Category: News

We are absolutely delighted to have an exclusive interview with James Delargy, author of Vanished, which is out on 30^th September (Simon & Schuster). A riveting, atmospheric thriller set in the Australian Outback, its complex narrative is full of eye-watering twists and it will leave you wrong-footed and utterly chilled.

Here’s what it’s about:

When you go looking for a new start, make sure you don’t find a nightmare instead. 

The Kane family, Lorcan, Naiyana and their young son, relocate from Perth to Kallayee, an abandoned mining town in the Great Victoria Desert to start over again, free from their chequered past.

The town seems like the perfect getaway: Peaceful. Quiet. Remote. Somewhere they won’t be found.

But life in Kallayee isn’t quite as straightforward as they hope. There are noises in the earth, mysterious shadows and tracks in the dust, as if the town is coming back to life.

But the family won’t leave. No one can talk sense into them.

And now, no one can talk to them at all.

They’ve simply vanished. 

Now it’s up to Detective Emmaline Taylor to find them… before it’s too late.

The fabulous Caz Frear called it ‘‘Intense, insightful and impossible to put down’, and we couldn’t agree more!

1. ‘Outback Noir’ has become increasingly popular. What do you think is the appeal, and which books would you recommend?

The appeal of Outback Noir in my opinion is the endless opportunity and the room for manoeuvre that the blank canvas of the vast and mostly empty space provides. There is the inherent danger of the land itself, which is multiplied by the remoteness. There is the magnificent landscape that makes for a very rich well of ideas and offers any number of possibilities to entertain and shock the reader. This plus the threat and knowledge a reader has of what humans might visit upon other humans given seclusion and opportunity. And this breadth of options appeals to me as a writer to, the opportunity to visit anything on the page makes it a dream to write about.

As for top books, the first Outback Noir novel that I was introduced to was The Dry, which was suggested to me by my agent after I had submitted my novel – 55 – to her. I was lost in the magnificence of it and it immediately made me a Jane Harper fan, though if I had to choose one book – and had to choose – then I would plump for The Lost Man, which is a deliciously fantastic piece of storytelling and family dynamics.

As for other novels and novelists in the general Outback Noir arena I would definitely suggest visiting Chris Hammer’s Scrublands, Susan Allott’s The Silence, anything by Mark Brandi or Emma Viskic, and recently a writing friend of mine introduced me to Garry Disher and I quickly fell in love with his Paul Hirschhausen series.

2. Is writing a second book harder than it looks? What was your experience?

Every book is hard. I haven’t come across one that hasn’t been a struggle at some points. Maybe someday.

In my experience books are about the central idea. If the idea comes quickly, fully enough formed, or has that internal motor that breeds and feeds ideas then the whole process is akin to being on a boat sailing across the ocean. When the ideas are flowing that engine powers the boat along, cutting through the waves or anything that seeks to halt that progress. But if that engine or idea isn’t there then it comes down to sheer exertion to power the boat, getting tossed around on the waves. The process is the same but it is rockier and there is a lot more perspiration and frustration involved.

As for Vanished being a second book, it both is and it isn’t. I have a number of other unpublished novels so my first novel – 55 – was, in fact, the eighth novel that I had completed, so after finishing 55, the issue became: Can I find that inspiration or key that set 55 out from the rest of my work and from the many other novels being published? Could I recapture that inspiration?

The final result isn’t for me to judge but I did find this novel more difficult to plot. For Vanished I wanted the reader to be in the shoes of both sides of the story – both past and present – the detective working the investigation trying to find out what happened to the family, alongside what actually happened to the family. This was the hardest part of the novel to balance, the different storylines and points of view, so when I was outlining it I had to write each person’s story out in full, then try to weave them in together so that the two main timelines fed into each other pushing towards a thrilling climax and the truth of what happened out there, in the desert.

3. Tell us about your inspiration for Vanished. Does everyone secretly want a chance to start again … to go somewhere new and to forget their pasts? What was your starting point for this book? Was it written in the pandemic, when we all wanted to escape?

