AMY DOAK’s Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire sees her titular character return in another fast-paced YA mystery. Read on for a Q&A with the author.
What are you reading now?
I’m late to the party, but I’ve been working my way through the ‘Murderbot’ series in and around other reads this year and I’m just loving it! Action packed, fun and funny, I can see why everyone has been raving about it. I’ve also just finished reading an early copy of Nova Weetman’s upcoming middle grade rom com – Sonny & Tess. I smiled the entire way through it. It’s charming and beautiful and just the joy we need in the world right now!
If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only have five books – what would they be?
I’m not much of a re-reader, but one book I’ve always enjoyed revisiting is The Scarlet Pimpernel – funny and clever, you find more to enjoy with each round. If it’s not cheating, perhaps a compilation of Agatha Christie stories … being stranded on a desert island would be a wonderful excuse to unpack her mystery writing prowess. Middlemarch by George Eliot is fairly hefty and is one of those books that you get something different out of it each time you read it, so that would be a good classic to choose. I’ve never read any of Robert Ludlam’s ‘Bourne’ series – but I love the movies – so perhaps a desert island would be a good chance to give that a go. It would probably also make sense to have a survival guide as well!
Where is your favourite place to read?
I have a daybed in my back garden and when it’s nice and sunny, and no one needs me to be anywhere else, there’s no better place to sit with a good book!
Do you read one book at a time or multiple?
I tend to always have a fiction and a non-fiction book on the go at a minimum, and sometimes if I’m reading a book for work, or for a writer friend, then that would make a third. I love the idea of reading one thing at a time, but it never seems to work out that way.
Do you use a bookmark or fold the corners of pages?
I try so hard not to fold corners, but I have been guilty of that over the years. I bought myself some beautiful bookmarks a few years ago, and having one of those handy has made me much better at using one.
What can you tell us about Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire?
The story takes place just a couple of weeks after the events in Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep A Secret. Eleanor is unsure about her emerging relationship with Troy but doesn’t have long to obsess over it, because we open the book with the house down the street up in flames. When a body is found in the ashes, and Eleanor finds a note in her school bag warning her to stay away, it isn’t long before she’s caught up in another mystery.
How did you go about developing the central mystery in your latest novel?
I knew I wanted a fire at heart of this story, but when I chatted with a friend who is a firefighter, I realised pretty quickly that all my grand plans for the story – and a potential bushfire – just weren’t going to work. As soon as I changed the way the fires took place, and what came from each one, the mystery started to take on a life of its own! I also loved the idea of a ‘locked room’ style mystery, where we know our suspects at the very beginning of the book and each of them seem to have a reason to be the culprit.
Where did the character of Eleanor Jones come from?
It may sound strange, but Eleanor came to me fully formed! I’d been working on another manuscript and when I finished that book, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about next. This smart, sarcastic 16-year-old girl appeared and told me she was ready to tell me her story! I had two really clear scenes in my head – the initial chapter with Eleanor on the bus, going to her new school, and a later scene where she runs from an abandoned factory. Those two ‘moments’ and Eleanor’s voice were the beginning of everything.
What’s your favourite romance trope? Why?
I think I love all of them! Slow burn, Friends To Lovers is always so rewarding … but Enemies to Lovers is such fun, especially if the banter is great! Perhaps the one I really enjoy is Forced Proximity – knowing before the characters do that something is going to happen, and then wondering how it will play out, is always so enjoyable.
What book character would you be, and why?
Given I’m a crime and thriller reader, when I think about some of my favourite books, and then the things those poor characters have to go through to get to the end, I’m not sure I would want to be any of them!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Doak writes mysteries filled with action, adventure, fun and heart. Her debut Young Adult novel Eleanor Jones is not a Murderer won the 2024 Davitt Award for Best Crime Novel; was a CBCA 2024 notable; and was shortlisted for both the 2024 ABIA Awards Books of the Year for Older Readers, and for the 2024 Davitt Awards Best Debut Crime Novel. She has two more mysteries for teens coming out in 2025.
Amy lives in regional Victoria with her husband, two teenage children, dog, and a very grumpy cat.
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