What made you set Last One Out as a small-town mystery? Is there something that intrigues you about this environment?
The setting in Last One Out was built around a sense of profound loss for a place that was once beautiful and beloved by its community. The idea of a skeletal town that has become a mere shadow of itself had a natural feel of intrigue for me that worked really well for a novel like this with a strong crime and mystery thread. The question of why a handful of people would choose to stay in a place where nearly everything they loved had disappeared was the one that drew me in to this story, and the isolation of the setting invokes loneliness and danger, while the mystery unspools between characters whose relationships stretch back a long way, in ways both good and bad.
Was there a particular book that inspired you to begin writing crime books, and what do you love about them?
My love for crime novels has been inspired by a hundred different authors over the years, and I enjoy both reading and writing them for the same reasons that draw so many others to the genre. Everyone loves a good mystery and the chance to play armchair detective in a world where nothing’s at stake. There’s also a lovely satisfaction in seeing justice done and wrongs righted by the time I turn the final page.
Is there anything that you would like our readers to closely observe or consider when reading Last One Out?
My only hope when readers pick up the book is that they enjoy it. Reading novels should be fun and relaxing, and everyone gets something different from a book. My aim is just to create a story and characters that readers can sink into for a few intriguing hours.
Last One Out is deeply rooted in the mother-son relationship and what happens to a mother when their child disappears. What interested you about exploring Ro's complicated emotions as she returns to the site of her son’s disappearance?
The mystery in Last One Out centres around the disappearance of 21-year-old Sam, but at its heart, this book is really about his mother Ro. It’s through her eyes that we feel the sense of terrible loss and the lingering grief of unanswered questions. We care about Sam because Ro cares deeply about Sam, and we grow to know him through her.
The passage of time also plays an interesting role in the story's development. Why was including the five-year gap important to the narrative?
The quiet aftermath of a tragedy is a really interesting place to set a story. The frantic chaos of the incident itself has passed and the dust has started to settle but the uneasiness remains. Characters are forced in that time to reflect on their own actions, what they did or didn’t know, and consider what they could have done differently.
