I wrote THE PRETENDERS in Singapore, a place as different from London (where its set) as it’s possible to be. My Spotify playlist helped me immerse myself in Ovidia and Edmund’s world. Playing the same music each time I sat to write allowed me to close myself away from the ceaseless noise and motion of a city as dynamic as Singapore. I had a very long playlist which thankfully my music app has preserved, and it’s been fun to go back to it. The songs on it stir memories of sitting in cafes or at my tiny Ikea desk in our sitting room typing away without a clue what I was doing. Of course, my playlist has also aged, when I wrote THE PRETENDERS about six years ago, Charley Puth was still in the charts and a few others that I haven’t mentioned here.
While a lot of the music was background noise as I’ve mentioned, here are some songs that really did affect the direction or mood of my writing. Some conjured up an atmosphere and others had lyrics that spurred something within me:
Good Lava by Esperanza Spalding.
I must have played this song hundreds of times and I can attribute some of Ovidia’s character development to it. Spalding sings "See this pretty girl flow, watch this pretty girl flow” many times over and something about that line helped turn Ovidia from someone vague and ethereal into the character she became. The image born from the lyrics – a confident woman on stage demanding to be looked at helped me give her tangible characteristics such as her clothes and personality which made her believable.
Lonely Heart by Boyz II Men.
I needed sad songs and where better to look than Boyz II Men purveyors of heartbreak melodies such as The End of the Road and I Sit Away. With Boyz II Men on repeat it helped evoke a sad mood which would have been hard to get into when it’s a hot sunny day, children are splashing around in the pool and everyone outdoors seems to be laughing.
West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys.
A song about London, I had to do a lot of research for this book, it was only when I started writing it that I realized how much I didn’t know, but West End Girls let me know London was the right city. The song’s cool and says a lot without saying very much.
Holding Back the Years by Simply Red.
Aching, sadness, not knowing what went wrong, that’s’ what this song makes me think about. I remember the music video was of Mick Hucknall walking forward resolutely while flashbacks hinted at a history.
Back to Good by Matchbox 20.
The whole book is contained in this song –
“everyone here, is wondering what it's like to be with somebody else
And everyone here's to blame, and everyone here
Gets caught up in the pleasure of the pain
Everyone, well everyone here hides
Shades of shame.”
It’s about that moment (or day, in case of the pretenders) of realisation that it’s impossible to return to what once was. The cast of characters then start to look back at what once was and if it was every truly good. Which is what THE PRETENDERS is about.
`I'm perfectly happy lying to myself...If it means getting to stay with you.'
Jasper is ready to surprise his brother; Holly is ready to celebrate their engagement. Anne tags along for fear of missing out, and John might just be going for another drink. But Edmund and Ovidia had other plans for their Saturday. Over the course of one day, these couples must own up to the secrets they've been hiding from one another and the lies they've been telling themselves. And face the devastating consequences. Three couples. Two exes. One day. One reckoning.
In her debut novel, Agatha Zaza crafts a modern domestic tragedy simmering with betrayal and deceit.
Thriller Crime [ Datura Books, On Sale: April 28, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781917415248 / eISBN: 9781917415255 ]
Agatha Zaza is a writer living in Helsinki, Finland. She works in the international development sector specialising in communications, institutional giving and human rights. Born in Zambia, Agatha has worked and lived in several countries, among them New Zealand and the then Soviet Union. While in Ireland, she earned a Master’s in Equality Studies from University College Dublin and she completed her first novel, The Pretenders, in Singapore. Agatha’s work can be seen in the Johannesburg Review of Books. She has also contributed to various magazines and websites on development cooperation and human rights. She can usually be found working in cafes in Helsinki’s historic centre and enjoys perusing its second hand clothing and furniture shops.
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