Everything You Need To Know About The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase

February 16, 2025

The Midnight Hour By Eve Chase

At Lily Blanche, we love reading so we were delighted to collaborate with one of our favourite authors, Eve Chase and publisher Penguin on a competition for the launch of Eve's new book The Midnight Hour. A Sunday Times bestselling author, Eve's latest novel is also a Richard & Judy book club pick.

Our personalisation team worked on a Lily Blanche Large 2 Photo Heart Locket for Eve and also one for our competition winner.

The author of The Glass House and The Bird Cage, Eve has a loyal readership, many of who are Lily Blanche customers. We love the way Eve intertwines mystery with deep emotion, leaving us completely hooked on her characters and the adventures they undertake.

Below Lily Blanche marketing executive Ailie Robertson talks to Eve about her latest novel and the inspiration behind it.

Eve Chase novel The Midight Hour with the lily Blanche Large 2 Photo heart locket

Interview with Eve Chase

Ailie: What draws you to writing stories that evoke such strong feelings, and how do you create that emotional depth in your characters?

Eve: As a reader, I want a story to go on an emotional journey, rather than simply follow twists and turns in plot. Which means inhabiting a character - whether we like them or not! – and feeling like we’re walking in their shoes, and, hopefully, we go on a journey with them.

Ailie: Your novels often feature settings that seem almost like the characters themselves. How do you go about choosing the locations, and do they hold any personal significance for you?

Eve: Usually, I write about a place that’s been niggling away at me as a potential setting for a while. In the case of The Midnight Hour, I knew I wanted to set a story in nineties Notting Hill - I lived near there back then - but it took longer for the characters and plot to come to me. Often, it’s hard to say whether story or setting comes first!

3. Ailie: Family secrets and the bonds that tie people together are central to your work. What do you think makes these themes so universally captivating?

Eve: Every family, however happy, however dysfunctional, has its own narrative - and that’s not necessarily something that everyone in that family agrees upon! So, there are always tensions, individuals holding things back to carve their own identity, and rejecting familial versions of events. That really interests me.

Ailie: Jewellery often serves as a symbol of memory, love, or loss. Do you have a piece of jewellery that holds special meaning for you, or that has a personal story behind it?

Eve: I have a beautiful gold ring from my beloved late grandmother – tiny diamonds around an opal – and I’ve given it to my teenage daughter, and it fits her finger perfectly. It’s a link that stretches across time and connects the two of them even now.

5. Ailie: Your stories explore how the past influences the present. Have you ever had a moment where an object or piece of jewellery connected you to a memory or emotion from your past?

Eve: I have a small bronze figurine of a Grecian goddess, holding a book and a pen. For decades, it’d sit on a chest of drawers in my grandparents’ living room, opposite their electric bar fire. Close by, a wobbly side table, a plate of Custard Creams, floral teacups and saucers. When I look at it, I see all those things.

6. Ailie: Many readers find comfort in your novels during the autumn and winter months. Do you have any personal writing rituals or favourite cosy comforts that help you capture the mood of these seasons?

Eve: When I’m in writing mode, I’m afraid it’s a question of a plug-in heater, a messy desk, piles of notebooks, a moth-eaten cardigan, ancient Uggs boots, thick socks and endless cups of tea in the writing shed at the bottom of the garden. I also have a little wicker lamp that casts twiggy shadows. It’s not glamorous, but it is cosy!

7. Ailie: If one of your characters were to give a loved one a piece of jewellery, what would they choose, and why? How do you think jewellery can add layers to a character’s story?

Eve: In The Midnight Hour, it’d have to be antique jewellery, probably something off a Portobello Road market stall, because that’s the world of the characters. I dress my characters carefully with jewellery because it’s a shortcut to their style, and I want the reader to see it in their mind’s eye. It can also be a direct link to something in the past, a necklace passed down to them by a late mother for example, irreplaceable, a memory in physical form.

8. Ailie: Do you think there is a particular type of story or emotion that you feel most connected to as a writer? How does this connection influence the kinds of tales you choose to tell?

Eve: There are common threads in my novels – family, secrets, lush settings – and I also like to have a bit of grit in the oyster, such as an unsolved crime, or a compelling mystery. Whenever I’m thinking of ideas, I’m hunting for stories that contain all these elements, the light and the dark, as well as big characters who will walk out of my head and onto the page, and by doing so bring the stories to life.