Oh Matilda: Newspaper noir ‘a thrilling challenge’ for Emma Harcourt

So long historical fiction. Hello there, newspaper noir, for novelist Emma Harcourt.

Historical fiction novelist Emma Harcourt is batting at No 5. Picture: John Feder

So long historical fiction. Hello there, newspaper noir.

That’s writer Emma Harcourt discussing her approach to writing chapter five of The Australian’s serial summer novel, Oh Matilda, Who The Hell Killed Her?

Harcourt says she was thrilled to be asked to take part, because she liked the concept — “progressive, fast turnaround, a plot already on the move” — and because it would give her a “chance to try my hand at a new genre”.

Her contribution appears today; if you haven’t been following along, don’t worry, you can go online and read from the start.

Oh Matilda is a team project: more than 21 writers will by the time it’s finished have contributed a chapter.

Harcourt, who was a finance journalist before she became a novelist, says she generally likes stories with a “a thread of mystery or intrigue. I like a bit of romance, too, and tagging the fiction to historical events. None of which sits comfortably with this modern-day murder mystery!

“I felt out of my depth the moment I said yes. Then, as other writers on board were revealed and I saw the extraordinary pool of talent, I yo-yoed between the sheer thrill of being included and crushing self-doubt. Don’t overthink this, I told myself.”

Because it is meant to be fun, for the writers and readers.

The three-day turnaround for the chapter was still daunting. Harcourt’s first novel, The Shanghai Wife, took seven years; her second novel, set in renaissance Florence and due for release in 2022, has taken three.

But it was, she said, good to come in batting at No 5. “I don’t envy the authors further along in the novel. That to me would be a much harder job,” she said. That said, she’s already feeling anxious about where the tale goes from here. “I know more characters have to die, but is it wrong of me to want the glorious Maya Churchill to be the last one standing?”

Oh Matilda will roll out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday over summer, until Booker Prize-winner Tom Keneally fires up for the finale, sometime towards the end of February.

Or maybe March. Fingers crossed, really.