The setting of the abandoned mining town of Kallayee plays an integral role in the novel and in fact it was the genesis of the story itself. As a break from what I was working on, I was wasting time doing some random Internet and Wikipedia searches on abandoned railway stations close to where I live – what they looked like then and now – for absolutely no reason other than curiosity. Following this wormhole for a while I ended up on some pages regarding abandoned towns in Western Australia. Which got me thinking; what if someone decided to live in one of these towns? Even a whole family? Why would they want to move there? Why would they need to move there?

This was all I had at the start but the novel quickly expanded from that simple idea of a family moving to an abandoned town into discovering the reason why they had moved and creating the mystery of what had happened to them out there, seemingly all alone, trying to create a new life. The simplicity of the idea – and as mentioned above, the landscape – allowed plenty of scope to create and craft and the novel ended up being a pleasure to write. Eventually.

As for the pandemic, the first draft of the novel was mostly in order before it arrived so it didn’t impact what I was writing but even without it I have always liked to write books about escape in some form and that can be said of a lot of my other unpublished novels, from horror, to zombie, to 1930’s Scotland, to Serbian cops fleeing their homeland to become illegal immigrants in Ireland. And in my opinion that’s what the central job of a book is. To act as an escape. An escape into someone else’s created world, a dip into their imagination. Plus I do enjoy transporting myself to remote locations. It is like a holiday in itself. And we could all do with a holiday right now!

James Delargy was born and raised in Ireland but lived in South Africa, Australia and Scotland, before ending up in semi-rural England where he now lives.

He incorporates this diverse knowledge of towns, cities, landscape and culture picked up on his travels into his writing. He would like to complete a round-the-world series of novels (if only for the chance to indulge in more on-the-ground research).

His debut thriller, 55, was published in 2019 by Simon & Schuster and has been sold in twenty-one territories to date.

Chat to him on Twitter: @jdelargyauthor, or visit his website: Jamesdelargy.com.

Most importantly, buy here:

Bookshop.org – HERE

Waterstones – HERE

Kindle – HERE

Warner Bros. International Television Production Germany (WBITVP Germany) has acquired the exclusive international rights to bestselling Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series. The series will be co-produced with Herbert L. Kloiber’s Night Train Media.

Jónasson said: “I am incredibly honoured and thrilled to be working with Warner Bros. ITVP Germany and Night Train Media. It will be a dream come true to see Ari Thór and the ‘Dark Iceland’ series brought to life on the screen, and I believe that in Warner — with its strong vision and long history of fantastic storytelling — we have found the perfect partner for that adventure.”

You can read the full article about the acquisition here:

https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/ragnar-jonasson-dark-iceland-novel-adaptation-warner-bros-1235036095/

MICHAEL SEARS’ (HALF OF MICHAEL STANLEY) SUMMER READING PICKS

Here’s one for summer. The first line paints the scene: ‘The October sun is as hot as the blood of the angry mob.’ In Femi Kayode’s Lightseekers, set in Nigeria, three young men are mercilessly beaten before being set alight. The question is not who committed the crime, but who was behind it and why. One of the grieving fathers hires Philip Taiwo, an investigative psychologist who specialises in the motives behind crimes and mob violence. He soon finds he’s taken on far more than he bargained for. A great piece of Sunshine Noir!

On a hot day you may prefer something to cool you down. In Snow, John Banville takes us to the Irish countryside in the last days before Christmas 1957. Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called to investigate a gruesome murder of a priest at Ballyglass House. Strafford is no Hercule Poirot, but while we watch him piece it all together, we enjoy the complex characters drawn with beautiful prose and flashes of humour, and watch as the snow deepens, eventually shrouding Strafford’s sergeant. We won’t forget our visit to Ballyglass House.

WEST CAMEL’S SUMMER READING PICKS

I love a big, chunky novel to get my teeth into on holiday, and nearly always take something Victorian, long and wordy with me. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell fits the bill perfectly: interlocking families, beautiful characterisation, psychological insights, plus people to root for, people to detest, and lots of comedy and tragedy. And it’s unfinished!

