Third book for analyst turned author
Turangi-based author Jen Shieff has touched on subjects as diverse as prostitution, homosexuality and feminism, and as disturbing as voyeurism, murder and paedophilia in her crime fiction trilogy.
But, after the launch of The Final Call she said she’s done with crime novels and wants to move onto different subject matter, but what that will be is yet to be determined.
The Final Call is a standalone sequel to her previous two novels The Gentleman’s Club and The Vanishing Act – both finalists in the Ngaio Marsh Awards – and was released this month.
Set in Auckland in 1979, where fashion and music are breaking boundaries, but prostitution is still illegal and male homosexuality is still a crime, the story follows Carmel O’Sullivan and her sister Tess, top call-girls in Rita Saunders’ gentlemen’s club.
Without spoiling the book, the reader learns of the murder of Tess and that their younger sister Maxine dies on the ill-fated Air New Zealand flight to Mt Erebus in Antarctica.
But, was Tess also embroiled in New Zealand’s burgeoning heroin trade, and why is Carmel’s ex-husband Mike lurking about?
Needless to say, but Carmel finds her life is on the line.
The Final Call delves into a world where issues such as prostitution, homosexuality and gender inequality are still relevant 40 years later.
‘‘I picked crime because I didn’t trust myself as a first time novel writer, I wanted to write literary fiction and do popular fiction to attract an audience,’’ Shieff said.
‘‘Prostitution has been a theme in each of the novels, and I’m trying to show there’s nothing wrong what that.’’
Shieff was a senior government policy analyst for 20 years before leaving in 2015 to realise her long-held ambition of becoming an author – she has an MA in English Literature and Education from the University of Auckland.
She began investigating historic crimes, real and imagined, envisaging a series of standalone stories, set 10 years apart in the 50s, 60s, and the 70s, and all three of her books were influenced by Auckland’s famous madam Flora MacKenzie.
‘‘Flora appealed to me because of her independence, her outsider status, the waves she caused and her ability to survive slings and arrows,’’ Shieff said.
‘‘She, like my character Rita, had an unfailing belief in the value of the work she and her girls did decades before New Zealand’s parliament did, and that it shouldn’t have been considered a crime.’’
With the conclusion of the trilogy behind her, Shieff said she wants to continue to entertain people with her writing.
‘‘I’ve always had to write and what I’m doing now is weekly film reviews, but I will have to do something else soon.
‘‘But, it won’t be crime fiction and I want to move into other genres.
‘‘I’m fascinated by biographies, but the level of research for a biography is at another level.’’
The Final Call, by Jen Shieff, was published by Mary Egan Publishing and is in bookstores now.
All three of her novels are available at Paper Plus Taupō and Naylors Bookshop in Turangi.