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Win the chance to be Nicci French's next murder victim!

We've teamed up with Alibi to offer you the chance to be a fictional murder victim in Nicci French's next thriller!

To enter this unique, once in a lifetime competition, you need to sharpen your detective skills ... there's been a murder and we need you to crack the case at: www.theperfectalibi.co.uk/niccifrench

Even more exciting is the fact that James Ellroy will adapt and write the screenplay. This is the first time Ellroy (bestselling crime writer in his own right) has adapted a work that was not his own (his previous films based on his books were LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia).

Writing - or at least our writing - is about exploring your own peculiar fears and obsessions and desires and then, when the book has been printed and sent to make its way in the world, discovering that people you have never met share those fears and obsessions and desires. Sometimes you meet the readers or they write to you and you discover that the book doesn't quite belong to you any more.

One of the privileges of being read is the discovery that your characters have a strange continuing life that is out of your control. It has always been fascinating for us to hear from readers because they complicate our feelings about our own characters. And, to be frank, we spend so much of our time with each other, new voices are always welcome.

So we learn about readers and about our own work and, with a website like this, readers learn about us. We hope you like it.

Nicci & Sean

Photo credit: Mark Read