KATE EMERY is the bestselling author of My Family and Other Suspects, and now she’s back with A Murder is Going Down, a brilliant and hilarious cosy YA crime for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson. Read on for a Q&A.
ABOUT THE BOOK
This is what happens when you put a pair of unemployed teenagers in charge of a murder investigation. What we lack in investigative skills we make up for in free time.
Heidi’s meant to be having the time of her life on exchange in Switzerland, but instead she’s cold, alone and on an involuntary dairy-free diet. So when she hears the news of her brother Felix’s death, she’s quick to jump on the first plane home to Perth.
To be completely honest, Felix wasn’t that much of a brother, so Heidi’s not that sad – but she’s not exactly happy either. Thanks to an epic betrayal by her (ex) best friend and (ex) boyfriend, Heidi has absolutely nothing to do and no one to talk to. No one, that is, except Patrick, the wisecracking younger brother of Felix’s widow, who convinces her that they need to investigate her brother’s mysterious demise.
Can Heidi and Patrick get to the bottom of Felix’s death – and do they really want to?
MEET KATE EMERY
What sparked the idea for A Murder Is Going Down?
I’ve always been a little scared of being in a lift when it breaks down. It’s one part a fear of heights and one part claustrophobia. Plus, I’ve just seen too many movies where terrible things happen when lifts break down.
The idea for A Murder Is Going Down came to me when I was in a glass lift and started wondering what it would be like if the lift broke down and I witnessed something terrible outside the lift while being unable to prevent it. The book ended up a long way from that initial idea but that’s where it started.
What can you tell us about the central mystery in this story?
Felix is having dinner with his wife and friends when he falls to his death to the river below his house and drowns. Most people seem to think it’s a tragic accident. But when Felix’s teenage sister Heidi looks closer at his death she begins to suspect that it might not have been an accident at all.
What can readers expect from Heidi and Patrick’s journey in this novel?
Patrick is Heidi’s ally in the investigation into Felix’s death. It’s Patrick who first gets suspicious that Felix was murdered and convinces Heidi it was no accident. The pair of them start of as sparring partners and quickly become genuine friends – not least because they’re both feeling a little lost in their lives for different reasons. There’s also a romantic spark between them, which only makes things more complicated when Heidi starts to wonder about Patrick’s role in Felix’s death.
What did you find most challenging or rewarding about writing this novel?
A Murder Is Going Down starts with Heidi getting stuck in a lift with a stranger. Because they have nothing better to do, Heidi starts telling this woman the story of how her brother Felix died and the story jumps between Heidi in the present, stuck in the lift and Heidi of the past, investigating Felix’s death. This is the first book I’ve written that plays with time jumps and, while that was really fun, it was also a challenge.
What do you love about the mystery genre? And what draws you to telling these kinds of stories?
I’ve loved murder mysteries since the first time I picked up an Agatha Christie novel and fell in love with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I love the way a good mystery can be incredibly tense and readable but also reassuring: we know the detective will solve the crime at the end of the book. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing all the pieces of a book come together in a way you didn’t see coming – but which feels completely right. Writing a story like that feels like pulling off a magic trick.
What was your writing process like?
I have a terrible writing process that nobody should ever try to emulate. I start with an idea for a murder and just start writing. Sometimes I have an idea of where I want the story to end up and sometimes I have no idea where it’s going. Either way, I do very little planning before I start, which means I have to do a lot of rewriting along the way. I have tried to plan out books before I start writing but I find I get bored. I want my characters to surprise me and to discover the solution along with my detective.
Which authors or books do you admire?
This question both delights me and stresses me out because there are so many authors I admire and books that I love. In the murder mystery genre right now I love Australian authors Benjamin Stevenson, Amy Doak and Troy Hunter. And Alex Dook’s Gunpowder Creek – a crime novel set in Western Australia – is the biggest page turner I’ve read in a while. More generally, in YA fiction, Lili Wilkinson and AJ Betts cannot write a bad book and Krystal Sutherland’s The Invocations was one of my favourite books of this year.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Emery is an award-winning, best selling author from Perth, Western Australia. Her books include cosy YA murder mysteries A Murder Is Going Down (Allen & Unwin, 2025), My Family and Other Suspects (Allen & Unwin, 2024) and YA fantasy The Not So Chosen One (Text Publishing, 2022).
0 Comments