Meet the Author: Victoria Selman
Victoria Selman is the author of Truly Darkly Deeply which was a 2023 Richard & Judy Book Club Pick with film rights sold to See Saw Films. She also wrote the Ziba MacKenzie series and is a host on Crime Time FM. Her latest thriller, All the Little Liars, was published in August 2023 by Quercus. You can find All the Little Liars and Victoria's other books on our catalogue.
Did you have books around you as a child or use a library?
One of the great privileges of my life was to be born into a family of book lovers. As a young child, my mother would take me to our local library to pick out new books and it was there I discovered the glories of The Magic Faraway Tree and Narnia. Then later, when I was old enough to go alone, where I dived into my first Agatha Christie, kicking off a lifetime love affair with Crime.
When did your interest in writing really develop and what was your journey to publication?
I always wanted to be a writer and penned my first ‘novel’ age seven- filling a whole two A4 pages, front and back! But it wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I enrolled on a Creative Writing course and actively began working to make my fantasy real.
For a year, I wrote short stories which were published in various anthologies and newspapers and then in 2017, I wrote my debut novel, Blood For Blood. It was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and became an Amazon #1 bestseller for five weeks across the whole of the Kindle charts (which was pretty mind-blowing!) and the first novel in the Ziba McKenzie criminal profiler series.
Then, while homeschooling my two children during lockdown, I decided to take a break from Ziba and wrote Truly Darkly Deeply which was inspired by true crime and explores a serial killer’s legacy through the eyes of his daughter. It was an instant Sunday Times bestseller when it was published in 2022 and also a Richard and Judy Pick, longlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Fingerprint Thriller of the Year Award. The response to Blood For Blood blew me out the water. The response to Truly Darkly Deeply blew me off the planet!
My latest novel is All The Little Liars. Ian Rankin described it as ‘Heathers meets Manson in a tale of good girls gone bad’ which I rather love!
Blood for Blood, your debut, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award. How did you cope with the increased level of interest in your work as a debut writer?
Being shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award was a turning point moment for me. A top literary agent offered me representation and the shortlisting gave me the confidence to keep pushing forward.
Will you be re-visiting the Ziba MacKenzie series after Snakes and Ladders?
At the moment, I’m focusing on standalone novels, but I certainly do have more ideas for Ziba. She and I aren’t done yet!
All The Little Liars is your latest novel. Can you tell us a little about it?
All The Little Liars is a story that’s been brewing ever since I read a shocking true crime account of two sixteen-year-old girls who stabbed their best friend. When they were asked why they’d done it, all they could say was: ‘We didn’t like her.’
It made me think about the dynamics of teenage friendships. Their volatility. How high passions run at this age. And how desperate teenagers are to belong.
The novel is told across two timelines and centres on the character, Finn Jackman who moved from California to London with her father when she was ten. Both were fleeing a tragedy that occurred at Carlsbad’s Turtle Lake during the summer of ’03. The night Finn lost her older sister, Izzy.
Three teenagers went to the lake that evening but only two came back. Later, they confessed to murdering their best friend.
But did they really kill her? And if not, why say they did?
What's next for you?
I’m currently chin deep in the first draft of a new novel (also inspired by true crime, as all my novels are!) I also host a podcast on Crime Time FM called, On The Sofa with Victoria where each fortnight I interview a panel of household names and rising stars about trends and themes in Crime Fiction. And this year, I’ll be MCing the CWA Dagger Awards Night which is rather thrilling since the Daggers is how my career first took off!
Crime writing is booming as a genre at the moment. Why do you think it is such a popular area?
People love a puzzle and they love a fast-paced plot. Crime delivers both in spades whilst also offering the promise of resolution which is perhaps particularly appealing at the moment given the tumultuous and oftentimes terrifying world we are living in.
What good book recommendations do you have?
There are two books I love to recommend, albeit for different reasons. The first is Mindhunter, which kickstarted my interest in the criminal psyche and is a fascinating journey into the inception of criminal profiling. The second is A Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl who was a psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor. His movingly beautiful book shows that if you have a purpose, you can get through anything. It is one I often turn to when I’m feeling low.
What is the strangest or funniest thing that one of your readers has shared with you?
I can’t think of anything strange or funny but I do always love hearing from readers that they’ve enjoyed my books. Really, nothing makes my day more!
Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?
I was expelled from ballet school. I was three at the time and danced out the door when the teacher’s back was turned. After she found me, she told my mother not to bring me back. Were it not for that sorry incident, I may be a ballerina now instead of a novelist.