A first novel, which draws comparison to recent events in Cleveland where three kidnapped women were found after a decade, is already an ebook success — two weeks before it hits the high street.
Tina Seskis’s One Step Too Far, about a mother who disappears from her life in Manchester, has reached number 35 in the Kindle chart.
The thriller, which follows protagonist Emily as she walks away from her family to start again in London, was published by Seskis, who plans to release two more books following its success.
Seskis, from Archway, north London, has been named as a recommended author by Amazon following rave reviews of the novel, which she wrote three years ago when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The former marketing consultant said: “I had just finished a job, so I decided to write a book around an idea I had on holiday. I wanted to keep mum’s mind busy when she was very ill so I would send her a chapter at a time. That’s why it is a page-turner, with lots of twists and turns.”
When Mrs Seskis’s mother died, she made it her mission to find a publisher for the book.
“But I just couldn’t,” she said. “So I decided, after a year or so, to publish it myself.”
With help from her husband, the mother-of-one set up her own publishing house, Kirk Parolles, and then pitched the book to Amazon, WH Smith and Waterstones. “I always felt like it was a really good book and it is particularly topical now with what happened in Ohio,” she said.
Mrs Seskis has finished her second book, A Serpentine Affair, about a group of friends who meet in Hyde Park with disastrous consequences, and is halfway through her third.
One Step Too Far will be out in paperback at WH Smith on May 30 and is available on Amazon now.
