Nicola Solvinic talked to 12News about her second novel, ‘Sister’s Curse,’ which follows cop Anna Koray as she investigates mysterious drownings in her county.
PHOENIX — Her father is a serial killer. She’s a cop. What could possibly go wrong?
Readers are returning to the world of Anna Koray in Nicola Solvinic’s second novel, The Sister’s Curse. The story follows Sheriff’s Lieutenant Anna Koray, who is the daughter of a notorious serial killer, as she investigates mysterious drownings in her county. Are they revenge killings? Or is something darker to blame?
Solvinic sat down with 12News to answer some questions about her debut, The Hunter’s Daughter, and her latest novel, as well as her background in criminology and what is next for her.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Question: First of all, congratulations on The Sister’s Curse! It’s such a great story, thank you for taking the time to chat with me about it. Can you tell me a little bit about how you first got started writing?
Answer: “Thank you so very much!
I’m a voracious reader, and I always wanted to try to write a story myself. I had a summer with some free time, and spent some months sitting in the sunshine, writing. Since I was writing for myself, I got to play with some ideas that had been churning around in my head for a long time. And that was how I pretty much approached it–as an experiment.”
I love that your background in criminology and criminal justice really comes out in your books, but I also wondered if it is hard to write about something you have so much knowledge about/work with every day. Why did you decide to write in the crime thriller genre?
“I think that we often write about what we know, and I’ve absorbed a lot of little details over time: how radio traffic sounds, the way people talk, the atmospheres of prisons and jails. I try to work those bits of reality into an entirely fictional story to make the story seem more believable.
So it felt pretty natural to write about those details–I didn’t have to stop and go on deep research dives. I could just stay in the flow state, which was wonderful for me.”
Talk to me a little bit about your debut, Hunter’s Daughter. What was the inspiration for the story? How did you come up with it?
“When a crime is committed, it has far-reaching effects. I wanted to explore that idea of how a crime, or series of crimes, unfolds forward and backward in time, the future and the history of it. So I came up with Anna Koray, the daughter of an infamous serial killer, a woman who works in law enforcement.
She becomes aware of her identity as the daughter of the Forest Strangler, and it causes her to question her identity and motivations. She’s chasing a killer who’s copying her father, and as the case unravels, her past does the same.”
Why did you decide to stay in Anna’s world for your second book? How did that decision impact your writing process, if at all?
“I wasn’t quite done with Anna as a character. I thought she had more to say, and more about her past to discover. When I left Anna at the end of The Hunter’s Daughter, she had excavated her past and learned what had become of her father, an infamous serial killer.
But Anna is more than her father’s legacy. She has her mother’s influence to contend with. In some ways, her mother is more subtle in her machinations, but they are just as chilling.
More than that, Anna has to figure out who she is, independent of the infamous and secret crimes her parents committed. She really needed to grasp her own destiny, and I wanted to watch her do that.”
This is your second novel, which many authors say is the hardest book to write. Did you find that sentiment to be true of your own experience? Why or why not?
“It definitely was a more difficult book to write. I’d established a seemingly bucolic landscape and sinister characters in the previous one…and I had to be mindful to decide when to work within those parameters, and when to move beyond them.
So…with the first book, there were no rules! With this book, there are rules, but I decide when to break them. It requires some more thinking and structure, rather than stream-of-consciousness writing. At least, that was what it felt like!”
There are so many pieces of media connected to criminal justice, from podcasts to movies and, of course, books like yours! What would you say is the hardest part about writing crime thrillers, especially as it is a genre so many people are drawn to? What’s the best part?
“I think the hardest part is creating the chain of evidence for the crime–figuring out how the killer committed the crime and how the investigator will catch them. Everything has to make sense, but not give away too much too early. I go into it knowing that a crime was committed–but I don’t know who did it, as strange as that sounds!
The best part is that I can create a world in which that “who done it” is revealed. It doesn’t always happen in the real world–the solving and the closure. I think it’s satisfying for me as a reader and writer to close the books. But! I do introduce the element of doubt, and it’s ultimately up to the reader to decide whether the arrest reflects the true nature of the crime.”
Sister’s Curse is about to hit shelves! How are you feeling? What are you most looking forward to once it is out in the world?
“I’m very excited! I hope that readers will enjoy the story as much as the first. I want to add familiar elements from the first book but also surprise readers with something new.”
What do you hope readers take away from your story?
“Hmm. I hope they are surprised at the end by who they think committed the crimes. When I read a mystery, that’s my favorite part. I also love a touch of ambiguity, so that I have something to think about after the book is closed.
I got to dive into some mythological waters in creating the conflicts and characters for this story, and I feel like they’re meaningful archetypes: witches, drowned women, powerful men. I think these are eternal archetypes that will always be valid, and I think they’ll strike a chord.”
I know Sister’s Curse isn’t even out yet, but I have to ask: What’s next for you? What can readers look forward to?
“I’m still thinking about murder, of course! I’ve got a couple of projects that I’m playing with, crime stories with a touch of the supernatural.”
What books are you reading right now, or what’s a book you’ve been recommending to folks?
“I just picked up Lauren Nossett’s THE PROFESSOR. I really loved her previous thriller, THE RESEMBLANCE, and have been looking forward to this one! Lauren has a really beautiful way of handling power and academia in her writing that’s so authentic and engrossing.”
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