{"id":157079,"date":"2021-12-02T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=157079"},"modified":"2021-12-07T08:38:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T21:38:05","slug":"read-a-qa-with-anna-downes-author-and-bad-sydney-crime-writers-festival-panellist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/12\/02\/read-a-qa-with-anna-downes-author-and-bad-sydney-crime-writers-festival-panellist\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Anna Downes, author and BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival panellist!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anna Downes was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but now lives on the NSW Central Coast with her husband and two children. She studied Drama at the University of Manchester, trained to be an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and worked extensively in television and theatre before turning her attention to writing. Her internationally bestselling debut novel, The Safe Place, was published in 2020 and shortlisted for the 2021 Davitt Award for Best Crime Debut. The Shadow House<\/a><\/strong> is her keenly anticipated second book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Anna Downes is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about The Shadow House, as well as her appearance at the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival this weekend. Read on!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Anna<\/a>

Anna Downes<\/p><\/div>\n

Please tell us about your book, The Shadow House<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

AD:<\/strong> The Shadow House<\/em> follows a single mum, Alex, as she flees an abusive relationship with her baby girl and teenage son and moves to a remote ecovillage just north of Sydney. At first Pine Ridge seems safe, idyllic, and perfect for her needs \u2013 but Alex\u2019s arrival in the community triggers a strange and sinister chain of events that has her wondering if she is being targeted. And then when she discovers that the same strange things happened six years earlier to a woman who used to live on the land over which the ecovillage was built, and that the woman\u2019s son vanished as a result, Alex realises that in order to protect her family in the present she must step into the shadows and confront the darkness of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n

