The Hypnotist's Love Story

A FEW years ago, Liane Moriarty was sitting in a coffee shop with her then boyfriend when a woman walked past.

A FEW years ago, Liane Moriarty was sitting in a coffee shop with her then boyfriend when a woman walked past.

Moriarty's companion's phone flashed to indicate a text message had arrived. It was from the passer-by; she wasn't a random stranger, but the man's ex-girlfriend.

 "(She) was still texting him and landing on his doorstep. Basically, she was stalking him," Moriarty, a Sydney writer, says.

 "I was intrigued by her because apparently she was a successful career woman, but she was behaving in this mildly crazy way. I wanted to understand her."

Now, Moriarty is asking her readers if they can, too.

In one corner of a triangle in her new novel, The Hypnotist's Love Story, is Ellen, a hypnotherapist who is more fascinated than frightened that her new love, Patrick, is being stalked by his ex-girlfriend.

In another is Saskia, the woman who can't let go after Patrick dumped her three years earlier. A well-respected town planner in her professional life, her personal time is consumed by Patrick; she leaves letters on his windscreen, secretly watches his son play soccer and sends him constant text messages. Her behaviour escalates - she gets into Ellen's house and bakes biscuits in her kitchen - until a desperate climax.

It's crazy, but not quite the edge-of-your-seat, life-endangering behaviour of cinematic stalkers.

"Low-key stalking is still horrible for the victim, but I found it a lot more interesting than a stalker you would see in a violent movie," Moriarty says.

"I wanted to have somebody who was a sympathetic, ordinary character, behaving this way."

She says stalkers are more likely to be men, but her research revealed female perpetrators are more common than she thought.

"An estimated one in 14 women have stalked and one in 50 men have been stalked by a woman."

The Hypnotist's Love Story is Moriarty's fourth adult novel. Now 44 and mum to George, 3, and Anna, 18 months, she grew up in Sydney's northern suburbs reading everything she could get her hands on, from Enid Blyton through to her father's racy paperbacks.

"I read The Thornbirds when I was far too young," she says.

Telling stories to her four younger siblings fed her ambition to be a writer - she made several attempts on a novel - but she worked in advertising and marketing until her younger sister Jaclyn's first novel for young adults, Feeling Sorry for Celia, was published in 2000.

"If it wasn't for her being published first, I would still never have got around to writing my first novel. It was her inspiration," Moriarty says.

Jaclyn's success prompted Moriarty to enrol in a Masters degree in creative writing at Macquarie University, during which she completed Three Wishes and kicked off her own career.

"I had tried to write all my life, but not very hard. You just don't think that real people get published."

The sisters are supportive of each other, being the first to read each other's work - Jaclyn's new young adult series, The Kingdom of Cellos, is coming out next year. A third sister, Nicola, is also joining the family "business"; her first novel Free Falling, is due out in May.

"Nicola always says I told her a story similar to Harry Potter when we were growing up," Moriarty says. "I say, 'Don't tell me that!''

Moriarty may not have cast the same spell over the book world as JK Rowling, but she is enjoying international success.

Her third novel, What Alice Forgot - about a wife and mother who loses 10 years of memories in a gym accident - was this year released in the US, where it featured in summer reading lists in Oprah Winfrey's O magazine and People magazine.

Moriarty says film rights bought two years ago by studio Fox 2000 have not been renewed because a coming Rachel McAdams flick called The Vow has similiar themes to What Alice Forgot.

However, the book was part of a public pitching session at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival so she hasn't given up hope it will yet be adapted for the screen.

The book is also selling well in Germany - Moriarty knows it has only just dropped out of the top 10 because she can watch the best-seller chart on the country's Amazon site.

But keeping tabs on her book doesn't mean she'll be tracking any exes via the web or any other way.

"Though I can understand the desire completely," she says. "Especially if there's been a relationship break-up you have no idea was coming. It must be the most shocking thing when you think everything is fine, but one day you come home and no, it's not. That hasn't happened to me. There have been issues or complexities."

The Hypnotist's Love Story, Macmillan, $33