What is the title of your latest release?
THE DAY I LOST YOU
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
THE DAY I LOST YOU tells the gripping story of two women who both claim to be the mother of one little boy. One of them of course is lying, but the rug will be pulled out from underneath you when you discover who and why’.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I’ve set previous books in London, but wanted a change, and my editor agreed that as I live in Oxford, it would make sense to set it here. It’s actually set just outside, in the Chiltern Hills near where I live. The story opens in Spain, though, on a stretch of coast that I wanted to visit, so it made sense to go there for research.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
I would definitely want to be friends with my lawyer character, Sarah Kellerman. She is super clever and switched on, though, and she may find me a bit scatty.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Sarah is clever, empathetic and bold.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That writing a story backwards is hard!
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
As I draft, but a bit too much. I need to discipline myself to focus on getting the story out and spend less time going back over what I wrote the previous day.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Cheese. And wine.
Describe your writing space/office!
It’s a home office in the garden built by my husband. I have two computer monitors and I connect my laptop to them each morning and work with a separate keyboard and mouse. I have my ‘step plan’ and internet browser open on the screen to my left. My WIP is on my right.
Who is an author you admire?
Gillian Flynn. She’s so talented.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Probably Gone Girl as it was my introduction to the kind of psychological fiction I wanted to write. I could never match Gillian Flynn as her writing is so clever, but we write what we love to read, and I love a character-led, human story about imperfect people doing the wrong thing.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was originally published in 2018 and the call to come and meet my editor was super exciting. But it was the call from Judith, my brand-new agent in September of 2022 that changed my life. She told me Penguin UK had pre-empted on my previous novel The Woman on the Ledge, plus one more – which became The Day I Lost You – for a sum that I’d never imagined earning. That was the ‘pinch yourself’ moment. It was followed quickly by another ‘pinch-yourself’ moment when I got the deal with Harper in the US the following month. I was standing in my kitchen both times, and I remember it was late evening and dark outside the second time because, of course, New York is a few hours behind us. My husband was watching a wildlife program on TV when I got the call, and we both became mildly hysterical. We remember that moment fondly as a magical one.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Character-led crime thrillers. But I also enjoy literary and woman’s fiction, family dramas and romance. What I really want is a story that makes me think and stays with me.
What’s your favorite movie?
Thelma and Louise. Hands down. It has everything I love.
What is your favorite season?
Spring. But I love autumn too.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I don’t like a fuss. A nice takeaway and a bottle of wine and a good box set or movie on TV will make me very happy.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
It’s 2019 so not very recent, but Unbelievable on Netflix stood out for me.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love a good Chinese or Thai curry. Or seafood in garlic and chili sauce, like Piri piri prawns. I love chips. And cheese. Did I mention cheese?
What do you do when you have free time?
Read. Walk. Traveling somewhere new. I love to swim, but I only really get time to do that on holiday.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’ve just finished my next thriller. It’s called THE STRANGER ON THE STAIRS, and it will be out in the UK next April. It’s about a young woman who witnessed a crime which put a man in prison. Twenty years on, he’s out, and it seems like he’s coming for her. I haven’t yet had an offer from a US publisher but watch this space!
THE DAY I LOST YOU by Ruth Mancini
A Novel
The internationally bestselling author of The Woman on the Ledge returns with a twisty thriller about a missing child and three adults whose shared secrets and hidden history could prove deadly.
“I need to report a crime. My baby has been stolen.”
All Lauren wants is a new life in Spain. She’s suffered an unimaginable loss, but at last she has found a home in the pretty seaside town of Mantilla de Mar. Everyone deserves a new start, and Lauren needs to put her past firmly behind her.
Hope has everything: an interesting career as a therapist, an attractive husband, a dream home in the countryside – and, finally, the baby she always longed for. Sam. Her beautiful boy.
But Sam has gone missing.
So when the police tell her that a woman has been found in Spain with a child matching Sam’s description, Hope thinks that her nightmare might be coming to an end.
But Lauren is insisting Sam is her baby. She even has his passport and birth certificate to prove it.
So what really happened to Baby Sam? And who still has secrets to hide?
One child. Two mothers. And a past that won’t let them go.
Thriller Domestic | Women’s Fiction | Fiction Literary [ Harper Perennial, On Sale: December 2, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063340596 / eISBN: 9780063340602 ]
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About Ruth Mancini
Ruth Mancini is a criminal defense lawyer and author. She continues to practice for a large criminal law firm with offices in London, conducting advocacy in the courts and defending people arrested at police stations. She juggles her legal work with writing crime and psychological fiction. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two children.
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