Author and journalist

About Clémence Michallon

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Author photo credit: Gabrielle Malewski

I'm an author and an award-nominated journalist at The Independent, based in New York.

My debut thriller THE QUIET TENANT will be published in 2023 by Knopf in the US and Little, Brown in the UK. Rights have sold in 30 territories. You can find out more about the book here.

I also wrote a novel in French, which was published in 2020. It's about a female bodybuilder tasked with managing her sister's bakery. Really, it's about bodies and the ways in which we try to feel at home in them. You can find out more about it here.

I studied political science and journalism at Sciences Po in Paris, as well as journalism at City, University of London, and I have an MS degree from Columbia Journalism School.

The Quiet Tenant

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A pulse-pounding psychological thriller about a serial killer hiding in plain sight, narrated by the women in his life: his 13-year-old daughter, his girlfriend—and the one victim he has spared.

About The Quiet Tenant

Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a respected member of his community. He’s also a kidnapper and serial killer who has murdered eight women. And there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death, a woman he’s renamed Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed fearing for her life.

When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his 13-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. After five years of captivity, surely Rachel is too brainwashed to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivorand recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years.

As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, too. Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life–and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. 

 

“Clémence Michallon has written a classic on her first try. The Quiet Tenant is a daring and completely satisfying . . . bravura feat of storytelling . . . Who in her right mind would attempt a novel utilizing the first, second, and third-person? And then have the skill to actually pull it off.” — James Patterson, #1 best-selling author

“The Quiet Tenant is a fascinating inversion of the serial killer thriller, a story that challenges some of the genre’s most prevalent and pervasive tropes through the eyes of the powerful women involved. In the process—with razor-sharp plotting and hypnotic prose—Michallon has created an unforgettable debut.” —Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity
 
“The Quiet Tenant is a humane thriller, one that doesn’t shy from asking the most difficult questions of its characters and its readers, and dares, ultimately, hopeful answers. Intelligent and suspenseful, I couldn’t stop turning the pages.” —Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
 
“The Quiet Tenant is an absolutely brilliant, incredibly delicious, edge-of-your-seat thriller.  Imagine Jodi Picoult meets Jeffery Deaver and then watch as Clémence Michallon exceeds every one of your expectations.  She’s that good.  The book is that good.  And the ending is a killer!” —Brad Thor, author of Dead Fall
 
“Clémence Michallon’s The Quiet Tenant is a spell-binding Trojan horse of a  novel, bracing and beguiling. A dangerous man and his unforgivable crimes are its seeming center but, in Michallon’s nimble hands, the novel soon reveals itself to be a story of female strength, cunning, depth, and power.” —Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me
 
“Clémence Michallon has managed to reimagine the serial killer novel, delivering all (and frankly, more) of the expected suspense and psychological tension, but offering a story about women—the ones who didn’t know the evil that lurked within, the ones who tried to placate or fight but still perished, the ones who might actually survive. Haunting but never prurient, The Quiet Tenant is truly unforgettable. Read it.” — Alafair Burke, author of The Wife
 
“Expertly structured and luminously rendered, The Quiet Tenant is told from the perspectives of several different women bound, both wittingly and unwittingly, to a single, terrifyingly familiar predator. A mystery that is at once riveting and heartrending, The Quiet Tenant is a sharply insightful look at what it means to live and love as a woman in this harrowing world. It is truly extraordinary.” — Kimberly McCreight, author of Reconstructing Amelia
 
“While a widowed man falls for a bartender, the woman he’s held hostage for years plots her escape in this fast-paced thriller . . . A twisted premise that raises unexpected moral questions.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
Pre-order The Quiet Tenant using the links below

UK readers can pre-order The Quiet Tenant here

Articles

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I'm a Senior People Writer at The Independent. Here are some pieces I've written on the job:

Welcome to the hot chef renaissance. It’s complicated​​

Their families insist they survived. Investigators doubt it. The enduring mystery of the three missing men of Alcatraz

DB Cooper hijacked a plane, stole a pile of cash, and vanished. Fifty years on, a ‘hero’ flight attendant speaks out

Natalie Wood’s sister insists her death wasn’t an accident – is it time we listened?

Amanda Knox is innocent – why won’t Hollywood let her disappear?

She had a ‘cool’ childhood babysitter. Four decades later, she learnt he was a serial killer

Serial killers, brutal murder and the rise of the podcast detectives

What happens when books inspire real-life violence?

 

Past work

In early 2019, I interviewed Liam Neeson. After the interview made global headlines, I wrote more about the way it unfolded. As a result of this interview, I was shortlisted for a British Journalism Award (Scoop of the Year) and for a National Press Award (Scoop: Popular Life).

A year later, in early 2020, I covered Harvey Weinstein's criminal trial on the ground in New York City. Here are some of the pieces I wrote during that time:

‘Listen to survivors’: Harvey Weinstein trial begins with protests, outrage and a call for respect

Tense, ferocious and historic: Inside the courtroom at Harvey Weinstein trial

We’re in this club we never wanted to be in’: Harvey Weinstein silence breakers find solidarity as trial rages on

Against all sexist odds, Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault. This is history

As he was sentenced to 23 years, Weinstein spoke about his case for the first time — and proved he'd learnt nothing

Why there’s no such thing as a perfect victim: What Harvey Weinstein’s trial taught us about sexual assault

Contact

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For professional, book-related inquiries, please contact Stephen Barbara at InkWell Management.
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For publicity inquiries, please contact Bogaards Public Relations:
info@bogaardspr.com.

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