Corby author set to release third thriller

An author from Corby is set to release her third thriller novel just over three years after delving into the genre.

Nicky Peacock or N.V Peacock, as she’s known for her thriller novels, has had a number of written works published in her time as an author, including 30 short stories, five young adult novellas, and now three full thriller novels.

Her newest book, The 13th Girl, is set to be released on Thursday, February 1.

Read the blurb here:

‘After decades in a mental health hospital, Dee knows that people find her creepy – because they tell her so. Once the reluctant star of an infamous documentary, she is trying to blend back into the outside world. But when a string of local girls disappear, only to be found dead days later, she becomes fixated on the case and decides to film her own True Crime documentary.

‘There is a serial killer on the loose - The Righteous Wraith. Girls are being found one by one, their bodies gruesomely staged in the most innocent public spaces. With the killer taunting the police and public fear mounting, the armchair detectives begin pointing fingers at one suspect. But for Dee, something isn’t adding up.

‘She knows what it’s like to be accused of something that you didn’t do.

‘She resolves to prove his innocence, unmask the real killer, and save The 13th Girl.

‘But who will believe her?’

Nicky said: “There’s a lot of threads to it. There’s a little bit about true crime documentaries in there. The protagonist Dee wants to produce her own true crime documentary as she was an unwilling focus of a different documentary so that’s what gives her the impetus to want to supersede that and make her own.

“On her way she discovers there’s a man that armchair internet investigators are pointing their fingers at, saying he’s the serial killer. He’s gone through no end of it. He’s lost his wife, he’s lost his job, it’s like a country and western song. He asks her if she’ll make him the focus of her documentary.”

Nicky hasn’t always been an author but it was always a dream of hers and it wasn’t until about 13 years ago that she decided to give it a real try, quickly discovering she had a talent for writing.

“I always kind of wanted to be a writer. I’m from a working class family so I couldn’t afford to go to university or study creative writing or anything like that. I kind of felt like that dream was out of reach. It wasn’t until about 13 years ago that I said to myself ‘right I’m going to take this seriously now’.”

Nicky’s previous experience in sales and marketing gave her the research skills needed to discover a vibrant market of anthologies in the States.

“I really liked horror and paranormal stuff and they were asking for interesting stories, quite specific stuff.

“I just started writing short stories and sending them out and next thing I know, I’d got like 30 published.”

After this, Nicky started writing some young adult stories and also got those published. She then decided to write a thriller novel because that’s what was big at the time.

Her first novel, Little Bones, was written about a true crime podcast.

“I wrote it more on a whim than anything else because I just liked the idea. It was just before the pandemic and I put it to an open submission for Harper Collins.”

After this, the pandemic hit and Nicky didn’t really think anything of it. During this time she kept getting a phone call coming from London.

“I kept getting a number on my phone calling from London, I’m thinking ‘I don’t really know anyone from London’ so I didn’t answer it and then I got an email from them basically saying ‘We want to publish your book’.

“That’s how that kind of started and then I got my agent and then I got my new publisher that did The Brother (Nicky’s 2nd Thriller) and is doing The 13th Girl (Nicky’s new and 3rd Thriller).”

Nicky will be signing copies of her new book at Waterstones, Kettering on February 3 at 10am.

She also runs a writing group at Danesholme Community Centre every other Thursday where all aspiring writers are welcome.

To pre-order The 13th Girl or to find out more information, visit Nicky’s author page on Amazon.