Meet the Author: Dinuka McKenzie

Image © Emma Stergio

Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer and the author of two crime fiction novels, The Torrent, published in the UK on 28 September by Canelo Crime, and Taken. She is the winner of the 2020 HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize, and her writing has been shortlisted for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, longlisted for the Richell Prize, and highly commended in the Australian Crime Writers Association – Louie Award.

Her short fiction has appeared in the 2022 Dark Deeds Down Under Crime and Thriller Anthology. Dinuka lives in Southern Sydney on Dharawal country with her husband, two kids, and their pet chicken.

Who were your heroes as you were growing up?

I think environmental advocates like David Attenborough and David Suzuki who are such brilliant science and nature communicators certainly influenced my decision to pursue a career in the environment. In terms of literary heroes, I read the classics of course, Dickens, Austen, Bronte being my perennial favourites. My reading tastes even from a young age did skew towards mystery and suspense. I grew up reading Enid Blyton mysteries as a child, graduating to Agatha Christie, PD James and Ruth Rendell. The late great Peter Temple was my gateway drug to discovering Australian crime fiction and led me towards writers like Michael Robotham, Candice Fox, Emma Viskic, Sulari Gentill and J. P. Pomare.

Your background is in the environmental sector. How and when did you make that switch to writing?

I started writing for very personal reasons during that very overwhelming period of new parenthood when I felt like bits of myself were disappearing. I wanted to claim a space for myself that was entirely and unapologetically for myself. Not me as a mother or wife or employee or anything else. So I began to write. I wrote the first draft of the manuscript that went on to become The Torrent after the birth of my second child. She was only twelve months and I have very specific memories of me writing on my laptop in bed or on the couch, while she sat glued to my side watching The Wiggles blaring on TV.

How did Detective Sergeant Kate Miles come to life for you? Was she based on anyone?

When I started writing this manuscript, I was looking after two little people and juggling a career and parenthood, and I thought – what would this juggle look like for a female police officer, working in that world, and then having to come home to playdough and Lego. Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is the combined result of my love of the crime fiction genre and also of me trying to process what I was experiencing at that point in my life navigating work and family. Kate is a version of the women I see everywhere around me: hardworking, professionally competent, juggling multiple commitments, and often putting themselves last. I wanted her to be realistic and relatable. The traditional detective trope so often involves a male protagonist, usually single and childless or with a broken relationship.

If there are children in the equation, they are in the background, either grown up or being looked after by someone else. This series focuses on the opposite. It centres an everyday woman front and centre, and celebrates the quiet strength, determination and resilience it takes to raise a family and carve out a degree of professional success.

Your latest release in the UK is The Torrent. Can you tell us a little about it?

The Torrent is a contemporary police procedural set in the fictional rural town of Esserton, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It follows my protagonist Kate Miles, a bi-racial detective, pregnant with her second child and weeks from maternity leave. She is investigating the robbery and assault of a teenaged girl at a local McDonald’s when she gets dragged into the unofficial review of an apparent accidental death of a young man in recent summer floods. All she was asked to do was review the case and write a report, but the more she delves into the case, the more her gut tells her that something is not right.

The cover of The Torrent has a recommendation from Val McDermid. That must have been quite a moment for you to get that from one of our greatest crime writers?

Absolutely! It was so unexpected, and as a newbie writer, so utterly overwhelming getting words of support from a writer like Val McDermid. She had not only read my book, but she had actually liked it! I couldn’t believe it! Coming from an author of her experience and calibre, something like that really does mean the world. Writers like Val are so incredibly busy and get so many requests to read new books and it reflects her enormous generosity to give her time to support new writers coming through.

There are so many wonderful writers at the moment coming out of Australia. Why do you think this is?

I think the writers have always been there, not only in Australia but in all parts of the world. But it takes breakthrough writers like Jane Harper and Chris Hammer to demonstrate to the industry that there is a global audience for Australian (and other international) stories and that these books can be a commercial success. I also think the ongoing popularity of streaming networks means that global audiences have access to content from all over the world and are increasingly used to and demanding different stories. So the audience has broadened and the market is keeping up with that demand. The writers and stories have always been there, it’s just that the publishing and screen industries are now actively searching out those stories and marketing them beyond their own home territories.

Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

The Torrent is the first book in a series featuring Detective Kate Miles. The books are standalone mysteries but feature the same cast of characters with Kate, her family and police colleagues. The second book in the series, Taken involves a mystery surrounding a missing infant and is out now in Australia, and will be released in the UK in early 2024. I am currently working on the final edits for the third book in the series which will be released in Australia in early 2024 and in the UK later that year. So if you enjoy The Torrent there are definitely more stories on the way!

One book, piece of music or work of art that everyone should experience?

This is a very difficult question as art is such a subjective experience and what is loved by one person may not necessarily translate to another. However, I think it is useful for us all to consider our own bookshelves, Spotify playlists, podcasts, and Netflix streaming history from time to time and think about what may be missing. Are we only watching, reading, listening within own comfort zones, consuming content within our own bubbles?

A few years ago, when I considered my own book shelves, I realised that I wasn’t reading nearly enough First Nations stories, so I made an active effort to seek out and read books from Australian indigenous writers. If you’re interested in learning about Australia from an indigenous perspective, I would highly recommend reading Song of the Crocodile by award-winning Yuwaalaraay storyteller, Nardi Simpson, which is an incredible story of family and survival spanning multiple generations, and a moving and generous sharing of culture and history.

What is on your 'to read' shelf at the moment?

A number of fabulous Australian crime books which I purchased this year but I haven’t had the chance to read yet are sitting on my shelf and giving me the side eye every time I walk past. They include: The Next Girl by Pip Drysdale, Black Lies by Mercedes Mercier, Broken Bay by Margaret Hickey, and Killer Traitor Spy by Tim Ayliffe.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

Ha! I asked my husband how I should answer this question and he called out from the kitchen: you snore! So I guess that’s my answer.