Friends and traitors

IMAGINE A GROUP OF BEST FRIENDS from university, now in their early forties, reuniting for a weekend to celebrate their enduring friendship. But this isn’t just any reunion – they’re about to open predictions they made about each other twenty years ago. This is the intriguing premise of Holly Watt’s sophisticated crime thriller, a page-turner that delves into the complexities of long-term friendships, ambition and the secrets we keep.

The story unfolds at Wintercross, a lavish stately home in the remote wilds of Devon, owned by the now multi-millionaire Ivo. As the friends gather, a cloud hangs over them – Lily, an NHS doctor, tragically died months earlier. While the coroner ruled it as an accident or suicide, her best friend Jude harbours suspicions.

Told from Maggie’s perspective, now a journalist, we follow the group as they drink, eat and reminisce. The heart of the story revolves around a series of revelations that range from kind and generous to uncomfortable, cruel and mysterious.

Watt expertly weaves together past and present, using the predictions to trigger flashbacks to college days and pivotal moments in the characters’ lives. We see how Elizabeth and Ollie’s marriage evolved, how Maggie and workaholic lawyer Ayda became soulmates, and how the others – including high-profile MP Rory and army man Finlay – became the people they are today.

As the weekend progresses, more truths are revealed than any of the friends bargained for. Watt’s polished characterisations and masterful tension-building create a sophisticated crime thriller that explores the dynamics of friendship, ambition, lies, romance, jealousy and control…

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Where are you now, and where would you rather be?

I am at my writing desk at my house on Dartmoor, and it is one of my favourite places in the world. However, it is also January and January on Dartmoor is a little… wild. So I wouldn’t mind an abandoned beach in the Caribbean either.

Where and when do you do most of your writing?

I do most of my writing at this desk now. We only moved into this house last summer and before that I had to work at the kitchen table, so I am still extremely thrilled about having a designated place to work, which doesn’t need to be cleared of Lego before I sit down.

If you have one, what is your pre-writing ritual?

Coffee and more coffee.

What comes first – character or story?

It depends on the book, but usually story.

When you structure your writing, are you a planner or a plotter?

I am a rueful pantser. I wish I was better at planning, but books don’t make sense to me until I’m writing them. And then I end up writing myself into a corner and having to battle my way back out. I see other writers with their colour-coordinated Post-its and detailed plans and I feel very envious!

How do you relax when you’re writing?

I don’t find writing stressful. I do find my procrastination rather stressful!

Add a single word to complete this sentence: The Last Truths We Told is about _____

Friendships.

Why do we care about predictions others make about us?

Because it tells you so much about what someone thinks of you and your relationship to them. I absolutely loved writing The Last Truths We Told because each prediction tells you something about the predictor and the predictee, both then and now.

I don’t think anyone would have predicted my future especially accurately, because I was heading off to law school after university, but now I am extremely glad every single day that law was a disaster.”

Any predictions (about yourself or others) come true?

There was a guy in my year at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was very beautiful and very good at singing, as well as being charismatic and charming. We all thought he’d be an actor. Eddie Redmayne has since won an Oscar and starred in everything from The Day of the Jackal to Les Misérables, so we called that one right. I don’t think anyone would have predicted my future especially accurately, because I was heading off to law school after university, but flunked out, so within a year my life was going in a completely unexpected direction. But I became an investigative journalist and am now a novelist, so I am extremely glad every single day that law was a disaster.

Who do you share your work in progress with?

My agent and my very dear friend Collette Lyons who has been forced to read a lot of dross.

How would you pitch The Last Truths We Told to a screen exec?

Two decades ago, nine university students sat down to predict each other’s futures. Twenty years later, they have gathered together in a remote Dartmoor mansion to read the predictions and find out what they got right and what they got wrong. But one of the nine died in unexplained circumstances just a few months ago…

Which of your characters was the most challenging to bring to life (and why)?

I found Finlay quite tricky to write, but he gradually came into focus.

Which books do you treasure the most?

While moving house, I retrieved some of my children’s books from my mother’s attics. I really love reading them to my children.

Tell us about unforgettable books you read in 2024.

I loved The Unrecovered by Richard Strachan. I got an ARC of it, so am looking forward to everyone else reading it this year so I can talk to them about it!

What are you currently reading and how did it come your way?

I am rereading Possession by A.S. Byatt. I first read it twenty years ago and decided I needed to reread it. It’s the most wonderful book.

Which books do you feel you ought to have read but haven’t yet?

Every so often, I make a stab at Ulysses, but…

Which book/s made you last laugh out loud?

I love Jilly Cooper’s books so much. They always cheer me up.

Kindle, physical or audio?

Physical because I feel guilty when I look at my phone or a screen in front of my three- and five-year-olds. I want them to know I am reading a book!

Imagine you’re the host of a literary supper, who would your dinner guests be (living or dead, real or fictional)?

Jilly Cooper, of course, because she would be so much fun. William Boyd, because he’d be so interesting. Lord Byron for glamour. Iris Murdoch, because of what she’d make of Byron. Jane Austen because I would so love to read her take on 2025.

If you weren’t writing, you’d be…?

I have no idea, and that does worry me slightly!

What will our planet be like twenty years from now?

Oh this terrifies me. I’ve been glued to the LA fires, just because it feels like another step closer to total meltdown. But equally, I do have faith in humanity, despite everything.

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Holly Watt is a journalist and author. Her first novel To The Lions won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller of the year in 2019. Her second, The Dead Line, was named one of the Thrillers of the Year by The Times and the FT. The Casey Benedict series continues with The Hunt and The Kill and The End of the Game. The series is being adapted by the producer of The Undoing. The Last Truths We Told is published by Raven Books in hardback and eBook.
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