A corpse in the canal at the Prinsessewal, a stalker in the Bomenbuurt and a friend who is not who he says he is. These are the ingredients of the exciting Hague thriller ‘Zonder Fear’. We speak to the writer, Inge van Prooijen in Perron X Coffee on the Torenstraat, one of the shops in The Hague where the main character likes to visit.
Advertisement is loading…
Inge always wanted to publish a book , but never dared to take the step. “I wrote a lot of plots, sometimes even a few chapters before the texts disappeared into the trash,” says Inge. The number of books publishers receive discouraged her ‘why would they want to publish my book’, she thought. Fortunately, she eventually persevered. Her thriller ‘Without fear’ will be released on Thursday. We received a copy in advance.
Without fear
Cleo runs her own practice as an art therapist: ‘Monsters under my bed’. She helps clients get rid of fears. When a young student tells Julia in a session that she is being watched, Cleo wonders if all the girl’s fears are imaginary. Exposing Julia’s stalker becomes more of an obsession for the therapist. How far can she go to help Julia?
Close to yourself
“For a writer it is useful to stay close to yourself, to write about things you know.” And that is what Inge did. Cleo, who the book revolves around, is a therapist. Inge also works in mental health care and the story takes place in The Hague where Inge grew up. She lived in the Bomenbuurt and now in the center with her husband Bob and son Dice.
“I enjoyed mentioning the hospitality industry where I like to go in the book. I wrote the book during the corona period, when everything was closed. In this way I wanted to support the entrepreneurs a bit.” Among other things, the hip 200’s lunchroom Haley’s Comet in the Piet Heinstraat appears in the story, at Van Kinsbergen a glass of wine is drunk and bought a cup of coffee at Perron X Coffee. In the last lunchroom, Inge even wrote part of the story, sitting at the large table next to the bar.
Thriller
Inge’s big hobby is reading, she likes to read different genres but preferably thrillers. Her great examples are Lisa Cartney and Harlan Coben. “I am interested in the human mind. That’s why I also work in mental health care. I find it interesting in psychological thrillers that the perpetrator always has a motive for his actions. I also like it when the reader is taken on a different path every time. I really like a good plot twist.”
Read more below the image >>>
The thriller ‘Without fear’ is certainly no exception. Until the last moment you will be surprised with surprising plot twists. “While I was on holiday in France with my boyfriend, I decided that I would write a book from A to Z. I was pregnant at the time and there was corona, so there was little distraction. I always start a story with the plot, although that has sometimes been adjusted during the writing. At the last minute I even changed the perpetrator.”
Finding a publisher used to be the major barrier for Inge to write a book, but now it turned out not to be the case at all to be difficult. She sent her book to three publishers and after only three weeks she was called by an editor of De Crime Compagnie. “After that I had to adjust some things. The trial version has been read by a number of people and none of them knew what a bike staple was, for example. I just replaced that word for bicycle parking.”
Advertisement becomes loaded…
Presentation
It is clear that when Inge does something she completely commits herself. Last week she visited the mayor of The Hague to hand over the first copy and tomorrow (Thursday 09 January) the book presentation is in
Paagman bookstore in the center. “Fifty people have already registered for it!” In the bookstore she is interviewed by Marlieke Koks, one of the influencers who also appears in her book. The campaign of Inge’s first thriller is just starting and the second book is already ready to be published. “The story is already finished. It’s another thriller. This time it is set in Benoordenhout, where I once worked as a nanny.” Nicci French’s debut novel is being filmed and a woman from The Hague plays the leading role
Have you devoured Nicci French’s thrillers this summer ? Then we have good news. ‘The Memory Game’ is being filmed and…
The exciting life of community police officer and thriller writer Pjotr Vreeswijk
The Hague Marjolein wrote a children’s book: ‘the readers give me a ten’Read also…
Comments are closed.