Dubliner Andrea Mara will be glued to her TV this Friday, as the first two episodes of her blockbuster thriller, based on her novel All Her Fault, hits Sky Atlantic in Ireland and the UK.
Based on her fourth novel, the edge-of-your-seat drama tells the story of busy working mother Marissa Irvine who arrives to pick up her four year old son Milo from a play date.
However, her nightmare begins when the woman who answers the door says Milo is not there, sparking a parent's nightmare and widespread panic ensues.
The series features an impressive cast with Sarah Snook, the multi award-winning Shiv from Succession playing the lead role of Marissa Irvine and she also serves as executive producer on the show. Other cast members include Dakota Fanning and Jake Lacy (White Lotus).
Speaking on her return from a whirlwind visit to New York for the premiere last Monday night, Ms Mara said that "watching the premiere sitting near Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning was another amazing, surreal moment from a year of surreal moments!"
The author documented the experience on her Instagram, posting pictures from her "surreal trip", including images of the TV series ads on the sides of buses - an experience she described as very exciting.
The story of All Her Fault was inspired from a true life experience, the writer said, recalling how "ten years ago, my young daughter was on playdate. I had met parents before at a coffee morning. Then the day I went to pick her up, there was nobody at the house. I remember peering through the glass, and there was no furniture to be seen, and I immediately thought "oh my god, she has been kidnapped."
She said that as she was having a moment of panic, someone popped out from next door to say that no-one lived there anymore.
The writer quickly found out that the family had just moved, and were living three roads over so it all worked out well, but she made a note of the incident, thinking it might work as a plot some day. That incident led to the story of her fourth novel, published by Penguin, Sandycove, which delives in the lives of Marissa's family and community where dark secrets are lurking.
When asked if it was a stressful plot to be exploring as a mother of young children, she laughed and said "as a writer, it's like getting it out of your system, so exploring it is been really helpful."
"Writing the worse case scenario is a good way to explore it and get it out of the system, free therapy," she joked.
After its publication, All Her Fault was selected as The Sunday Times Crime Thriller Book of the Month.
"What I didn't know until later was that Nigel Marchant, the producer behind the Downton Abbey series, had spotted it in the paper and read the book. I then received an email two months later, saying his company Carnival Productions wanted to option it."
The company developed the project, and it was ultimately commissioned by the American TV Streamer Peacock under NBC, where it will premiere later today.
Since then it has been a whirlwind. "The fantastic casting decisions was another exciting and surreal moment," Ms Mara explained.
The writer described how she was at home one day in June 2024 when she got an email telling her to be on standby for casting news.
Then "unbelievably, then came confirmation that Sarah Snook would be playing Marissa Irvine and I cheered so loudly! I was such a big fan of hers in Succession where she played Shiv".
She was such a fan that she explained how "I loved Shiv so much, that my new character in my next book is called Siobhan, which I had chosen before all this happened."
Ms Mara spoke about the thrill of having someone of her talent leading the cast, explaining that "it was huge, as she is universally liked and admired and her casting gave the series a stamp of credibility."
Carnival productions took over the drama then with Andrea stepped back "to let them do what they do so well."
The series is set in the USA but was filmed in Snook's native Australia.
Ms Mara was invited out to visit the set of Melbourne where she "spent a week watching filming and it was so surreal, every bit as strange and amazing as I thought it would be!" she added.
One of the decisions the creative team made meant a huge amount to her, she said explaining that "they kept all the character names from the original book."
They could have changed them, but "that made it easy for me to sit there to sit there and enjoy it all as I could see actors pretending to be the people I made up in my head!"
"It was wonderful to see them taking it so seriously, as I love tv and the escapism it offers us all is so important and I just love the entertainment it provides!" Ms Mara said.
So when did she see the finished drama series?
Back in the kitchen, she was making the dinner one day, when an email popped up asking if she would like to see the first episode, "I turned it on and watched it, there on the screen on the counter by myself which is how I wanted to see it - just to take it all in first."
Cue another surreal moment, as she said that watching it in her kitchen in Dublin was "another amazing moment in a year of surreal moments, and I loved it! It is very glossy, and looks beautiful. It is just a fantastic series," Ms Mara commented.
"Just looking at people pretending to be characters I made up in my head was fantastic and I had a little cry while chopping the peppers," she added.
Then roll on New York last Sunday when Ms Mara and her husband Damien were invited to the US premiere.
It was another surreal experience she said, explaining how she quickly learnt the "red carpet protocol", which involves "step and repeat which was new to me, and it means that you walk the red carpet, and stop at each photographer as they yell instructions."
She described the thrill of going "into the theatre and at the edge of my aisle. Dakota Fanning was on one side and Sarah Snook was seated close to me."
It was the writer's fourth time watching the series so she said it meant that "I could focus on enjoying the moment, as this amazing cast watched themselves on screen playing my characters from the book."
"I really inhaled the moment," Ms Mara added.
She went to say that "of all the surreal moments of the last year and a half that was most amazing!"
The best-selling writer has been touched by the reaction from family, friends and strangers across the country who have "so lovely and so excited for this."
Fellow Irish authors have been quick to congratulate her on the success with Marian Keyes writing a heart felt message on social media filled with emojis, saying "congratulations Andrea - SO HAPPY for you and CANT WAIT to watch it!"
One of her writing friends said to her that "when we something like this, give us all hope, and that a normal person can have a playdate mix up and then turn that into a book and then finds themselves on the red carpet beside Sarah Snook!"
Ms Mara explained how she has had "hundreds of messages, and while people say that Ireland can be a nation of begrudgers, I've seen the complete opposite."
Reflecting on the whirlwind journey for the Dubliner whose writing life began with her blog, Office mum, twelve years ago, when she was working in financial services, and raising her three children, she said: "It's mad to see where this has gone!"
Today marks another exciting day for the author too as a new TV edition of the book of the series All Her Fault hits book shops.
Tomorrow night, when the first two episodes drop on Sky Atlantic, the writer said that "friends and family are coming over to watch it, and they are really excited," but she added "then normal life goes on! The dinners still have to be made!"
Andrea Mara has continued writing and her next book is due out in May.
Titled Such a Nice Girl it is another thriller, this time telling the story about two women whose adult daughters are best friends until things take a dark turn.
Sounds like another potential TV hit!