Where did the inspiration for this book come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> I was very affected by something a friend said over coffee one day, a single mother who told me that she was struggling with her fourteen-year-old son. \u201cWe used to be best friends,\u201d she said, \u201cbut recently he\u2019s completely changed. He\u2019s sullen, aggressive, and never leaves his room. He\u2019s not the same kid anymore, it\u2019s like he\u2019s possessed.\u201d Shortly afterwards I stumbled across a ton of YouTube videos in which teenage vloggers, mainly boys, were unpacking \u2018mystery boxes\u2019 purchased over the dark web, boxes that contained extremely sinister items. I myself had very young kids at the time and wasn\u2019t getting much sleep, and my imagination just went haywire. The thought of trying to raise kids in a world ruled by technology, a world I don\u2019t fully understand because I grew up without the internet, was completely terrifying. And because fiction is the way I process things I\u2019m afraid of or don\u2019t understand, I wanted to explore that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settings of both The Safe Place<\/em> and The Shadow House<\/em> are meant to be idyllic, secure locations, but they\u2019re masking dangerous secrets. As a crime writer, what do you love about that kind of set-up?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> Masks are interesting to me because it\u2019s so easy to don them nowadays (and no, I\u2019m not talking about Covid masks). We live in an age dominated by surface presentation and \u2018live your best life\u2019 culture. Through social media, we are more in control than ever of what we choose to show to others and what we hide, and in turn we idealise and fetishise other ways of living \u2013 but everyone is carrying something and even the most beautiful places have dark corners. I love the visual and aesthetic possibilities of that, of peeling back pretty layers to reveal darkness. I also like the idea of playing with genre traditions, and unusual settings (especially gorgeous, secure, covetable ones) are a way to do that. You don\u2019t necessarily expect danger in those places, it\u2019s incongruous, and so by luring the reader into a world they actually want to be in you can more effectively pull the rug out when the threat is introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope readers will discover in The Shadow House<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> One of the main reasons I write is to explore a particular scenario or phenomenon or perspective that initially seems incomprehensible to me, and I\u2019m always looking to make an emotional connection with the reader. So, with The Shadow House<\/em> I hope that readers feel immersed in the characters\u2019 lives, that they find resonance with their own, and that they come away feeling like they\u2019ve seen life through someone else\u2019s eyes. I feel strongly that fiction is a conversation between reader and writer and that the best way to build suspense is to leave space for your reader\u2019s imagination to fill in the blanks, so I hope the story is fully engaging and that it sparks thoughts and ideas about motherhood, family relationships and parental fear. I also want to deliver a shot of adrenaline to the system; I want you checking your windows at night and jumping at the sound of leaves in the wind. Because that\u2019s always fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘The thought of trying to raise kids in a world ruled by technology, a world I don\u2019t fully understand because I grew up without the internet, was completely terrifying. And because fiction is the way I process things I\u2019m afraid of or don\u2019t understand, I wanted to explore that.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re appearing at the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival, which starts today. Can you tell us a little bit about your panel and what you\u2019ll be speaking about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> The session is called \u2018What Lies Beneath the Surface\u2019 and I\u2019ll be chatting with Barry Maitland, Wendy James and Suzanne Leal about personal relationships gone wrong, greed, fear and suppressed secrets \u2013 which is all right up my street! I think we might be discussing how each of our (very different) books peels back the layers of a particular situation or setting to reveal the secrets underneath, and why complex relationships are so often at the heart of suspense novels. We might talk about why good people do bad things, and what crime feels like from the inside as opposed to what it might look like on the outside. Suzanne is a fantastic moderator though and will undoubtedly lead us off in unexpected directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which BAD Festival events are you looking forward to the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> Um, all of them? I loved Sarah Bailey\u2019s new book The Housemate<\/em> and am excited to hear her talk about how she put that together. I\u2019m a big Mark Brandi fan and currently halfway through The Others<\/em>, so I\u2019m very interested to hear him chat with Lyn Yeowart about writing vivid and authentic child narrators. There are some amazing debut crime writers on the Fresh Blood panels (Loraine Peck, Margaret Hickey and Ruth McIver among others) and as a fairly new writer myself I\u2019m very keen to support them. I\u2019m also a massive fan of Laura Elizabeth Woollett\u2019s work and I\u2019m really looking forward to her panel about choosing to lean more into the crime genre for her new novel. Oh, and I just finished Michael Robotham\u2019s brilliant When You Were Mine<\/em> so I\u2019ll be heading to his session too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the other panels at the Festival (\u2018To Kill The Dog Or Not, That Is The Question\u2019) asks the question of whether or not there\u2019s a line that crime writers should not cross, or else risk alienating their readers. Do you agree or disagree? Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> Such a great question. I both agree and disagree. On one hand, I think writers should write what they want to write regardless of what they think other people want to read. With specific regards to the session title, lots of readers hate cruelty to animals but the story is always the boss and if the plot genuinely requires a dead dog then that\u2019s what goes in the book. On the other hand, a huge part of our job as storytellers is connecting with readers and fiction has an enormous role to play in the shaping of cultural norms, so it\u2019s important that we take note of what might possibly alienate people in a larger sense and try to understand the reasons for it. Dead dogs aside, I think we have a responsibility to question how the stories we tell and consume can frame the ways in which we view ourselves and each other. For example, there\u2019s a great deal of pushback at the moment against the dead-or-missing-girl trope; many readers (quite rightly) don\u2019t want to see any more crime stories that feature graphic violence against women, especially sexual violence, and that\u2019s certainly something to pay attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favourite thing about the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> The energy in the room. I\u2019ve loved the accessibility and ubiquity of online events throughout the pandemic, but there\u2019s nothing like the buzz you get from throwing around ideas in the real-life company of other creative minds. Also, the Aussie crime writing community is amazing, everyone is lovely, so it\u2019s just a real treat to hang out with friends and continue the conversations in the pub afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the last book you read and loved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> Two have really stood out for me this year: The Last House on Needless Street<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Catriona Ward, and Razorblade Tears<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by S.A. Cosby. I\u2019ve also just finished an advance copy of Benjamin Stevenson\u2019s new book Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (out March 29th 2022) and it is absolutely fantastic. So fresh and wry and clever. One of the most enjoyable crime novels I\u2019ve read in ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AD:<\/strong> I\u2019ve just started work on a third novel which I can\u2019t say too much about at the moment, but it\u2019s another mystery\/thriller, this time about solo female travel and life on the road, and I\u2019m very, very excited to write it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Anna!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014The Shadow House<\/a><\/em> by Anna Downes (Affirm Press) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival is on now until Sunday 5 December, in-person and livestreamed \u2014 get your tickets here<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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