Why I’m Writing The Story Behind My Stories

Over the past few months I’ve been working on something a little different. A new series called The Story Behind My Stories. It sits alongside my crime fiction, but it isn’t fiction at all. It’s the real-life thread that runs beneath the books: the places I’ve lived, the work I’ve done, the people I’ve met and the moments that quietly shaped the stories long before I ever wrote them down.

Book cover for Thai Die: How a Year in Thailand Turned into a Thriller Novel

The first book in the series, Thai Die: How a Year in Thailand Turned into a Thriller Novel, is with ARC readers now and comes out on the 20th of June. If you’ve listened to the podcast season 1, you’ll know the broad outline. The year I spent living in Thailand, the culture shock, the heat, the unexpected friendships, the moments of fear and joy and growth. But the book goes deeper. It lets me show the setting through diary excerpts, photos, and the small details that never made it into the podcast or the crime novel. It’s part travelogue, part memoir, part writing journey and part reflection on how a place can change you without you noticing until much later.

That’s really what this series is about. Each book will explore a different chapter of my life. The experiences that eventually found their way into the DI Goodwin books, even if they’re unrecognisable by the time they reach the page. Thailand became Thai Die. My years commuting into London and working in IT became Connecting Trains. My time at sea became Aloha Goodbye. A charity cycle ride became Lethal Leith Hill. A cattle drive in Argentina became Don’t Die For Me, Argentina. Real life, reshaped into fiction.

And as I write this, I’m two weeks away from leaving my IT career behind entirely. It feels fitting that the second book in the series — Connecting Trains: How a Career in IT Turned into a Major Investigation Team — is already underway, based on Season 2 of the podcast and a lot more about my career. It’s a strange thing, looking back at a career while you’re still technically in it, but it’s giving the writing a kind of clarity I didn’t expect. There’s something grounding about capturing the story of that chapter just as it closes.

But today, the focus is Thailand. That year changed me, long forgotten and didn’t realise until I wrote this book. It shaped the first DI Goodwin novel, and in many ways it shaped the writer I eventually became. I’m excited to share that story properly, not just the thriller it inspired, but the life behind it.

If you’d like early access, the ARC is out now. And if you’re curious about the series as a whole, this is just the beginning.

Look out for the newsletter on Thursday, if you're subscribed, and more information on that. There are three episodes left on Season 5 of the podcast 'The Story Behind My Stories' and the story behind Don't Die for Me, Argentina. List to episode 7 out Thursday too.

Have a great week,

Helen x