I always like to take some short stories with me, too – often fitting them in around other reading. Diane Cook’s collection Man V. Nature will make you look at your fellow beach-goers in new ways. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction in some of the dystopian tales, and Lorrie Moore in the odd takes on domestic dramas, every story is strange, arresting and perfectly crafted.

Another must for me on holiday is a good graphic novel or comics collection. Everyone should read something from the Hernandez Brothers’ Love and Rockets series at some point in their lives – and there’s a massive selection to choose from. I’d recommend starting near the beginning: Jaime Hernandez’s The Girl from Hoppers sees punks Maggie the Mechanic and her girlfriend Hopey, and their friends – including female wrestlers and wannabe space heroines – getting into trouble in a Mexican suburb of L.A.. Gilbert Hernandez’s Human Diastrophism takes us to Palomar, a rural town in an unnamed Central American country, where we meet hammer-wielding Luba and her neighbours as their town is ravaged by a serial killer. These comics changed the genre forever, and as one critic put it, you’ll ‘fall in love with the ink on the page’.

MATT WESOLOWSKI’S SUMMER READING PICKS

I’m not a fan of summer – the heat, the light, it really doesn’t benefit a pale attic-dweller like me. This summer, I found the perfect antidote – The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. This is a wonderful, haunting tale of three lighthouse keepers. It’s based on the Flannan Isles mystery of 1900 – but it’s so much more than that. This tale of loss, of longing and of isolation amid the rise and fall of an indifferent sea will whisper winter winds around your heart.

Orenda Books signs German school teacher’s glorious debut novel Tasting Sunlight

Orenda Books are delighted to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights for German author Ewald Arenz’s glorious debut novel Tasting Sunlight (Alte Sorten) from Judith Habermas at Dumont in a two-book deal.

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books says, ‘Tasting Sunlight is a magical book, mysterious, simply written yet beautifully complex – a book that feels so right for current times, with meaningful themes of friendship across generations, of connection between people and with nature, of healing and hope. I first heard about this book at the last physical Frankfurt, and I have been unable to get it out of mind – even more so during lockdown and our enforced isolation – and the fact that school-teacher Ewald’s debut has sold over 100,000 copies in his native Germany is testament to its power.

‘Tasting Sunlight is the story of an unusual friendship that develops between two very different women. Angry teenager Sally has just run away from a clinic where she was to be treated for anorexia, and she comes across Liss, a woman in her forties, running a large farm on her own. From their first encounter, Sally realises that Liss is different from the other grown-ups in her life. Liss expects nothing of Sally and simply accepts who she is, offering her a bed for the night with no questions asked.

‘The overnight stay extends into weeks, as these two damaged women slowly open up – connecting to each other and reconnecting with themselves through their shared work on the land, tending bees, picking fruit, digging the earth, turning over their lives, their past traumas, as they turn the soil. This is an evocative, atmospheric book – sensual – bursting with smells and tastes, the heavy summer heat, and the goodness of fresh air; it’s achingly beautiful, profound, invigorating and uplifting, and an absolutely perfect fit for our list. We are so happy to welcome Ewald to Team Orenda.

Ewald says, ‘I am more than happy to find my book published with Orenda Books. It feels a bit like having found a very familiar, friendly and beautiful home for my story. As an independent publisher, Orenda Books is definitely a lucky strike for a German author and I am looking forward to seeing my book published in such good company.’

Judith says, ‘What a great prospect to see Ewald Arenz‘s novels on the impressive Orenda list and, moreover, to know this author in best hands with the wonderful Orenda team.I envy the English readers who haven’t heard Ewald Arenz‘ voice yet, and still have the joy of discovering an author who can bring the smell of summer to you at any time of year  – and much more.’

Tasting Sunlight will be translated by Rachel Ward, and published in Summer 2022 by Orenda Books, with a second book, One Summer [working title], published in 2023. For more information, please contact Karen@orendabooks.co.uk.