I grew up reading and loving books like Evelyn Anthony’s The Tamarind Seed, Catherine
Gaskin’s The File on Devlin, and Anne Armstrong Thompson’s Message from Absalom,
and for a long time I’d wanted to try my own hand at writing a classic-style thriller
like theirs, so when the idea for Every Secret Thing first came to me, I knew I finally
had my chance. I had no thought, at that time, of changing my name, and in fact
the book came out in Germany as Damals in Lissabon, by Susanna Kearsley, but when
it came time to publish in Britain and Canada it was decided that, because this book
was slightly different than the ones I’d written before, and because it didn’t have
the paranormal thread that normally runs through a Susanna Kearsley story, it would
be more fair to my readers if we made that difference clear by coming up with a new
pseudonym, so ‘Emma Cole’ was born - my thriller writing alter-ego, if you like.
I don’t make any secret of the fact that Emma and Susanna are the same person -
the different names are simply meant to let my readers know what sort of story to
expect when they are picking up a book. My writing style remains the same...as too,
I hope, will be your ultimate enjoyment of the tale.
