'You never know who to trust': Sarah Pinborough on her brand new novel and Netflix series

With her bestseller ‘Behind Her Eyes’ about to become a Netflix series, author Sarah Pinborough has turned to the millionaire’s playground of Savannah, Georgia, for her next thriller. David Barnett finds out more

Pinborough is working on her 27th novel (Lou Abercrombie)

When Sarah Pinborough sat down to write her latest novel Dead To Her, she decided to build on the success of her previous two thrillers by adding a dash of good old bonkbuster fun. “I thought the world was looking a bit grey,” she says from the home near Milton Keynes she shares with her beloved rescue dog Ted. “I thought, let’s write something with a bit of fun to it.” She pauses, considering what everyone has been through over the last five months. “I didn’t realise just how much the world was going to need a bit of fun at the time.”

That is not to say Dead To Her is necessarily a barrel of laughs. Set against a backdrop of the sultry heat of Savannah, Georgia, the novel concerns the lives of a group of elites through the eyes of two women: Marcie, who has married into this rarefied world of old money and powerful families thanks to her affair with Jason Maddox, and Keisha, the youthful, captivating — and black — British wife of Jason’s older boss William.

With Marcie feeling usurped as Keisha draws the attention of everyone, including her husband, the stage is set for intrigue, murder and a sheen of the supernatural in the shape of the heady voodoo that permeates the hot Savannah nights. It’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil meets Big Little Lies.