I often get asked where I get my ideas from and it’s actually not a very easy question to answer. I’m sure many authors think the same! Usually for me a book starts with just a tiny seed that sticks in my mind, and I rarely write down these ideas because I know that the better ones will stay with me. I remember reading that Stephen King, the famous horror novelist, said he never made notes before he wrote his books because the good plots remain in his mind. I would agree with that and I’m not good at keeping notebooks.
The Whispering River is the second book in the Foley Family Mystery series and it’s a dual timeline featuring a family researcher, or genealogist, in the present who is hired, usually by an individual or a family, to find out information about their ancestors in the past. This allows me to make the plot more credible so it’s not just constant, random mysteries happening to one person over and over. The families know she’ll be able to find out something about their history, so they employ her. I think this makes it easier to believe.
The Whispering River is set in the Wicklow mountains in Ireland and I wanted to write a story about a woman who was a doctor in the late Victorian era, when it wasn’t easy for her to practise medicine, in fact practically impossible. Some women were allowed to study medical courses but they weren’t actually allowed to receive their degrees. It was a man’s world. She is not a doctor at the time the novel takes place, even though she would love to be, but she is a herbalist so that gives her some scope as a character.
So where did the idea for the novel come from? I think it started with the character of a strong woman wanting to be more than was usually allowed and then something goes wrong and the plot takes off from there.
At the heart of the story is an alarming discovery in the garden in the modern era, and the research that follows uncovers a dark family secret involving a young governess who goes to work for the herbalist.
It was quite a complicated plot to write and it took me maybe six or seven drafts to bring everything together in the end, but that’s not unusual for me! I don’t worry about it; I just keep going until I feel there’s no more I can add.
I don’t write about serial killers or police procedure because I prefer to have a family dynamic at the centre of the novel. Families are complicated, they hide secrets, and they often like to maintain their good name in society. This all adds psychological interest for me as a writer. The members of this particular family are important, even the children, and they all have a role to play in the story.
The Whispering River is available as an e-book, a paperback and also as an audiobook read by the actor Ruth Redman. You will find it on Amazon or other online book stores worldwide.
If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it. The first novel in the series is called The Family Shadow.
