Sheila Quigley goes blind half way through her new book

Jun 28 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

“Sunderland Eye Infirmary must be the best in the world, they were fantastic. I was only in there for about seven minutes.

“When we got home my son took the bandage off and I screamed ‘I can’t see a thing, I’m blind!’ but my son said ‘mother, it would help if you actually opened your eyes’ . . . I didn’t realise they were stuck closed.

“When I opened them my sight was fantastic and I can see for miles now.

“If this happens to you, don’t be afraid and get it done as soon as possible.”

It was in 2003 that Sheila, 61, a housewife living in Shiney Row, signed a £300,000 two-book deal and following the success of her debut novel Run for Home, which sold around 60,000 copies, she signed a second six-figure two-book contract with publisher Random House.

Her second novel, Bad Moon Rising, proved just as popular, and was swiftly followed by Living on a Prayer and Every Breath You Take.

The Road to Hell is the fifth book in her gritty, North-set crime series featuring Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt, and it promises to reveal lots of her characters’ secrets.

Sheila, 62, said: “It’s all about what happened to Lorraine in her youth, why Dave Ridley is now as mad as a hatter and how Jacko lost his eye, and a murder from the past is tied to a murder happening in the present.”

The Road to Hell will be published on November 5 by Tonto Books.