Read our Q&A with Karly Lane, Author of A Stone’s Throw Away

Briefly tell us about your new novel A Stone’s Throw Away.

Pip Davenport is a journalist on leave, writing a book about a huge corruption case she recently broke and needed a quiet place to get away and write it. Unfortunately, the discovery of some bones in the bottom of a dam on the property suddenly throws her peace and quiet into chaos. As hard as she tries to ignore the ‘bones’ case going on, it’s next to impossible with the little community around her in a tailspin about who it could be. The lure of the mysterious story eventually drags her away and she finds herself immersed in a cold case from the nineteen forties.

What inspired the idea behind this book?

I’d been thinking about the last big drought we’d just come out of and thought how so many places had water holes dry up that hadn’t done so in generations, and it kind of went from there. Imagine getting rid of a body in a dam that never dried up… only it did!

What was the research process like for the book?

I had so much fun researching this book. It started off with finding the right bits and pieces that would be at a crime scene from the era, then moved on to WWII in the Pacific.

I discovered a part of our war history I’d never heard of before with the capture and execution of both servicemen and women as well as civilians living in and around Rabaul when the Japanese attacked. It was a tragic story, but as soon as I read about it, I knew I needed to include it in my storyline somehow.

What is something that has influenced you as a writer?

I grew up on teenage romance novels and then later Mills and Boon, so I think that background growing up shaped the fact I tend to always have some kind of romance in my books, even though that may not be the central theme of the storyline.

Are you able to switch off at the end of a day of writing? If so, how?

Usually I can switch off. Although on occasion, when you’re thinking about something else, I find that’s when you suddenly get a great idea about a story line or solve the problem you’ve been trying to figure out in a plot that hadn’t been working.

Buy a copy of A Stone’s Throw Away here.