AOIFE CLIFFORD

The best-selling author returns with a thriller about an unexpected death in a country town

What is It Takes a Town about?

It Takes A Town is about Vanessa Walton, a former TV child star. Now in her 40s, with her celebrity power dimming, she’s returned to her home town. Suddenly, she’s famous for the worst reason when her body is found at the bottom of her stairs. Vanessa’s nosy neighbour, Janet, tells police it will take the town to solve this murder and Janet is never wrong.

Is there a book that made you love writing?

The first “grownup” book I read was Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers, the perfect mix of friendship, swashbuckling adventure, fabulous fashion and one of the greatest villains ever written.

What’s the best book you’ve read?

Hard to choose but how about best “twist” of all time (every crime writer’s favourite plot device), which is Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

I’ve borrowed ideas, techniques and inspiration from Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore.

The book you couldn’t finish?

James Joyce’s Ulysses but I know I’m not alone.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

I bought Middlemarch four years ago and my bookmark remains stuck at Chapter Two. One day, George Eliot!

The book you are most proud to have written?

My latest, It Takes A Town. I always wanted to write a crime book with a sense of humour and how hard that was to do is still fresh in my mind.

Your favourite place to read?

My back garden in a hammock under the umbrella on a summer afternoon. It is also my favourite place for a daytime nap. These two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

What book do you re-read?

I’m currently re-reading thriller Tana French’s The Searcher to get ready for the sequel.

What books are on your bedside table?

So many books and not just on the bedside table. I’ve just finished an advance copy of Colm Toibin’s sequel to Brooklyn, Long Island, which was brilliant and I’m about to start Sulari Gentill’s The Mystery Writer.

What are you writing next?

I’m starting my fifth novel. So far I’ve got a large country estate, a dysfunctional, wealthy family and the arrival of a stranger, who might be closely related. Next decision is who to kill. It Takes a Town by Aoife Clifford,

Ultimo Press, $35