It’s launch week for The Dark Room, but in these strange times we have to adapt! I normally have two launches for each book – one in Dublin and one at The Royal St George Yacht Club. The Yacht Club launches are huge, and filled with friends and family, with the bookshop provided by Dubray Books. The Dublin launch is my chance to have a night out with my writer friends and thank them for all their support during the year; past launches have seen us move from Hodges Figgis beautiful bookshop (the oldest in Dublin) to The Blind Pig Speakeasy (a secret cocktail bar in the heart of the city) and the legendary library at Lillies Bordello.

This year we can’t meet to raise a glass of wine, so I’m going to be live on the Sam Blake Facebook page at 1pm every day this week (4th-8th January) talking about the inspiration behind the story, the characters and the setting for The Dark Room.

I’ve got some fabulous giveaways lined up including the hare tile below, and a brilliant video created by the genius team at exhalemedia.ie that will be premiering on the Eason site and in their social media to give readers a flavour of the book. Despite not being able to leave the house, I plan to have a great week!

I loved writing The Dark Room and I adore the cover created by the brilliant team at Corvus Books. Check out my post about the inspiration for the story later this week, and you’ll see how eerily close the house on the cover is to the real house I had in my head as I was writing. There have been lots of serendipitious moments in the creation of this book – starting with the hares and the name of the country house hotel in West Cork where the story is set. It’s a spooky place where the secrets of the past linger, where doors slam and the sound of violin music is ever present – it was only when I was well into the story that I discovered that in Irish mythology, hares are believed to be the messengers who travel between worlds – and so many elements of the story began to fall into place.

No book is created without a team behind it, and I can’t give a thank you speech at a launch, but I can say thank you here to the whole team at Corvus, my fabulous editor Sarah Hodgson, my brilliant copyeditor Steve O’Gorman (what would I do without you?!) and to my amazing agent Simon Trewin, who is my sounding board for ideas, my creative partner in a whole range of initiatives and without whom none of this would have happened. THANK YOU!

Here’s the 30 second teaser video 🙂

You’ll find links to buy The Dark Room in digital, audio or print, wherever you are in the world here on my site. If you’re based in the UK, there’s a link to my Bookshop.org page where you can order and support local suppliers. I’d love to hear what you think of it – it’s getting great feedback already, as NY Times bestseller and Edgar nominated Catherine Ryan Howard said:

There’s shades of Rebecca in this small-town mystery, full of atmosphere and menace and with a satisfyingly complex plot. The Dark Room is another winning page-turner from Blake and the perfect read for curling up in front of the fire on a winter’s night. Although with its shocking reveals and ghostly undertones, good luck getting to sleep afterwards…