Claire Douglas Bio

Growing up in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol in Gloucestershire, Claire Douglas wanted to write from a young age. After leaving school, she studied journalism at university and went on to spend fifteen years at various press agencies and magazines, writing novels in her spare time. 

Her first foray into being an author came in 2013 when she entered the first three chapters of a contemporary novel in a competition run by Marie Claire magazine. She won the Marie Claire Debut Novel award with The Sisters and went on to be offered a publishing contract with Harper Collins in the UK, and an introduction to a literary agent. The Sisters went on to become her first published novel in 2015. 

Her second novel, Local Girl Missing, was published by Penguin Michael Joseph, and hit the Sunday Times top 10 bestseller list. It was also published in Germany as Missing in 2018 and sat in the German best seller charts for six consecutive weeks, as well as becoming the best selling crime debut in 2018. 

The Girls Who Disappeared was a Sunday Times number one bestseller in 2022, The Woman Who Lied was shortlisted for the 2024 British Book Awards Crime and Thriller book of the year, and The Wrong Sister, placed at number two on the Sunday Times Original Fiction list; the hardcover version sat in the top ten for six consecutive weeks which the paperback hit the number on spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list for three weeks, and stayed in the top 10 for over four months.

The Wrong Sister was also shortlisted for the the Crime and Thriller book of the year at the 2025 British Book Awards and sat at 9th for the best selling book on 2024. 

The New Neighbours was welcomed on the Sunday Times Original Fiction list at number three after three days on sale, while the paperback was a number one Sunday Times bestseller in June 2025. 

Four of Douglas’ books, The Couple at No 9, The Girls Who Disappeared, The Wrong Sister and Then She Vanishes have been optioned for television. 

By 2017, Claire Douglas was published in 13 countries, and by 2019 (just four years after her debut novel), four of her titles had sold more than 240,000 copies. 

These days, Douglas lives in Bath, Somerset with her husband and two children.

The Family Friend

Claire Douglas’ latest release The Family Friend made it onto Penguin’s Must Read list for 2026 before it was published. She is also a regular with the Richard and Judy Book Club picks. 

In The Family Friend, Imogen is told she’s inherited a country house just outside of Bath, and is convinced that an error has been made. Originally belonging to an reclusive artist, Dorothea Roe, someone Imogen has been seen for many years. She decides to embrace the opportunity with her partner Josh.

As whispers emerge that Dorothea’s death may not have been natural, Imogen discovers a box in the deserted study that feels deliberately left, and is drawn into a growing mystery.

Inspiration as a book a year author

As a book-per-year author, Douglas has previously said that she needs to be coming up with ideas constantly that she can run with. These ideas might come from a conversation overheard, thoughts while standing in the kitchen or a child asking “why”. But coming up with an idea to fill 90,000 words. 

It was this type of inspiration that saw Claire Douglas receive the Marie Claire Debut Novel award; she had been writing a romcom novel about a pair of twins. With it almost ready to send out to literary agents, she had a brainwave for a psychological thriller on the school run. With the first link and paragraph in her head, she rushed into the house and quickly typed out the first chapter. 

She made the decision to send this psychological thriller in for the Marie Claire competition instead of the romcom, finished it and sent it in just in time to meet the deadline. 

Outside of listening to what’s going on, she gets many of her ideas from reading crime pieces, or turning the stories she covered in magazines into ideas. A notepad jotted with ideas gives her plenty of choice when it comes to writing her next book.