FFB - The Secret

The Secret was originally accepted for publication by Libros International late 2009 and I was allocated as the editor. Sadly, the publisher closed down and the book didn’t get published. The author Jan Warburton persevered and the book finally saw print in 2011.

Fran is the cousin of James. She’s had a crush on him for years. But he’s been besotted with Fran’s friend, Ellie – until they broke up and he went gallivanting off abroad. But now James was back – and Fran felt the old attraction.

Unfortunately, the spectre of Ellie persisted. All James wanted to know about involved Ellie and her mysterious reasons for shunning him.

This relationship drama is complicated by a gruesome murder and circumstances that conspire against them. What is the secret, though? Is it the sexy elderly man who shares a villa with Fran on the Costa Blanca? Or is it something in James’ past? Or has it something to do with Ellie’s sudden disappearance? Is it the murderer? The pages have to be turned – right to the end – to find out

James, Fran and Ellie are the proverbial eternal triangle, tossed about in the storms of the modern world, where nothing seems simple and where hearts can be broken and not easily mended.

Fran is a believable heroine, vulnerable yet determined, while James is a man who really doesn’t know what he wants until he loses it. Fragile Ellie seems to become a wraith, a ghost of a friend to Fran, as the past catches up with all of them.

This will keep the reader guessing until the final distressing pages.

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The Secret was Jan’s first published novel, but she also ghosted an autobiography for black American soul singer/songwriter, Tommy Hunt; ONLY HUMAN, published by Bank House Books in Dec. 2009, which has consistently sold.

 

Originally trained in fashion design, Jan first worked for the House of Worth in Mayfair, London in 1958. She then moved on to wholesale fashion. Marriage to an army officer took her to Germany for three years. Later, back in civilian life, they moved to Singapore: ‘another amazing experience’, she says, as all this proved valuable ‘grist’ to her writing ‘mill’.

After a painful divorce, she survived six years with two children as a one parent family - a tough period, which she has drawn from in her fiction writing. She’s had many jobs; you name it, Jan has had a go! Her last was sales rep for a designer spectacle frame company, until redundancy finally allowed her to pursue her writing ambition.

She has a daughter Jayne, son Justin, and two beautiful granddaughters Abby and Alexia, all of whom she’s extremely proud. Jan has been happily married to Mark for thirty years, and they live in a converted barn in rural Yorkshire.

She has used her knowledge and experience in her latest books:

A Face to Die For

 

Joanna

 

Looking at You

 

Visit her website: www.janwarburton.co.uk