Shelf Reflection is our series where we explore the bookshelves and reading habits of some of our favourite authors. In this latest instalment, bestselling author Aoife Clifford talks to us about cosy crime, reading widely and her new novel, It Takes a Town.
Images: Supplied.
It Takes a Town is a small-town mystery. Could you tell us how it came about?
It Takes a Town is my fourth novel and all of my books have an element of small town about them (though Janet, one of my characters, would prefer the term ‘regional centre’). Partly, this is because I grew up in a country town (Bathurst, NSW, which inspired my fictional town, Welcome), but also because it works so wonderfully for the mystery genre. When you have a small-town setting, there is the implicit promise of a limited pool of suspects and that the reader will have met the ‘murderer’ before they are unmasked, which is so much more interesting. And I also think that even those of us who live in the city recreate our own version of ‘small towns’. It’s a very human response to want to belong to a tight-knit community.
The novel sits in the ‘cosy crime’ trend that has been very popular of late. Were there any writers or books that influenced this book?
Crime fiction is a continuum that runs from the fluffiest of cosy to the grittiest of hard-boiled noir. I wanted to write a book that had a sense of humour, a twisty mystery to solve and a setting so compelling that if you took the murder out of the book a reader would still want to spend time with the town and characters.
I wanted to write a book that had a sense of humour.
Australia has some excellent ‘cosy’ or humorous crime writers—Benjamin Stevenson and Amanda Hampson to name just two—but I also enjoy looking to authors in different genres to inform my writing. Behind each of my books, there are a list of favourite authors’ works pushing me to try different techniques and challenge myself. For this book, they were as diverse as Hilary Mantel, Mick Herron and Elizabeth Strout. I also did get a chance for a quick writing chat with the absolute master of the cosy crime novel, Richard Osman.
Cosy crime novels: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (2022), The Tea Ladies (2023), The Thursday Murder Club (2021).
If I had to pick just one book it would be Strout’s Olive Kitteridge. It’s a book centred on the difficult and complicated Olive, a retired maths teacher. It is a master class in storytelling, offers multiple points of view and has wonderful insight into human nature and the complexity of ordinary lives. I thought about it often as I ‘built’ Welcome and the characters in it.
What are you currently reading?
As I’m also a bookseller, I am usually reading advance copies of novels about to be published. I always have a few on the go. At the moment they are My Friends by Hisham Matar and The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill. After that, I can’t wait to read Colm Tóibín’s new book (I love Irish fiction!) Long Island and Sarah Bailey’s Body of Lies.
The book I’ve just finished, Safe Haven by Shankari Chandran, could be described in many different ways. But as a crime writer, I’m going to say that it is a murder mystery set on both a remote island and a small country town (see, even Miles Franklin winners like those settings!). It has a lot to say about our current political discourse, the world around us and our ability to create community no matter how dire the circumstances. If you loved Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (and who didn’t?), you will love this book. It’s out in May.
Recent reads: My Friends (2024), The Mystery Writer (2024), Safe Haven (2024).
What kind of reader are you?
I always have a book with me just in case I get a spare five minutes. It is a rare book that I don’t finish. My absolute favourites are re-read and picked over again and again to glean as much as I can. The last book I reread was Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, which I think is a masterpiece.
I always have a book with me just in case I get a spare five minutes.
I think people expect crime writers to read mostly crime fiction, but I find most crime writers read quite broadly. I don’t know if it would surprise anyone, but I do love a dystopian novel. If you haven’t read Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven, rush to get it from your bookstore now.
What does your book collection look like?
Only yesterday a family member described our home as sinking in books. That might give you a sense of how many we have and how haphazardly they are scattered around the house in ever-increasing piles.
Images: Supplied.
What books are you constantly recommending other people read?
I’m an independent bookseller, so I spend my life recommending books to people (best part of the job). I always start by trying to get a sense of what people want to read because the goal is to find the ‘perfect’ book for them. Also, I like recommending books that they might not find themselves (the bestsellers don’t need help).
My top reads from last year were Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies, Naomi Alderman’s The Future, Zadie Smith’s The Fraud and Kate Grenville’s Restless Dolly Maunder.
A family member described our home as sinking in books.
Australian crime writing is really strong. I can’t wait to see what authors like Emma Viskic, Margaret Hickey, Vikki Petraitis and Hayley Scrivenor do next. I think Garry Disher is the social chronicler of our times.
If you could meet any character from a book, who would it be?
I think it would be Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell, though the truth is I would like to go back in time to meet the real one to see if she captured him accurately in her Wolf Hall trilogy. I would definitely be a new character with ideas about how Anne of Cleves may not be a good idea for Henry’s fourth wife.
What’s next for you?
Events are getting organised for It Takes a Town, which I’m looking forward to, and I’ve started book number five, which is slowly coming into focus.
Also: the Indigenous Literacy Foundation is a cause close to the heart of many bookshops, including where I work. They do great work and you can support them and your local indie bookshop at the same time!
It Takes a Town is out now via Ultimo Press.
