C.J. Tudor on Serenity Falls, Creepy Disney Towns & the Smell of Buttered Popcorn

Philippa reviews four books — including two she couldn't wait to tell you about — before a wonderful, wide-ranging conversation with C.J. Tudor about her latest novel Serenity Falls, out 10th September, the book she needed to write after the hardest year of her life.

📚 Four Book Reviews

One of Us is Guilty – Steve Cavanagh

The 10th Eddie Flynn case finds con-man-turned-lawyer Eddie investigating a brutal murder with only two suspects — and one of them is guilty. Philippa loves everything Steve Cavanagh writes, and this is no exception.

The Silent Appeal – Janice Hallett

The Fairway Players are back, rehearsing Agatha Christie's The Hollow, and someone isn't going to make it to opening night. Lawyers Charlotte and Femi must sift through the evidence once again in what Philippa considers one of her favourite Hallett books yet.

A Stranger in Corfu – Alex Preston

Former MI6 operatives, exiled to a Greek island to be forgotten, find their uneasy peace shattered when one of their own washes up dead. Beautifully written, thoughtful, and atmospheric — blurbed as "Le Carré meets the Durrells," which Philippa thinks is entirely fair.

Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones – Dr. Saira Hameed

A fascinating nonfiction exploration of how hormones shape everything from our health to our eating habits — told through real patient cases. Philippa went to hear the author speak, bought the book immediately, got it signed, and then went straight out for a double chocolate cookie. Blame the ancestors.

C.J. Tudor on Serenity Falls

Dan and his teenage daughter Sadie arrive at their mysterious inheritance in Serenity Falls — a picture-perfect Disney-style town in Florida — only to find a body in the swimming pool, dressed as a cartoon character, on day one. Things don't get more normal from there.

Inspired by Celebration, the real Disney-built town near Orlando, Caz and Philippa discuss:

• Why the idea of a perfect, theme-park-adjacent town is inherently sinister — and what happens when you actually go and visit one
• How the creepy ice cream van started as a small detail and grew into a major character and the cover image
• Writing Serenity Falls — and why she needed a new idea to fall in love with before she could write again
• Why this is perhaps her least horror-y book, but also her most uncanny — and what the word "uncanny" really means in a C.J. Tudor context
• The dark humor running through the book, and why Sadie is one of her favourite characters she's ever written
• TV developments, the patience required to wait for news, and why she's learned not to get too excited too early
• Her next book The Last Caretaker — currently being written, out autumn 2027
• What she's looking forward to reading: The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer, which arrived as a lovely exchange for a quote on Serenity Falls
• Ten years since her publishing deal — and why it's worth stopping to appreciate how far you've come

If Serenity Falls had a smell: Buttered popcorn. Lovely at first. Overwhelming very quickly. Which is, she immediately agreed, the whole vibe.

Biscuit answer: Pick and mix for writing fuel, but biscuit-wise: plain rich tea or digestive for daytime dunking (no timing, pure instinct), and Border biscuits for evenings — too posh to dunk, chocolate gets melty.

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