'A beach read with teeth': Adam Perry on EVERY LAKE

Adam Perry has a Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications and has worked in radio advertising as a Creative Director. His debut novel Every Lake is a gripping, darkly funny thriller set against a postcard-perfect Otago landscape. 

Read on for insight into Adam’s motivations for writing it, his favourite NZ reading and the cinematic Otago settings in Every Lake. 

Kia ora Adam, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with Kete! Can you tell us about Every Lake and your motivations for writing it?

Every Lake is about a young woman who returns to a lakefront town to solve a murder and to investigate her father’s disappearance. It’s rumoured that her dad still lives hidden in the trees that surround the lake, and she soon discovers there’s more than one murder being covered up. 

My motivation for writing Every Lake was two-part. I’ve always wanted to pen a novel with a darkly funny female lead, and I also love the backdrop of lakeside scary movies. Tales of creaking pines, roaring bonfires and being watched from the trees. I wanted to tell a story that hinted at scary movie tropes but stayed on point as a thriller. It’s the kind of novel I describe as a beach read with teeth!  

What inspired you to set it in Central Otago?

The lakes in and around Otago are incredibly cinematic, and the bustling tourist towns provide the perfect backdrop for the novel. In Every Lake, the holiday town of Tall Pines is imagined but I’ve taken imagery from Queenstown, Twizel, Wānaka, Tekapō and beyond to create a stunning lake with bright sunshine and long shadows. What I love about these lakefront towns is that the centres are bright and busy, but you don’t need to drive far to find an isolated bay or cove, which is exactly what my story needed.  

Were you always interested in writing a thriller?

Absolutely! Every Lake is my first published book, but I’ve completed four novels to date and all of them are thrillers. What I love about the genre is the pace and how  you’re dying to know what comes next. The thriller category also has broad parameters which means you can weave in some comedy or include a love story aspect. Writers like Gillan Flynn and Liane Moriarty do this exceptionally well. Their novels have all the twists and turns of a thriller, but their characters are often darkly funny or wryly observant. I love that style of writing, the collision of drama, comedy and pace – and that’s exactly the creative space I’m looking to occupy.

How has the publication process been?

Exciting and a little bit terrifying. When I got the call from Allen & Unwin to say they were interested in my manuscript I was completely blown away. I’d only had two people read the manuscript before submitting it, and I’d braced myself for rejection. After the novel was accepted, the editing process was a steep learning curve, but it has been amazing to work with such a dedicated team. As a writer you spend a lot of time alone on the early drafts, so it was great being able to bounce ideas off editors, artists and publicity people. It’s also very exciting when the first copy of your new book arrives on your doorstep!

What do you hope readers take away from the book?

I hope they feel aligned with the main character, Alice Summers. That they’ve been on a journey with Alice and lived the experience through her eyes. That they’ve felt her joy and sadness, her strength and resilience. Also, it would be great if it was a book that people talked about with their friends. Something that sat with them, so they felt compelled to discuss it after reading.

What Aotearoa New Zealand book do you wish you’d written?

I can’t answer that! I’ll feel like a drooling fan. Although, I will say I have very much enjoyed Carl Nixon’s work. Virgin & the Whale and Tally Stick were both exceptional and Catherine Chidgey’s Pet is a fantastic read. On the thriller front, The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle kept me ripping through the pages right to the end.

What’s been your best read this year so far?

Tough call, but probably Chris Pavone’s The Doorman. It reads like a thriller, but it has the feel of lit fiction. I also listened to the audiobook which was possibly even better than the novel.

And last, but definitely not least, what are you writing next?

On the new writing front, I’m working on a novel about a man who has to return to a North Canterbury town where, as a teenager, he was accused of lighting a fire that led to the death of a local woman. It’s full of twists and turns and the ending is set to be an absolute cliffhanger. 

I’m also in the process of editing one of my earlier manuscripts about black-market gym pills and the pressure to be body perfect. The working tagline is ‘how much have you got to lose’.

It ticks all the thriller boxes and it’s a very pacey read! 

Every Lake (Allen & Unwin NZ) is available in all good bookstores now.