Behind the Book
Why did I write The Past’s Prisoner?
After finally publishing The Superhero’s Murder, I found myself drawn towards a very different kind of story.
I’ve always been someone who looks back. Whether that’s revisiting old conversations, replaying decisions or wondering how life might have unfolded differently, the past has always had a strange hold over me. That fascination led me to a simple question: what if someone could witness the past exactly as it happened, but never change it? That became the foundation of The Past’s Prisoner.
Although the novel features a mystery surrounding missing people and those who slip through the cracks of society, it was never just about solving a disappearance. At its heart, it’s about trauma: how different people carry it, how some eventually move forward, and how others become trapped by it.
The question behind the novel
Every novel I write begins with a question. For The Past’s Prisoner, it was ‘Can we ever truly escape the past?’
The older I’ve become, the more I’ve realised that the version of the past we carry around isn’t necessarily the truth. Memories fade, change and become shaped by emotion. Two people can experience the same event and remember it in completely different ways. That fascinated me and begged the next question. What if someone could see the past exactly as it happened, stripped of nostalgia, regret or unreliable memory?
Ironically, that wouldn’t solve the real problem. Time continues whether we’re ready or not. The people we leave behind keep living. Our hometowns don’t sit waiting for us to return. The past remains fixed, while the present quietly moves on. For me, that’s what The Past’s Prisoner ultimately became: a story about the difference between remembering the past and being consumed by it.
Why I first published it in 2022
When I published The Past’s Prisoner in 2022, I believed completely in its central idea. Looking back, though, I also felt a pressure to prove something to myself. I’d spent years writing my first novel, and I convinced myself I needed to show I could keep publishing consistently. Rather than giving the story all the time it deserved, I was eager to prove I could write and release another novel within a year. The heart of the story was always there. I just hadn’t quite found its final shape.
Why I rewrote it in 2026
After finishing The Choice, I knew I wanted the next stage of my writing career to focus on new projects. But before moving on, though, there was one story I couldn’t leave behind, ironic considering the themes and concept of The Past’s Prisoner.
The spine of the novel; the characters, themes and central idea still felt true to me. But it was rough around the edges, elements felt out of place, and in the rush to get it published in a year I made sacrifices to the art for a manufactured deadline. The 2026 edition isn’t a different novel. It’s the version I’d always hoped to write.
Who might enjoy this book?
If you’re drawn to character-driven psychological mysteries with a touch of the supernatural, The Past’s Prisoner may be for you. Although the novel explores missing people and unresolved mysteries, its real focus is on memory, trauma and the ways the past continues to shape the present.
What I hope readers take away from it
More than anything, I hope readers finish The Past’s Prisoner thinking about their own relationship with the past. We often imagine that, if only we could go back and see what really happened, we’d finally find peace. But life doesn’t let us live backwards.
The Past’s Prisoner is currently off sale while it is reworked. ETA late 2026 or early 2027