Amanda Reynolds has had a successful few years as an author.

Her first novel, ‘Close To Me’, was published in 2017 and received rave reviews, reaching the iTunes and Kindle bestsellers lists. Last year’s release, ‘Lying To You’ reached the Kindle Top 100 and Kobo fiction charts.

This summer Amanda returns with her latest psychological thriller ‘The Hidden Wife’.

“It’s about a famous author whose wife goes missing,” she explained.

“Suspicion falls on him and as a high profile, philanthropic character, the local newspaper cover the story. The strapline is ‘Did she really walk out on their marriage? Or did he make her disappear?”

Amanda, originally from Reading, has lived near Cheltenham for 25 years now, and says the Cotswold villages and landscapes she loves to explore provide heaps of inspiration.

“I love the Cotswolds,” she continued. “It’s a small leap in imagination because the stories are based so close to home.

“I like to write about ordinary people in extraordinary situations.”

‘The Hidden Wife’ will also be based in the Cotswolds, and while Amanda says she doesn’t name specific villages, readers local to the area should be especially familiar to the locations she describes.

The novel is partly based in a grand manor house, another aspect of the area that Amanda finds helpful in getting the creative juices flowing.

“I’m obsessed with Cotswold houses,” she said, “especially the hidden, private ones that you can only see walking in the hills.

“I like to look at them and wonder what it’s like behind closed doors – when I write I like to think of the houses as almost a character of their own.”

All three of Amanda’s novels are psychological thrillers – “It’s a genre that lends itself to real life and the kind of books I like to read,” she says.

The latest book, which follows the theme of a missing person, includes characters who work for the police, as well as local and national newspapers.

And the research for writing these characters and stories is something Amanda believes is very important.

“I have a detective sergeant with Gloucestershire police who has helped me with all of my books,” she continued, “and for this book I actually went into police headquarters and spoke to the murder investigations team.

“I also visited newspapers and spoke to journalists who have covered stories of missing people, the research was very thorough.”

Amanda has unsurprisingly been writing for most of her life, and before becoming a fully published author had a number of different full and part time jobs.

One of these jobs was teaching writing classes, and in 2011 she set up Cotswold Creative Writing, teaching two classes a week to help aspiring writers.

And even after finally getting published Amanda has continued to mentor.

“I think it would’ve helped me – there’s mentoring schemes you can pay for but I couldn’t afford them,” added Amanda.

“I asked on social media for people to pitch their stories to me, and then I select one and help them in any capacity they want – looking at their work editorially, helping them contact publishers, things like that.

“I think it’s important after having some success to pay it forward.”

And looking forward Amanda is set to judge a short story competition at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, amongst many other events and workshops.

“I love the Lit Fest,” said Amanda. “I’ve been there the last two years as an author and it’s brilliant.

“I’m so excited to be a judge, I’ve had some stories through already and I’m looking forward to reading more. It’s surreal because it wasn’t so long ago that I was entering stories to be judged and now I’m here, it’s an honour.”

‘The Hidden Wife’ was released on eBook in the Spring and will be released on paperback on Thursday 25th July.

For more information and to purchase Amanda’s novels visit www.amandareynoldsauthor.com