Sarah Hilary Explained

Sarah Hilary
Birth Place:Cheshire, England
Occupation:novelist
Genre:crime fiction
Notable Works:Marnie Rome series

Sarah Hilary is an English crime novelist known for her series of novels "The Marnie Rome." She won the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize[1] in 2008 for her story, Fall River, in August 1892.[2] In 2012, she was awarded with the Cheshire Prize for Literature.[3]

Early life and education

Hilary was born in Cheshire,[4] England and later moved to the South East to study for a First Class Honours Degree in History of Ideas. She currently lives in Bath, England with her husband and daughter.[5] Hilary announced on X in June 18, 2022 that she is autistic.[6]

Career

Hilary's debut novel, Someone Else's Skin, was published in 2014 and was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick in the same year.[7] It won the 2015 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award,[8] and in 2016, it was selected as one of the titles for World Book Night in the UK.[9] It was also a Silver Falchion and Macavity Awards finalist in the US.[10]

Her second book, No Other Darkness, was shortlisted for a Barry Award.[11]

Hilary has written about her family history, most notably in "My Mother was Emperor Hirohito's Poster Child" for The Guardian, March 2014. Her mother and grandparents were prisoners of the Japanese in Batu Lintang camp where her grandfather, Stanley George Hill, died in 1945.[12] Hilary wrote about her grandmother's experience in the camp for the Dangerous Women Project in 2017.[13]

She wrote the introduction for Virago's new editions of three books by Patricia Highsmith republished in 2016: The Two Faces of January, This Sweet Sickness, and People Who Knock on the Door. Hilary talks about Highsmith's legacy for today's crime writers in A Gift for Killing, June 2016.

Her seventh novel, Fragile, published on 10 June 2021, is partly inspired by the motives of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.[14]

In 2023, she published Black Thorn, a crime novel centred around six deaths at a seaside housing development in Cornwall.[15] It received a positive review from Laura Wilson of The Guardian, who praised Hilary's writing style.[16]

Bibliography

Marnie Rome series

TitlePublisherPublishedISBN
Someone Else's SkinHeadline2014978-1472207685
No Other DarknessHeadline2015978-1472207722
Tastes Like FearHeadline2016978-1472236838
Quieter Than KillingHeadline2017978-1472241108
Come and Find MeHeadline2018978-1472248961
Never Be BrokenHeadline2019978-1472249005

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fish Publishing - alumni. www.fishpublishing.com. 9 January 2017.
  2. Web site: Hilary. Sarah. Fall River, August 1892. Sarah crawl space blog. 26 April 2012 . 9 January 2017.
  3. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20131203035749/https://www.chester.ac.uk/literatureprize. 3 December 2013. The 2012 Cheshire Prize for Literature. University of Chester.
  4. Web site: Sarah Hilary - profile and books . 9 January 2017 . www.writtengems.com.
  5. Web site: Sarah Hilary . 2024-07-25 . www.fantasticfiction.com.
  6. 1538181807035891712 . sarah_hilary . Well it's #AutisticPrideDay and this is long overdue but here I am saying publicly for the first time that I'm autistic because visibility matters. Love to all my ND friends and allies . Sarah . Hilary . 18 June 2022 . 4 April 2023 .
  7. Web site: Hodgson and Shemilt on WHS Richard & Judy list . 2023-10-16 . The Bookseller . En.
  8. Web site: Sarah Hilary's debut wins crime novel of the year award. Flood. Alison. 2015-07-17. The Guardian. 2016-06-11.
  9. Web site: Someone Else's Skin Books World Book Night . 2023-07-10 . worldbooknight.org.
  10. Web site: Interview with Sarah Hilary. www.bathshortstoryaward.org. 31 March 2016 . 9 January 2017.
  11. Web site: Sarah Hilary . 2023-10-16 . www.panmacmillan.com . en.
  12. News: Hilary. Sarah. My mother was Emperor Hirohito's poster child. 9 January 2017. The Guardian. 1 March 2014.
  13. Web site: Quietly Dangerous: How my grandmother won the war. 2017-01-18. Dangerous Women Project. 2017-01-19.
  14. Web site: Fragile . 19 July 2022 . Pan Macmillan.
  15. Web site: Black Thorn . Pan MacMillan.
  16. News: Wilson . Laura . July 2023 . The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup . The Guardian .