We then skip forward in time, Max and Annie have married…and divorced, separated from each other for more than a year they are still drawn to each other like moths to a flame. Old enmities persist, the Delaneys want Max to pay for times past. Smashed nightclubs, old mates dead, witnesses drowned. Who is on whose side? Jessie wrote Dirty Game, her first novel, in just three months. She submitted it to six agents and within weeks, she had an agent and a three-book, six-figure deal. Jessie Keane, the writer, was born. I wasn’t tempted to involve those monumental figures from the literary and artistic world any more in the book than I did,” she says. “I didn’t want to swamp the reader with the Parisian atmosphere; I wanted them to have just a flavor of it, to infuse the piece with authenticity.”

Now a Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling author of 16 books with sales that exceed 1.5 million copies, Jessie continues to write compelling, strong female characters who thrive despite their circumstances – just like she has.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

A sliver of panic was suddenly lodged in Diamond’s gut, making it clench. She looked at the dish of porridge as the warder withdrew. She knew she wouldn’t eat it. She couldn’t. Jessie lives in Hampshire with her partner who used to be her next-door neighbour before they fell in love.

I really enjoyed this story, plunged into gangland London in the early twentieth century, this was a compelling story. I have to tell you, rich is better. But the great thing about life is, even painful events pass, and if you make bad choices, hopefully you learn from them. Now calling herself ‘Diamond Dupree’, she goes to Paris to become an artist’s model but the world there is brutal and cutthroat and she soon falls on hard times. When she manages to escape at the end of the First World War, she leaves behind a mystery – and a dead man. We follow Diamond Butcher and her family, once high up in the echelons of London gangland crime - now forced under the heel of her Uncle Victor who runs things. Diamond longs to escape and have her revenge on the Wolfe family who had such a feud with her family and killed her father.In the early years of the last century, a desperate young girl changes her name and flees the confines of her brutal, dominating gangland family in London. Now calling herself ‘Diamond Dupree’, she goes to Paris to become an artist’s model but the world there is different to what she had supposed it would be and she soon falls on hard times. When she manages to escape at the end of the First World War, she leaves behind her a mystery – and a dead man. Finally, we asked Keane if she could put together her dream panel for ThrillerFest, who would be on it, why, and what would the topic be? In the early years of the last century, a desperate young girl changes her name and flees the confines of her brutal, dominating gangland family in London. Now calling herself 'Diamond Dupree', she goes to Paris to become an artist's model but the world there is different to what she had supposed it would be and she soon falls on hard times. When she manages to escape at the end of the First World War, she leaves behind her a mystery - and a dead man. The oldest and only girl in a family of London thieves, reinvented as Diamond Dupree, the latest Paris ‘it girl’ - the lover of an aristocrat, fearless and beautiful she is so compelling and a great female character. I really loved her, she was the personification of her name.

Circumstances conspire to make Diamond culpable of a crime which carries the death penalty and, whilst the world is at war, and then, during peace time, Diamond fights a war of her own, for survival. waves hand* No need to dwell on the fact it’s my first JK read. I will fix that egregious error as soon as I can finagle my TBR as I need more of this world. It was the female warder, grim-faced as usual. It was always the same one. She was bringing Diamond’s breakfast.

Toys

She has had enough of it in her lifetime-her father, the head of the Butcher gang, driven to France by his arch enemies, the Wolfe family, returning to London only to be murdered, leaving his wife and 3 children at the mercy of their enemies. But even worse, left at the mercy of their relatives…

But can we puhlease? *sighs* Coz, I. Was. Fascinated!! Stiletto knives… *shivers*. I know my friends won’t be surprised in the least *snorts*. When Warren is murdered, Victor Diamond’s Uncle worms the way into the family’s life and takes over the family firm and physically abuses Diamond to do his bidding. She fears for her life so much she flees and goes to Paris. But when she gets there the city is not the beautiful one that her mother has portrayed in her stories. It is hard graft, and she meets all sorts of different characters along the way.This book had me in a chokehold! Annie and Max (along with a certain someone!) consumed my thoughts and I couldn’t devour the book fast enough. Before you ask, yes *nods*, I can confirm that I held daily briefings with The Mommy detailing the current state of play in the book alongside theories on personal agendas and who’d copped it next! I was fit to burst with the need to talk to someone about this story. I balance the romance with the thriller part of the story by pacing it carefully,” she says, “so that one never overpowers the other. A lot of juggling of various chapters goes on in the final draft stage. I think every thriller I’ve ever written has a hint of a romance in it, because I think life would be very dull without that. I like to pull the reader in to the conflict and the family dramas, to make them care about my characters, to make them linger in the reader’s mind long after they’ve finished the book.