Ilona Bannister | Five | The Psychological Thriller That Makes You the Judge

Five is not like any other novel I’ve read. It’s a fast-paced, urgent, entertaining psychological thriller with fascinating flawed characters. Funny at times, sad at others, thoughtful and surprising throughout. Here’s the premise: Five strangers are waiting on a suburban London train platform. In five minutes, one of them will be hit by an oncoming train and die. They don’t know this. But you do. Ilona Bannister has broken down the fourth wall, so we the reader know a lot about these characters’ thoughts that they wouldn’t necessarily want us to know. At first, we see them superficially, the way you might clock a stranger on your commute. A mother trying to control her energetic six-year-old. A handsome, smug businessman. An unfriendly older woman. A young man in a burgundy pinstripe suit with a red wine and orange knit scarf that somehow works. We make snap judgements, as one does. And then the author takes us directly into the lives of each of them. We see disability, abuse, addiction, narcissism, and trauma. Then we return to the platform, minutes ticking into seconds. Who will it be? In this episode of Elena Meets the Author, I speak to Ilona about how a lightning bolt idea combining people-watching on a London bus with a local cycling death inspired her novel Five , a national bestseller. We talk about her no-outline writing process, how she developed the novel’s snarky omniscient narrator, the research she did into train platforms and forensic pathology, and the moral dilemmas she wanted the reader to sit with long after the last page. If you enjoy the show, the best thing you can do is leave a rating and review on whichever listening platform you use and consider subscribing to Behind the Stories on Substack. It’s a newsletter where subscribers get insights from each episode, early access to upcoming guests, and the chance to help shape the show. You can find it at elenabowes.substack.com. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 00:00 Elena meets Ilona 00:00 Welcome to the Podcast 00:15 Meet the Novel Five 00:42 Platform Countdown Premise 01:41 Moral Dilemmas and No Spoilers 02:00 Author Joins the Show 04:25 Shift to Thriller Writing 06:21 Building the Five Strangers 08:44 Reading the Opening Scene 11:55 Writing Without an Outline 15:21 Creating the Omniscient Narrator 23:11 Research Process and Accuracy 24:33 Obsessive Train Research 25:24 Reading Mrs Worth 26:41 Emma and Motherhood Judgment 29:50 Luna Defends Neurodiverse Kids 33:31 Lawyer Mindset in Fiction 34:54 Next Book and Character Voices Get full access to Elena Meets the Author at elenabowes.substack.com/subscribe