Margie Maccoll
The life of a crime writer came under the microscope last week when three of Australia’s most successful crime writers sat down for a conversation in front of an audience at The J Theatre as part of the Noosa Alive festival.
Former investigative journalist Michael Robotham’s debut thriller ’The Suspect’ sold more than a million copies, was adapted into a TV series and launched a nine-book series.
Many of Candice Fox’s novels have been adapted to television and film productions including Crimson Lake, which hit the screens as Troppo.
The award winning author has since teamed up with the world’s bestselling author American James Patterson for several crime novels.
JP Pomare is an award winning author whose book In the Clearing was made into a Disney+ original series and Tell me Lies as an Audible number one bestseller.
All three authors admitted some experience with crime as children.
“I committed a crime at the age of six,“ Michael said.
Taking a box of matches from home he built a little camp fire in a back paddock on his family farm in north Gundagai. After a seven year drought it spread quickly to surrounding fences and barns, but 15 fire units prevented it from reaching houses.
“I raised the alarm and crawled under the house with the red back spiders, thinking the whole town had burnt down,“ he said.
“My father opened a trap door and said come out and take your punishment like a man. I said I’m not a man I’m just a boy.“
Candice told the audience her dad worked in prisons while her mum had six kids and fostered about 150 kids when she was growing up.
Sitting on the couch with her parents, she “could hear all the criminal stories“ and “every single one of those foster kids came with a crime story“.
James grew up the youngest of four children on a farm in Rotorua, New Zealand.
“My dad’s responsible in large part for the inception of the Mongrel Mob in New Zealand. It was benign back then,“ he said.
“My uncle was wanted by police in New Zealand, was arrested in Australia. He’s my dad’s twin. I know a little bit about crime.“
Not one of the three started out with the intention of writing crime novels but each has embraced the genre.
“I hesitated to write crime. I don’t know why because I knew so much about crime,“ said Candice who found no success with her initial writing attempts on vampires and werewolves, before she wrote her bestseller Hades.
Michael said he had no idea he was becoming a crime writer when he wrote Suspect until it was put in the crime section. When he told his agent he was thinking of writing a romance next he was told “you’re a crime writer“.
“I said, ’since when’, they said, ’read your contract’. That’s when I knew I was a crime writer,“ he said.
Researching their novels can lead to some crazy situations such as the time Candice visited serial killer Lawrence Bittaker on Death Row in San Quentin prison in California.
“I wrote to him, asked can I come visit. He murdered at least five young ladies and a host of more, I think,“ she said.
Prison guards told her he’d be in a cage when she spoke to him.
“There was a floor to ceiling shark cage with bullet proof glass,“ she said. When she asked where she was going to be, they said, “in there“.
“He’s cuffed. I climb into the cage. They shut the door, padlock it. We’re sitting knee to knee. They uncuff him then they walk away. I’m like, this is how I die.
“It was all very terrifying.“
James almost experienced prison life himself when he tried to get into prison to speak with inmates, trying to find out more about life on the inside, before discovering it was a crime to break into prison.
While their research may take them into some unusual places, their process of writing was varied.
“I have no idea how a book ends when I begin. To me it’s an exciting, organic way to write,“ Michael said.
“If I can’t see it coming I think the reader won’t see it coming. It means I throw a lot of material away that doesn’t work.“
Candice explained the methodical process she and American novelist James Patterson undertake in their collaboration, having now completed about 10 books together since they were introduced by her agent.
“He grew up in advertising, he’s a businessman. It’s very rigidly controlled,“ she said.
“We call each other up, have a conversation – what do you want to write about?. We come up with one pager, show it to the publishers, they say they’re happy with it.
“I write up a mini-outline, about 3000 to 4000 words. I sketch it out, it’ll go to him, come back with changes, notes.
“There’s lots of phone calls, Zooms.
“The actual brunt work is me. I’ll write 5000 words at a time, send it to him, he’ll come back with comments.
“It’s hard, he’s very intimidating. He talks like a freight train. I don’t forget I’m working with the world’s most successful writer.
“It’s stressful, it’s done wonderful things for me in my career, the money is amazing.“
On a humorous note James told the audience his appearance at The J was not his most awkward introduction to Noosa and recalled one after the release of his first novel.
“I went to a bookshop to sign some books with my publicist. The shop owner said before you go someone bought a stack of books yesterday. I said the author’s coming today, said you’d sign it.
“The woman came up to me and said ’I love your book’, ’I can’t believe it’s your first book’ – just gushing.
“This hadn’t happened,“ he said.
“She reached into her bag and pulled out Boy swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. So there’s a copy somewhere in Noosa with my signature in it. I was so mortified.“
Each of the authors has a newly released crime novel.
For Michael Robotham it’s Storm Child. The fourth in his Cyrus Haven series, Michael said it gives readers the tragic back story to its character Evie who has the ability to know when someone is lying.
Candice Fox has released Devil’s Kitchen, a story that explores when the city’s greatest heroes, its firefighters become its darkest criminals.
JP Pomare’s new novel is 17 Years later. Inspired by real events in New Zealand, it tells the story of a private chef who was fired by his employer a day before the whole family are murdered. After spending 17 years in prison a podcaster takes an interest in his case, believing in his innocence.
