Lisa Walker: 'The suspense comes from having a group of characters who are all potentially villains in the story'
BY Maya Fernandes
22nd Jan 2026
In this interview Lisa Walker, author of the debut psychological suspense The Pact, shares her advice for writing a gripping dual timeline.
'I used the ups and downs of the physical journey on the trail to mirror the character’s arcs as they progress through the story.'
We caught up with Lisa to discuss her time studying with us, her process for building suspense through location and the psychological fiction that has inspired her.
The Pact moves between two strikingly different locations – Ravensthorpe Writing College and the Camino de Santiago. How did these contrasting locations help you explore the novel’s central themes?
The two locations explore different aspects of the book’s themes of artistic ambition, jealousy and revenge. Ravensthorpe Writing College is an imaginary eccentric university in the English countryside. When we first meet the characters at Ravensthorpe, they are young, wide-eyed and yearning to become writers. Events at Ravensthorpe, including the mysterious death of their tutor, set them against each other and turn their writing ambitions into toxic obsessions.
Returning to the group three years later, on the Camino, allows me to explore how their ambitions and dreams have festered over time. The gothic setting of the Camino, with its religious undertones, felt ideal for a story about revenge and, ultimately, redemption. I used the ups and downs of the physical journey on the trail to mirror the character’s arcs as they progress through the story.
Your novel is a character-driven thriller full of twists and turns. What advice would you give to writers who want to build suspense effectively in their own work?
Most of the suspense in The Pact comes from having a group of characters who are all potentially ‘villains’ in the story. Throughout the novel, all the characters, including the protagonist, fall under suspicion at some point, so the reader never knows who to trust.
On a more structural level, I used short chapters and worked hard on the chapter endings to create cliffhangers. I like the writing advice of ‘start late, leave early.’ As I reviewed the novel, I often found that I could chop a paragraph off the beginning or end of a chapter and it felt tighter, and more engaging. I also looked carefully at every scene to ensure it included suspense. Sometimes, just adding in a shifty look from a bystander, or the sound of a footfall behind, was enough to give a scene that extra edge. I also created a spreadsheet that showed where each revelation or ‘wow’ moment appeared throughout the manuscript and made sure there were no big gaps where events stalled.
The story unfolds through a dual timeline, gradually uncovering long-buried secrets from the characters’ college years. How did you develop and balance the ‘then’ and ‘now’ narratives, and decide when each reveal should land? Do you have any tips for writers structuring a novel in this way?
I wrote the ‘past’ and ‘present’ timelines separately, in two different computer files, then printed them out and played around with merging them at appropriate points. This process was a mixture of intuition and using a spreadsheet with a summary of each chapter, so I could keep events in both timelines straight in my head.
When I read dual timeline stories myself, I often develop a preference for one timeline over the other, and I wanted readers to love both my timelines equally. So, once I’d merged the two files, I tried to ensure that both timelines were gripping. This meant that I ended up deleting a significant chunk of the present timeline, although it’s still longer, with about sixty percent of the page-count. I think that if both timelines are sufficiently developed and intriguing it doesn’t matter if one gets more ‘air-time’.
Are there any psychological suspense novels on your ‘to be read’ list that you’re excited about?
The Vipers by Katy Hays. I loved her first book ‘The Cloisters’ so I’m keen to read this one.
Run for Your Life by Jackie Kabler. This is about a series of murders at running races and it sounds so exciting.
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney. I love Alice Feeney’s twisty stories, and the premise of this sounds mind-blowing.
I’m also a big Liz Nugent fan, so I’m keen to read The Truth about Ruby Cooper and ditto for Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister.
You studied on our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp and Writing a Psychological Thriller courses in 2023, as well as our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp – Vol. 2 and Plot & Story – The Deep Dive courses in 2024. How did your time with us shape your approach to writing?
Erin Kelly’s Writing a Psychological Thriller course really helped me to understand the genre. She talks about psychological thrillers being a blend of women’s fiction and crime, which I particularly related to, as my writing background is in women’s fiction. It was reassuring to know I already had some of the skills needed for the psychological thriller genre.
Laura Barnett’s Plot and Story course helped me to further refine the narrative arc of my story. I tend to be a pantser, not a plotter, with my first draft, but I used the structures she discussed to help me develop the novel in the second draft.
I also found the writing prompts on the two Bootcamps, and sharing my writing with the other participants, very motivating. I’ve gone back and used some of the prompts again when I’ve felt stuck. Some of my responses to exercises in all these courses have ended up in The Pact.
And finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I have a two-book contract with HQ/HarperCollins, so I’m working on the next book, which is due out in 2027. It’s a psychological thriller about a group of adventure leadership students on a ski tour in Arctic Sweden. I’m loving writing it as it’s allowing me to re-live a ski tour I did on the King’s Trail in Sweden in 2024. It was an intense and wonderful experience that I just had to write about.
Get your hands on a copy of The Pact, out next week from HQ.
Lisa studied on our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp and Writing a Psychological Thriller courses in 2023, and our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp – Vol. 2 and Plot & Story – The Deep Dive courses in 2024.
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