Lisa Jewell on "Don't Let Him In": Romance Scams, Psychopaths, and Writing Process

"Don't Let Him In" Book Breakdown

• 💡 The novel "Don't Let Him In" is described as "Tinder Swindler meets Dirty John" in a literary style, focusing on a man named Nick Radcliffe who juggles multiple women and a complicated lifestyle.
• 🎯 The story is told from the first-person perspective of Nick, offering insight into his twisted mind, and also from the viewpoints of Ash, the daughter of a woman he's targeting, and Martha, a wife whose husband, Alistair Gray, begins behaving strangely.
• 🧠 Lisa Jewell classifies the main male character as a psychopath, noting that unlike her usual characters, she couldn't find any empathy or underlying damage to understand him.

Crafting a Psychopath Character

• 🎭 Jewell found it surprisingly easy to inhabit the mind of a psychopath, despite being the antithesis of such a personality, suggesting she understood his psychopathy rather than being one herself.
• ✍️ The author explains that characters often reveal themselves to her as she writes, rather than her interviewing them beforehand, finding this process exciting.
• 📚 The inspiration for the book came from a addiction to Netflix scammer documentaries and reading Mary Turner Thompson's memoir about being married to a similar man.

The Writing Process and Confidence

• 🚀 Jewell emphasizes that her writing process is often intuitive, relying on her gut feeling for pacing and plot developments, rather than a rigid, pre-planned structure.
• 🗓️ She describes her writing routine: completing admin and housework in the morning, taking a dog walk, and then writing a thousand words at her kitchen table starting around 2 PM.
• 💪 After about 15 novels, Jewell learned to embrace her unconventional writing process and build confidence in her own method, accepting that it's okay to not always feel professional or have a complete plan.

Character Development and Reader Connection

• 💖 A standout character for Jewell is Jane Travelli, "mad Jane," the father's first girlfriend, who becomes an amateur detective alongside Ash. Jewell loved her so much that Jane is the protagonist of her next novel.
• ⚠️ Jewell aimed to keep readers on the side of the female characters, explaining that the male character's low-level grifting (asking for small amounts of money) made it harder for them to realize they were being targeted.
• 🗣️ She recounts an instance where a reader threw her book across the room out of frustration with the women believing the lies, highlighting the difference between a reader's perspective and the author's full knowledge of the character.

Navigating the Dark and Finding Happiness

• 🎧 Jewell enjoys immersing herself in dark fiction, documentaries, and music, finding it a form of distraction and happiness, unlike Fearne, who prefers not to watch true crime documentaries.
• 🏖️ Her happy place is metaphorical – wherever she is, she makes it a happy place by consciously choosing not to be unhappy. She also mentions a specific hotel in Tenerife as a cherished physical happy place.
• 🌟 Jewell believes that writers in her genre often have