Oldham best-selling author’s latest psychological thriller combines fraud and family

Oldham-born author Jacqueline Ward spent the Covid-19 lockdowns writing - and her hard work paid off in the form of a surprise best-selling psychological thriller, The Replacement.

Now, Jacqueline is back with another thriller, The Agreement, which will be published on September 4.

The novel is published by Bloodhound Books - recently merged with New York-based US giant Open Road Media, along with anothe rtitle in 2024.

The novel is set in Oldham and Manchester as Kate realises her marriage to Jake is not all it seems.

One day, instead of taking the turning for home, she keeps driving and books into a hotel.

She watches Jake, but what she finds is not what she expected.

The central theme is about trust, love and overcoming your past to face the future.

Jacqueline said: "When I first had the idea for this novel and talked to people about how Kate ‘just keeps driving’, a surprising number of people told me they had either thought about it or done it, so I just had to write this book.

"Kate is desperate, and the lengths she goes to in order to find out what Jake is up to will keep you guessing what will happen next.

"Early reviewers have mentioned the twist right at the end of the book.

"I had an interesting time writing this novel, but there is also a very serious message in there about the difference between control and trust."

After growing up in Oldham, Jacqueline worked full-time and studied for a PhD while a single-parent of three children and now has an MBE and is CEO of a charity.

Writing fiction for most of her life, her novels Perfect Ten and How to Play Dead, focusing on gas lighting and revenge, received national reviews and were stocked by most major supermarkets and bookshops.

A registered Health Psychologist, Jacqueline writes widely about psychology and story-telling.

Jacqueline won US writing competition Kindle Scout in2015, which kick-started her writing career and subsequently had a crime series published.

She also writes short stories and screenplays.

The Agreement is available worldwide on September 4 in different formats at Amazon, Waterstones, Blackwell’s and Barnes and Noble.

Her previous novel, The Replacement, stayed in the Amazon top 500 books for months earlier in 2023, and won Jacqueline contracts for audiobooks with Dreamscape Media.

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