview of his next novel, which should publish in October 2025.
Read an extract of “intruder”
There is at least 50% chance that in the coming 24 hours, the roof of the cabin that I rent will collapse and kills me.
It is an appropriate metaphor for the rest of my life.
There is not much that I can do a lot for my broken life, but the roof problem is more surmountable. I called my owner, Rudy, since the month to try to repair it. Every day, I find some new shingles on the floor next to the cabin, and one day, I’m sure I’m going to sit on my living room sofa and watch directly to see the moon.
And then a few days ago, my calls became more urgent. There is a storm to come, and if this roof does not repair itself as soon as possible, I could die. So I told Rudy that he needed to have buttocks here – now. I was not nice, but I said what I had to say.
Now, a dozen messages later, Rudy is finally there in the flesh.
As we hold together just outside the cabin, Rudy folds our eyes on my roof with her falling blue eyes. He is a skinny man at the end of the 1950s who seemed to eat only one or two non -liquid meals per day. He scratches the gray thatched on his chin and adjusts the used gray baseball cap which he still wears. As usual, it starts again with cigarette smoke. The stench was overwhelming when I moved into the cabin, and it took me a week to broadcast it. He always clings to some of the furniture for months later.
“It seems correct to me, Casey,” he says.
My fists tighten in a barely retained rage. “How? How does it look good? There are shingles all over the ground! ”
In fact, I gathered the flat rectangular shingles in a small heap that I now make a gesture towards anger. I do not fully understand how a roof is built, but I know that these things are necessary to keep it together. The fact that they fall does not increase well for my roof.
At least, it’s just a rain storm. Once it is snowing in a month about a month? Forget that. I’m going to wake up one morning in snow.
I would like to be able to afford decent Isolated cabin in the woods.
“It’s not sure,” I insist.
“You worry too much.” Rudy grabs a packet of cigarettes out of his back pocket, and before he could ask him not to do it, he turns one and makes a deep trail. I have never known him to spend more than two minutes without smoke. “You have to learn to relax a bit, Casey.”
You should learn to relax a little. It was my goal when I moved to this cabin in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. I wanted peace and tranquility, which is exactly what I got. Even with all birds and crickets and peaks, it’s so calm that I have no distraction to think of the complete disorder that I made of my life.
I came here after losing my teaching post. I had this idea of living in the grid for a little while, but I discovered what want to live “off the grid”. As much as I appreciate a little trouble, I really didn’t want to build my own septic. So I’m here, not Living in the grid – I have electricity, hot and cold water and a landline phone – but I have no television, and I watch back with disdain the days when my smartphone was stuck to my right hand. I sold the phone before I go out here.
Living the grid is great. As long as you can always use the toilets. Oh, and you really need a roof.
I squeeze my teeth. “I want my roof to be fixed, Rudy.”
I would have liked to be elsewhere than here. I would particularly like to be back in Boston, in front of my class. I miss my students. I would have done anything for these children.
Except that this is what caused me trouble.
“Just hold your horses, little lady,” he says. “I can’t repair the roof now. This storm arrives. “
I hug my fists. I know There is a thunderstorm to come tonight. There will be buckets of rain and winds strong enough for me to lose power. I mentioned it in each of my calls more and more urgent to Rudy.
“Yes,” I said in a tone cut. “This is why I want you to repair it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have my tools,” he said. “Or a scale.”
“Why don’t hell? I told you that my roof should be repaired.”
“I had to check it first, right?” Rudy takes another trail of his cigarette. “I’m going to fix it when the storm is over, okay?” Next week. “
It does not give me a specific day or hour, which is normal for the course. Without a doubt, he will call me with notice, and if I am absent, my roof will simply not be repaired that day. I will have to bother him as much as possible to make sure it is done.
“And another thing …” I add.
Rudy looks forward. “There is more? “”
I take a look. On a scale from one to 10, Rudy obtains two on the owner’s scale. Not only does he never answer my messages, but he refuses to believe that there is a problem with anything. When the refrigerator has stopped working at random a few months ago, his answer was, Well, it worked when you moved.
“I’m worried about this tree,” I told him.
Rudy makes his head in the direction I point to, the tree by the property. I don’t know what type of tree it is, but the trunk is wider than three of me, and it is exceeded on the cabin.
“And Why Are you worried about the tree? He asked me for a condescending voice.
I walk in the culprit in my waterproof boots and I hurry the palm against his bark. In response to pressure, the tree groaned threatening and moves over about two inches.
Rudy frowns. “SO?”
“The trees are therefore not supposed to move like that.”
“Sometimes they do it.”
“No, Rudy. They are inanimate. “”
He takes a long trail of his cigarette, then blows a giant smoke cloud. “Alright. I will call a landscaper. Happy?
No. I will be happy when the tree is gone. I’m worried about last month, and now that a storm arrives, I am Really worried.
I look at the roof of my house. He will probably stand. And the tree will probably not fall. I will probably not die tonight.
And if I do, the good news is that no one will miss.
