Why Caroline Overington’s Aussie mining town mystery is making the leap from audio to print

Plot twists are a key part of our favourite shows and stories – but do they always work? One of Australia’s favourite writers has a message for a reader who missed the memo.

What is the one thing an Australian writer wants? Readers! Lots of readers.

The next best thing?

Great reviews! Which brings me to this review, which I stumbled on only recently:

“Imagine this: you’re in bed with your partner. Things are going good … like really good. They are slowly building up the suspense … But then, they stop! In fact they go completely rogue, and you’re left wondering what happened … That was how this book felt. The plot, the character development, it was all building up to be such a “twist” and then …”

And then, bang … something unexpected came out of the blue.

I wanted to write to the reader straight away, saying but, but, but, it was meant to be a big unexpected twist!

‘Have their socks blown off by the surprise’ … Caroline Overington.

Because that review was for Looking for Eden(HarperCollins Australia) which I just happened to write.

It was meant to have a mad twist at the end, and I thought I’d left enough clues, among all the red herrings, for readers to see that something wild was bound to happen in the final chapters.

Instead, I’d left that particular reader scratching her head – which is fine! Because I want readers to come to the end of the book and have their socks blown off by the surprise.

It’s the twist at the end that I most enjoy writing.

Looking for Eden is set in a part of the world that I absolutely love: the goldfields of Western Australia.

I wrote it after I spent several months there, making crime documentaries for the Seven network.

I wrote it first as an audio book, for Audible – meaning it was meant to be “listened to” and not read.

I’ve written quite a few books for Audible, and I love how you have to make the characters come alive with dialogue, and how you really have to set the scene, so people who are listening can “see” what you’re talking about.

‘It’s all red dirt, mine shafts, and grand old pubs’ … Western Australia’s gold country.

The landscape out there – it’s all red dirt, mine shafts, and grand old pubs with romantic, lace-iron balustrades.

The sky at night? It’s a carpet of stars.

The sunrises? Pink and delicious.

The people? Warm and friendly and maybe a little bit crazy? But in a good way.

I remember once I was in the pub, having an old-fashioned counter meal, and a local miner said to me, if you’re talking to somebody, you can ask where they’re from, but not why they’re here.

I didn’t quite understand.

He said: “Okay, so, if they say they’ve come here from Melbourne, or Sydney, or Brisbane, or wherever, don’t say, why? Because not all of them will want to talk about it.”

And that’s true.

There’s a million reasons why people end up in the red-dirt mining towns, and it’s not always for the work. Sometimes they’re escaping debts, and sometimes it’s a marriage breakdown, and sometimes it’s PTSD after military service, and sometimes it’s a fresh start after they’ve done jail time.

‘Downloaded more than a quarter of a million times’ … Caroline Overington on the initial success of Looking For Eden.

In any case, I loved writing a book set in a mining town, and when it came out with Audible, it was downloaded more than a quarter of a million times, which was just amazing.

People love audiobooks. They listen to them on long drives, on the commute into work, and while they’re doing the gardening.

I listen to them while I’m doing my housework.

But I badly wanted this book to come out in print, because printed books were my first love.

I love to take them to the beach, get down on a towel, and read them until the sun slips away.

I wanted to write the kind of book that readers couldn’t put down. I wanted to get to know the characters, and to care about them.

I wanted the story to be something we can all imagine happening: an old Dad dies, and his estate goes to his wife, because his Will hasn’t been updated. Only problem is, nobody has seen her for years, not since she apparently ran off, leaving the dusty old town behind.

Now it’s up to her kids to try to find her. They are angry about how she upped and left one day, but the land on which their Dad’s house stands is worth a fortune, thanks to all the gold in the region, so they have no choice other than to find out what happened.

‘I’m very interested to hear what you think’ … Looking For Eden.

As for the twist … well, of course I wanted to take readers by surprise! I wanted them to think, okay, I know where this story is going and then go off in an entirely new direction.

Not everyone is going to think that I’ve done it perfectly.

But I’m very interested to hear what you think, now the gorgeous, print version of Looking For Eden has hit the shelves.

Share your thoughts with Caroline – and the rest of us – at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook. Looking For Eden is out now in print, published by HarperCollins.

Today (Sunday) is your last chance to get our June Book Of The Month – Lucy Foley’s The Midnight Feast – for 40% off the RRP at Booktopia. See you next week for a great new offer!

Originally published as Why Caroline Overington’s Aussie mining town mystery is making the leap from audio to print