Rachel Sargeant says she’s been ‘blown away’ by the reaction to her latest novel ‘The Perfect Neighbours’, which has been purchased over 60,000 times since its release earlier this year.

The author of three novels and a previous winner of Writing Magazine’s Crime Short Story competition, Rachel admits she has been surprised by the popularity of her latest release. “It’s been amazing, a real surprise and just totally overwhelming,” she said. “The new novel came out as an eBook just before Christmas, I’m thrilled to see the progress it has made in the Amazon charts. It makes all the hard work worth it when you receive such positive reviews. I’m very grateful to my publisher HarperCollins for all the fantastic work they’ve done in promoting the book. I’m completely overwhelmed with the number of copies that have been purchased and the lovely reviews are a real joy to read,” added Rachel.

A gripping psychological thriller set in modern day Germany, Rachel describes ‘The Perfect Neighbours’ as a slow burner with a creeping sense of unease that runs throughout. The story follows two main characters – Helen and her husband Gary – who relocate to the continent. The pair can’t wait to join the expat community of teachers from the local International School but things take a dramatic turn for the worse when the main characters discover things aren’t quite as they seem. When violence and tragedy strike, cracks appear in the neighbourhood, and Helen soon realises her neighbours aren’t the friendly group of people she was expecting.

‘The Perfect Neighbours’ is Rachel’s third release. Her first two books, ‘Gallipoli: Year of Love and Duty’ and ‘Long Time Waiting’ received positive reviews, which she says gave her the confidence to proceed with ‘The Perfect Neighbours’. Rachel’s passion for writing stemmed from her success in a short story competition. “I’d just started writing and considered myself a complete novice so to win that writing competition was a real thrill. It gave me the confidence to push on and continue with my writing,” she said.

After graduating from Aberystwyth University with a degree in German and Librarianship, Rachel worked in libraries management in the south east of England. Later she spent several years in Germany where she taught English. Writing is very much Rachel’s main passion, her day job as a librarian is the perfect environment for her to immerse herself in literature. Continued Rachel: “I spend a lot of time with children encouraging them to read. I read a lot of children’s and young adult books, I really enjoy it. Writing a book is all about managing your time. I usually arrive home at 4pm then sit down and spend three hours or so writing. I also try and put a few hours in at the weekend.”

It’s an exciting time for Rachel, who is working on two further publications that she hopes to finish in the near future. Continued Rachel: “I’m hard at work with a couple of new books at the moment but I can’t go into any great detail as they’re not quite the finished article just yet! The first is a crime thriller set at a school reunion and the other one is a sinister tale set during freshers’ week at a university.”