A visitor, Lynne Johnson, was in Cobar last week looking for the perfect place to commit a murder.
Thankfully, the former copyright lawyer turned published author was only researching the setting for her next crime fiction novel, which she plans to base in Cobar.
Lynne, who published her first novel, The Bait Trap in December 2023, and has another coming out later this year, called into The Cobar Weekly office last week as part of her research.
Lynne told us about how she was getting ready to write her next novel.
She said after working for three decades in Sydney, she decided to sit down and write a book during the COVID pandemic.
“I’ve always wanted to write a book.
“When I was practising law, and I was interviewing witnesses, I’d always be drawn to the story there, to the human interest side of their evidence,” Lynne said.
“I was dwelling far too long on that, rather than the legal aspects.
“So I decided during the pandemic, it’s time for me to write my first crime novel.
“I think everyone’s got a book in them,” Lynne said.
“I did a few creative writing courses and I sat down and started researching The Bait Trap.
“I went off on the Southern Highlands and spent a lot of time walking around in Penrose State Forest, looking for creepy cabins and places where you could murder someone.”
Lynne combines her research with travelling with her husband and said while this trip could be regarded as tax deductible, she said “you’ve got to make a profit to have tax deductions”.
“I think you don’t write for the profit.
“You write for the pleasure.”
Lynne was keen to read through back copies of The Cobar Weekly and look at reports of crime in the area to see if she might be able to pick up a story from there.
“I think one of the reasons why readers read crime is they love to have the immersive experience, and be transported, particularly when they’re reading Bush Noir or Outback Noir, to be transported to these outback towns.
“They want to see the red dirt.
“They want to feel the heat rising up from the road.
“They want to look at the wild goats and they want to query how people live out here and see how resilient they are.
“We’ve been staying on a sheep station out of town just getting a feel for the place.
“I’ll probably come back in summer to get more of an idea then.
“I think crime fiction that’s set in searing heat is a lot more atmospheric.
“So I probably will come back in summer for another trip just to see what the heat’s like.
“It’s a murder, so the plot is about a family which was murdered.
“I wanted the setting to be very remote and be set on a sheep station or a cattle station.
“So I did some Googling and there were a few farm stays out here so I thought, why not.”
“I generally spend about three months researching each of my novels because if you get something wrong, particularly when you’re writing in the crime genre, people write to you and let you know about it,” Lynne said.
“And also, readers like the specificity that they get in crime. They are looking for the connections and the clues and everything to be able to work it out themselves.
“After I’ve researched for about three months, I’ve got a fairly detailed plot.
“I’ve got my setting, I’ve got my characters.
“I then just sit down and write it usually in a linear fashion, so everything funnels towards the climax.”
Lynne hopes to have her Cobar-based novel ready for publication by the end of next year.
She said while some names will be changed, lots of things will be familiar and readers might recognise one of the pubs on the corner as the Great Western Hotel or they might read about the detectives going into the Memorial Services Club for a quiet drink.
