Our Beautiful Mess begins at the end. It opens with a life hanging in the balance. A desperate mother shocked beyond words as she tries to stem the blood flow from a gunshot wound. It’s unclear whether that’s her own wound or someone else’s. Then we roll back eleven days and we count down to that terrifying, bloody scene.
My hope is that the reader will be incredibly invested in the characters whilst knowing they are going to lose one. The tension and intrigue comes from the reader asking who is hurt and why? Will they survive? I wanted this novel to have an undertow of menace from the outset.
Connie is living the dream life. Never trust that. She, her architect husband and their three daughters live in a Notting Hill townhouse. It was bought as a wreck many years ago, although these days it screams of affluence, something that is immediately remarked upon by Zac, the boyfriend of the couple’s eldest daughter, when he visits for the holidays.
Connie is excited to fill her empty nest with family, friends and young love over Christmas but her festive plans are thrown into disarray the moment she sets eyes on Zac. He reminds her of a man that, years ago, nearly cost her her marriage. She’s spent a lifetime rebuilding after that mistake but now she fears her secret is likely to resurface. Added to that, Fran announces she’s pregnant, she’s only 20 and as Connie feels uneasy about Zac, this news isn’t met with unequivocal joy.
However, Connie isn’t the only one in the house with secrets. Practically everyone is hiding something, and they are all potentially more deadly than Connie’s secret. Two thuggish men follow Connie’s girls home from the pub, this isn’t random, it’s a prestaging of terror to come; Zac is constantly sneaking out the house, so is Connie’s youngest. She does so in the belief her mother is too wrapped up in Fran’s pregnancy to notice, and Connie trusts her 15-year-old is revising for her mocks. Big mistake.
I’m really interested in exploring the idea of whether you can ever really leave the past behind or will it always come back to haunt you? Could one small mistake have consequences years later? Terrifying thought.
Our Beautiful Mess is an explosive, emotional drama – packed with twists and action, complicated relationships and long-held deadly secrets that spiral disastrously.
Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks is published by HQ
