Ravena Guron introduces her new YA thriller, Mondays Are Murder


About Author
Ravena Guron is the bestselling author of YA thrillers This Book Kills, Catch Your Death and her latest novel, Mondays Are Murder.
Growing up, Ravena always read the last page of books first, but discovering Agatha Christie in her early teens stopped that habit, igniting a love of twisty murder mysteries with jaw-dropping endings the reader never saw coming.
A born and bred Londoner, she is a lawyer with a degree in biochemistry, and uses the knowledge she's gained to plot perfect murders (only for her books, of course).
Interview
Ravena Guron introduces her new YA thriller, Mondays Are Murder (Usborne)
February 2025
ReadingZone caught up with YA author Ravena Guron to find out about her new thriller, Mondays Are Murder, and to explore what makes a great murder mystery, with Ravena's top tips writing tips.
Mondays Are Murder: When Kay returns to her old home town where one of her best friends died a year previously, she finds a strange note warning her that, unless she can guess who has sent it, Kay will be murdered on Monday.... Read an extract
Review: "I absolutely loved this thrilling, unpredictable page-turner. It is packed with twists, turns and dead ends."
Q&A: Ravena Guron introduces her new YA thriller, Mondays Are Murder, and gives her top writing tips
"I wanted to write a mystery about a game with daily threats, and to really examine the why -
what would drive someone to create this game?"
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you became a writer?
I'm the author of This Book Kills, Catch Your Death and Mondays Are Murder, which are all YA thrillers. I've also written The Thief of Farrowfell, which is a middle grade fantasy trilogy. I'm a lawyer in my day job, and I did a degree in biochemistry because I loved biology and chemistry and wanted to study both at university.
I absolutely loved reading when I was younger - my mum would take me to the library every week and I constantly had my head in a book. From reading so much, I naturally just wanted to tell my own stories. I started with a pencil and a notebook, writing short stories, and from there I moved to writing books.
2. What draws you to writing murder mysteries? What makes a great murder mystery for you?
I love the puzzle element of murder mysteries - the need to keep turning the pages to find out the solution. And because I love reading them, I love writing them - coming up with my own twists and coming up with my own answers to questions I've raised.
For me, a great murder mystery is about the why - examining what drives these characters to do the things they do, what motivates them. It's about the journey, about being engrossed in turning the pages as you race towards the ending.
3. What happens in your new book, Mondays are Murder, which is published this month by Usborne?
In Mondays are Murder, Kay returns to her old hometown to visit her cousin, and finds an anonymous note left for her that tells her there's going to be a thrill on Tuesday, a wreckage on Wednesday, treachery on Thursday, a fire on Friday, sabotage on Saturday, a stabbing on Sunday - and her murder on Monday. Kay needs to figure out who left her the threat - to stop her own murder before it happens.
4. What inspired this story about a close group of friends and family revisiting past events?
I wanted readers to take away the importance of opening up with the people who you love and trust. These characters keep secrets from each other, because of their experiences in the past - so past is always in the background of the book. Kay left her sleepy hometown after the deaths of her aunt and her friend Ivy, who had a lot of dark secrets of her own, and a lot of enemies alongside that. Both of them are really central characters to the book.
5. Why did you decide to write it from Kay's perspective, and to structure it across a week, leading up to a threatened murder on Monday?
I wanted to write a mystery about a game with daily threats, and to really examine the why - what would drive someone to create this game, to toy with Kay for a week before ultimately threatening to murder her. The daily threats created a really fun structure, and I like the ominous way the days pass by in the book. Kay is trapped in town and I wanted the reader to be trapped with her, so I didn't want any other perspective in the present.
6. It's quite an involved plot - how did you go about planning this novel and the motivations of your characters?
I started with my one sentence hook, and the first thing I did was create Monday's threat. Then I did a high-level outline, broken down into the eight parts of the book. I didn't have all the twists and motivations nailed down at that point, but I started writing a draft zero, which was a mix between a draft and a very extensive outline, and I added in twists as they popped up in my head, or I wrote down things to work on in the next draft.
I then went back to my outline and expanded it to make it even more detailed, with all the twists and character motivations included this time, and from there I wrote my first draft. Each draft added a different layer of detail, so I wasn't trying to focus on everything at once.
7. Can you tell us a little about your techniques in building the tension in your books?
I think part of building tension is a sense of dread - who is Monday and what do they want? They're a scary villain because they're enjoying messing with Kay - they're not trying to stay hidden. More generally, I like to have a mixture of raising questions for the readers - what is going on, why did this character do this, is this character a suspect or are they innocent - but also presenting answers, too, which might lead to even bigger questions to keep the plot ticking along.
8. How do you balance giving the reader red herrings and genuine clues?
I add in clues and red herrings where they feel natural - because of the way I draft, sometimes a red herring or a clue will drop in as I'm writing and I'll make a note of where it's landed, so I can keep track. It's a balance - too many red herrings are frustrating, too many clues make the puzzle too easy. I hope to walk that fine line - I've definitely surprised myself when drafting, at least.
9. For readers who enjoy Mondays Are Murder, what else have you written that they can move on to? Do you have other YA murder mysteries planned?
I've written This Book Kills and Catch Your Death. This Book Kills is a thriller set in an elite boarding school, about a scholarship student who writes a short story that inspires a murder. Catch Your Death is a locked room murder mystery about three girls who get trapped in a mansion during a snowstorm, with a family of liars - and a murderer.
I'm working on my fourth YA thriller at the moment - I can't say too much (it's still in the draft zero phase!) but it's started with the highest concept idea I've come up with so far and it's been a really fun challenge to write.
10. What do you enjoy doing in your downtime to relax? Do you read other YA authors? Any recommendations?
Yes! I loved You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead by Tess James-Mackey, a fast-paced thriller-horror. Anika Hussain has written This is How You Fall in Love, a romcom that plays around with all the classic tropes. I loved Kathleen Glasgow's The Glass Girl - just pure brilliance! Clare Furniss wrote The Things We Leave Behind, a really fantastic, beautifully written dystopian. I also really enjoyed Glasgow Boys by Margaret MacDonald and The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton, which is published in March.