Guest Post: Introducing Annie Carter by Jessie Keane

Today I'm delighted to welcome bestselling author Jessie Keane as part of her Lawless blog tour.  Jessie has written an exclusive guest post which introduces readers to her central character, Annie Carter.

Annie Carter strolled into my head one day seven years ago, and she hasn’t been out of it ever since. She has turned up in five books so far – Dirty Game, Black Widow, Scarlet Women, Playing Dead and Ruthless. And yes – there is going to be a sixth Annie Carter book very soon.

London gangsters have always been a source of fascination for me, and at one low (and very poor, I might add) moment I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if there was a woman in among these scary black-suited men, kicking arse and generally causing a ruckus?’

So I went to the computer and I started writing what became Dirty Game. It was all about this gorgeous creature called Annie Bailey (she became Carter later) who nicked her sister’s husband. Not a nice woman, you would think, but Annie had cause. She’d loved Max since she was a teenager, and she just had to have him - but Max was a London gang lord and he wasn’t too happy with her. And so unravelled a story about rival gangs, thwarted lovers and dangerous obsessions that was so much fun to write.

And then it sold!

And so did Annie’s continuing story too, in Black Widow, Scarlet Women, Playing Dead and Ruthless.

So thank you Annie Carter, who walked unbidden into my brain and has been in there ever since, chucking her weight about…and thanks to my readers, who seem to love the bones of her.      JK