Bestselling historical and psychological novelist Lucy Ashe joins Erin on Plot Twist Radio to discuss the inspiration behind her latest novel, The Model Patient, a psychological thriller set in 1960s London that explores identity, obsession, manipulation, and the unsettling question of whether we can always trust our own perceptions.
Lucy shares how her personal experience with psychodynamic therapy and her fascination with transference, psychoanalysis, and the unusual relationship between therapist and patient became the foundation for the novel. She also explores why the changing world of the early 1960s provided the perfect backdrop for protagonist Evelyn Westbrook, a former model caught between growing female independence and the expectations of a still deeply conservative society.
The conversation also traces Lucy's remarkable path from training at London's Royal Ballet School to studying English literature at Oxford, enduring years of rejection as an aspiring novelist, and eventually finding success with The Dance of the Dolls, The Sleeping Beauties, and The Model Patient.
Lucy and Erin talk about writing historical fiction, meticulous plotting, the research behind psychological suspense, the vulnerability of submitting your work, and why sometimes the line between healing and obsession can become dangerously difficult to see.
Plus, Lucy gives a glimpse at her next novel, The Love Cure, which ventures into the world of a 1970s New York sex-therapy cult.
If you love psychological thrillers, historical fiction, unreliable narrators, complicated women, and stories that leave you wondering exactly whom you should trust, this episode is for you.