The Day I Lost You: Q&A with Ruth Mancini

Are there any key movie/TV, music or literary influences you found inspired or encouraged you whilst writing The Day I Lost You?

No single book or movie comes to mind, but I’m a big fan of film and TV , and have found myself delving into more and more true crime in recent years, which I do find inspirational as I’m writing. I love that spending an hour or two in the evening watching an intriguing documentary or drama is effectively research and part of my job. I feel very lucky! 

How would you describe your writing process? Do you have a plan/outline or go with the flow as the story comes to you?

I’m very much a plotter. I like to know where the story’s going before I start. I tend to create a fairly detailed outline and then break it down into a chapter-by-chapter “step plan”. I work on two screens and have my step plan, chronology and other notes on the left and my WIP (work-in-progress) on the right. That’s not to say that a chapter doesn’t sometimes start to go off in an unforeseen direction, and if that happens - and it works - I’ll let it. That’s the real enjoyment of writing – having the subconscious take over. But I like to have a roadmap to stop me wandering off into the wilderness!

What message or feeling do you hope readers walk away with after finishing one of your books?

I often get asked what it’s like to represent people accused of serious crimes (especially if I think they might be guilty), and I always answer by saying that it’s not my job to judge them. I leave that to the jury. There’s always a story behind the evidence, and it’s usually a very human story. I would like to think that my books leave readers feeling more compassion and understanding for other people, no matter what they’ve done.  

What was the inspiration behind The Day I Lost You? What made you want to write this story?

It was inspired by a real life case I dealt with as a lawyer at court. Sometimes a case really moves me and stays with me, and this one really did. It involved a good person who did something wrong, something that had life-changing consequences for other people. This person went to prison, even though there was no intention to hurt anyone, and I couldn’t help but feel so terribly sorry for them, as well as for the victims, of course. This goes back to my previous answer, I think, but through this story I wanted to dispel the myth that all people who commit crimes are villains we shouldn’t care about, because when you deal with them first hand you realise that it’s really much more nuanced than that. I wanted to demonstrate that a split second decision can change your life forever, and that in the wrong set of circumstances most of us will be stretched in ways we can’t predict.

Sarah Kellerman is character who has appeared in a number of your books. What do you love about her and how has your career as a criminal defence lawyer informed the narrative? 

In creating Sarah Kellerman I’ve very much drawn on my own experiences as a lawyer. She appears in almost all of my books and I love her because she is calm, clever, headstrong and daring as well as compassionate and kind. I’ve poured a lot of myself into her, but she’s a better version of me. There’s a lot of wish fulfilment there!