Entertainment
20 September, 2024
Carnivale scene of new book
FANS of psychological suspense thrillers were treated to the launch of Susannah Glenn’s debut book ‘Between Husbands and Wives’ at the Whileaway Bookshop in Port Douglas recently.
Author Susannah Glenn said she was happy that a capacity crowd of more that 50 local book lovers turned up to show their support for the launch of her debut novel.
She fielded questions from an attentive audience about the book as well as how she made the transition from journalist and editor to a now successfully published author.
The in-person book launch offered budding local writers the opportunity to discuss elements of the book as well as look behind the curtain at the inspiration of the locally set thriller.
“I was able to share my inspiration for the book, much of which came from my five-year stint as managing editor of the Port Douglas and Mossman Gazette from 2004 – 2009,” Ms Glenn said.
“Apart from the Daintree’s regional beauty, this part of the world has always struck me as a place of escape and mystery, as well as secrets and dangers, which made it a perfect location for a psychological thriller such as Between Husbands and Wives,” she said.
Ms Glenn said the book touched on themes of identity, independence and finding the inner strength to listen to your moral compass.
She said it took place during the region’s annual Carnivale celebrations against a hot political backdrop of local versus state government politics.
The story begins on a cold, dark night when two cars collide … inside the vehicle at fault, Jennifer Ashby survives with barely a scratch.
In the wreckage of the second, other occupants are not so lucky. Jennifer escapes jail, but she is traumatised by the event.
Desperate for a fresh start, and with her marriage buckling, she convinces her husband, Jon, to make a sea-change to Far North Queensland.
As Jon spends long hours at his new job and Jennifer makes secret plans to absolve her lingering guilt, cracks begin to form in their idyllic new life. Will their dark secret be exposed? And what really happened the night of the accident?
Fellow author Jo Dixon, who wrote ‘The House of Now and Then’ said Between Husbands and Wives was “a lush, suspenseful domestic thriller where nothing is as it seems”.
Ms Dixon said Between Husbands and Wives immersed the reader in the verdant tropics of North Queensland, delivering an ever-increasing sense of dread as a marriage falters, and the details surrounding a fatal accident begin to appear.
“This book is both absorbing and intriguing, and the need to discover what really happened kept me turning the pages late into the night,” she said.
Ms Glenn’s second book, also a psychological suspense thriller, is due to be published by Pantera Press in August 2025.
Between Husbands and Wives is $32.99
