Photos: Jane Ussher, Madeleine Carlyle.
When Kiwi author Rose Carlyle sits down to write a novel, she’s determined that her readers will enjoy every page.
“I don’t want to write one of those novels where readers are slogging through the middle of the book waiting to get to the big twist,” she says. “I’m always determined to keep them on their toes – keep those pages turning. That’s what I love to read, so that’s what I want to write about!”
People made her debut novel, Girl in the Mirror, a huge hit because it did just that. Now her new novel, No One Will Know, has achieved the same goal.
Reviews of Rose’s books always feature phrases like “addictive thrill-ride” or “addictive page-turner” and she is quite happy to know her hard work has paid off.
“I’m always aware you need to have plenty going on before and after the twist,” she tells. “That’s what I love about reading. You may feel really stressed out in your own life, but reading my books allows you to deal with somebody else’s problems instead. It’s a complete break from your own day-to-day.”
Rose, 51, is also used to writing novels under difficult circumstances. She wrote Girl in the Mirror, now optioned for a movie, in the aftermath of her divorce.
“I had four teenagers and a day job. I was also newly divorced and struggling to find my feet,” shares Rose, who was a lawyer before she turned to writing.
The success of that book gave her a reason to feel that things might get better – but then Covid hit.
“Constant worry about the state of the world disrupted my creativity because I find it hard to be creative under those circumstances,” she says.
Nevertheless, having given up her legal career to write full-time, she managed to pen No One Will Know. The publisher released it during Auckland’s lockdown in August 2020.
She’s now working on another novel and jokes this could be the first one she’s written without either a divorce or a pandemic.
Both novels feature the ocean and sailing, one of Rose’s passions. She and her then-husband would take their children on sailing adventures, once heading across the Indian Ocean.
“We anchored in the most crazy places,” she says. “Once, we stopped off an active volcano in the middle of the ocean. You have to sail at least 12 hours to get to any other land. It was my daughter’s 10th birthday and she had the most unbelievable day.
“We were in the dinghy in the open ocean and we suddenly saw this amazing commotion – it was dolphins hunting tuna. We all just threw on our masks and snorkels, then leapt in!”
Rose says the ocean often finds its way into her novels “whether I want it or not”.
“There’s something unique about being on a yacht, that it’s both cosy and adventurous,” she explains. “I get on a yacht because I want to go off into the wild blue yonder and be cosy but also alone.”
With No One Will Know, Rose says the idea came from “out of the sky”.
The novel tells the story of Eve Sylvester who, after years of foster homes and overseas travel, has lost touch with her friends and family. She is young, alone, desperate and pregnant when she meets a charming glamorous couple on a remote Tasmanian island.
Rose says the thriller is a tribute to her late grandmother, Eileen Celia Mansfield. Like the character Eve, authorities took Eileen into state care as a child.
The novel also had some help from Rose’s older sister Madeleine. She explains, “Madeleine is like a super-involved editor. She’ll brainstorm the idea with me and then when I’m writing, I might phone her for feedback. I’ll say, ‘This chapter’s a bit boring. How can you spice it up?’ She nails it every time. She’s also the first person to read it and she does that all before it actually goes to my agent.”
Rose also runs her novels by her mum Christina.
“She’s a very astute reader and picks up all sorts of continuity issues. She’ll stop me and say, ‘Your character can’t be hungry – she only ate an hour ago!’”
Success has meant that Rose can count writing as a full-time job. But these days, she has so many fans that she spends her mornings writing and afternoons on admin, replying to emails and doing publicity.
“I think people expect authors to hate publicity, but I quite enjoy it!” she enthuses. “I also love hearing from readers because it’s always positive.”
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