Gilding The Lily by Justine John

Gilding The Lily by Justine John.

Self-published in November 2016.

From the cover of the book:

A gripping mystery of jealousy, murder and lies. An invitation to her estranged, wealthy father’s surprise 75th birthday party in New York sees Amelia and her husband, Jack, set off across the pond to meet a whole new world of family politics.

Amelia, now a successful businesswoman, feels guilty about never liking her father’s women, so does her upmost to give his new socialite partner, Evelyn, the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just all get along? But there’s something very dark, determined and dangerous about her… 

When Amelia’s father, Roger, becomes ill, Jack grows suspicious that there is more to it. Amelia understands why, but no one else will believe them. They travel back to America to piece together the puzzle, but when Roger goes missing, the couple are driven to their wits' end. 

It takes a DEA officer and a secret assassin to bring them answers, but the ruthless truth is something no one expected…

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So, what was the inspiration behind this thrilling story? Here's what our author, Justine Johnson, has to say about what made her decide to write Gilding The Lily:

Much of the story is based on some things that happened to me during my father’s death,  which was very sudden.

That process of his illness and death, seemed to put me in a set of circumstances that
challenged me greatly. Organising a funeral in a foreign country is challenging, but because I wasn’t expecting it, I felt as though I was in a dream and the things that happened around me were almost fictional. It was a coping mechanism I suppose.

I came out of that process with a story.
I tried to begin the book too soon – I knew I had to get something out, and I wrote Chapter 1, but couldn’t go any further. I just didn’t know what to put next.
It wasn’t until I came through the grieving completely, about three years later, that I began to write again.

In 2013, a health issue took over, and a major operation loomed. I was advised that I would not be able to work for a minimum of eight weeks – probably more like sixteen. I had begun to resent some of my work projects (life was too short), and I was feeling almost shackled; only a sense of duty, not ‘earning’ a living stopped me from giving up. But now I was being forced to stop for a while – so stop I did. In my tracks. Here it was – my chance to get that story in my head on paper. So the day I was home from hospital, I began Chapter 2. And I never looked back.

Amelia, the main character, and I have much in common. We both come from a divorced parentage, and experienced difficulty and abnormality in our upbringing. And we both have a massive internal need to please our fathers.

As all good writers do, I took some personal experience and whipped it up with a lot of fiction and made it into what is hopefully a good story. Now I’ve started I very much want to continue. I have already begun my second novel which is called Beneath the Ceiba Tree. It’s also a psycho-thriller, but very different and hopefully won’t take
me so long.

It's always interesting to see into the mind of an author, so thank you very much to Justine Johnson for sharing her thoughts about what made her want to write this story.

I would also like to thank Kelly Lacey at Love Books Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

Gilding The Lily is available to but now from your favourite book retailer.

About the author:

After thirty years in corporate life in London, half of which was running a successful events company, Justine decided to take a chance to write the novel that was ‘in her’ since she was a child. Gilding the Lily is the result of this and is a domestic noir, psychological suspense story which will keep you on the edge of your chair/sofa/bed/train/plane-seat.

While she's not writing she loves spending time with her family, riding three horses (not at the same time!) or walking her two dogs. She lives in the alluring and inspiring Surrey Hills and likes chocolate, keeping fit and deep hot bubble baths. She dislike spiders, olives and bad news.

Find out more about Justine on Twitter