Page Turners: ‘It Should Have Been You’ author Andrea Mara
Bestselling Irish crime novelist Andrea Mara reflects on creating a puzzle for the reader, the book series that made her want to be a writer, and the joy of getting lost in a book.
Andrea Mara is an Irish bestselling author, whose previous titles include All Her Fault, Someone in the Attic, and No One Saw A Thing. Her newly released novel, It Should Have Been You, follows the character of Susan, who accidentally sends a message meant for her sister into her neighbourhood group chat and multiple murders ensue.
Did you always want to be a writer? Tell us about your journey to becoming a published author.
I always wish that the answer to this was ‘yes, since I was a small child’ but in truth, I worked happily in financial services for 17 years before a new hobby – blogging – made me realise how much I loved writing. From blogging about the trials and tribulations of bringing up small kids, I evolved to writing fiction about crime and murder and well, the trials and tribulations of raising teens, but now in fictional form.
What inspired you to start writing?
I always had ‘what if’ stories rattling around in my head – what if the reason I haven’t heard anything from next door in ages is because something awful has happened to them, what if I take a different route home and it changes the course of my life. Then one day, someone who followed my blog commented on my Facebook page to say I should write a book, and I started the next morning. I guess I needed a nudge.
Tell us about your new book, It Should Have Been You. Where did the idea come from?
It Should Have Been You is about Susan, who writes a mean, bitchy message about her neighbour but instead of sending it to her sisters, as planned, she accidentally sends it to the entire neighbourhood WhatsApp group. Within days, four people are dead and Susan is in fear of her life.
It’s partly inspired by my own neighbourhood WhatsApp group which is huge but genuinely lovely, and the occasional erroneous messages are not like the ones in the book! But we’ve all done it or almost done it at some point – sent a potentially mortifying message to the wrong person – and I wanted to explore what would happen if there was a huge domino effect that led to murder.
What do you hope this book instils in the reader?
I want to entertain, to provide a puzzle that the reader wants to solve, to keep the reader turning pages. But I also want readers to root for Susan, to care about what happens to her. I want the reader to laugh at times and maybe cry. It’s a book about sisters, marriages, friendships, neighbours, teens, parenting, social media, and maybe it’s a book that says ‘before you hit send, double check your message’.
What did you learn when writing this book?
I learnt a lot about Snapchat!
Tell us about your writing process?
I start with a hook, then work out a rough outline, run it by my editor, then a more detailed outline, and once I’m sure I know the ending, I start writing chapter one. My big fear is to get to the end of a crime novel and not know whodunnit.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Everyday life in the suburbs – school runs, coffee shop conversations, the kind of stories people tell that start with ‘guess what, this is so weird but…’ Not big crimes, but small everyday oddities that could, in fiction, lead to murder.
What are your top three favourite books of all time, and why?
I’ll pick It by Stephen King because it took over my life when I read it as a teen, and I still remember how it felt to be completely immersed in a story. One of my teens just read it and it was lovely to see it have the exact same impact on her. For similar reasons – being caught up in the story, unable to think of anything else while reading them – I’ll choose The Secret History and The Catcher in the Rye.
Who are some of your favourite authors, Irish or otherwise?
There are too many fabulous Irish authors to list and I’ll feel guilty forever if I leave anyone out, because all the Irish authors are really good friends! So I’ll choose one people might not know – Emma Straub, a US author who writes funny, sharp poignant family dramas. And Jessica Knoll for Bright Young Women and Abigail Dean for The Death of Us. And Barbara Kingsolver. Oh and Liz Moore. I’ll stop now!
What are some upcoming book releases we should have on our radar?
I’m excited for everyone who hasn’t yet read Gill Perdue’s new book, The Night I Killed Him, coming on July 10th and I can’t wait to read Amanda Cassidy’s The Stranger Inside which publishes in August. Lisa Jewell’s Don’t Let Him In is brilliant, as is Shari Lapena’s She Didn’t See It Coming, both in July. We are spoiled!
What book made you want to become a writer?
Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. Detective fiction with a brilliant mix of characters and plot, neither taking space from the other.
What’s one book you would add to the school curriculum?
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll.
What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean – I listened on audio and the narration is sublime.
What’s some advice you’ve got for other aspiring writers?
Just write the book. You have to start. Lots of aspiring writers who ask me this question are thinking long and hard about what they want to write, and you can do that forever and still end up with no words on a page. The only way to do it is open a Word document or take out a pen and paper and write the first sentence. Then the next.
Lastly, what do the acts of reading and writing mean to you?
Reading is for switching off, escaping, getting lost in a good way. I feel lucky that I don’t weigh up my books against any given book I’m reading – I can read a really good book without comparing myself. I think that would take the joy out of it. Writing is work, sometimes fun, often very hard work, but well worth it when you see your book on a shelf or get a happy DM from a reader!
It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara (€16.99, Bantam Press) is on sale now.
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