When best-selling New Zealand detective novelist Catherine Lea met her British idol, she was starstruck. After all, much of her own career had been influenced by one of the world’s most famous characters – detective Vera Stanhope, created by award-winning UK crime writer Ann Cleeves.
Catherine’s popular leading character is a Kiwi version of Vera – private inspector Nyree Bradshaw, whose gripping cases are set in the author’s Far North home. When the two met face to face at a UK writer’s festival, Catherine nabbed Ann to feature on her social media.
A late start in literature
She recalls, “I went up to her and said, ‘Do you mind doing a TikTok with me?’ and she said, ‘Sure!’ She was so gracious.”
Yet unlike Ann, who was 37 when she published her first novel, Catherine was a late starter, both as a writer and reader. Yet once she escaped into reading crime fiction, she “hoovered” up British detective novels.
“I loved puzzles and being able to slip into another life, so in my forties, I took a course and was told I had some talent,” she says.
“I wrote three books and they were beautifully written but with terrible plots.”
Catherine, now 69, realised she was a “pantser” (writing by the seat of your pants), which is a process of writing without an established plan.
Discovering her writing style
“I start with a scene and solve the crime along with the detectives as events unfold,” Catherine explains, adding that around 50% of writers use this method.
She’s certainly made up for lost time, writing nine popular novels over the past 12 years, with two featuring in the bestsellers list simultaneously last year. It was grief that prompted her late-life career. A solo mum of two living in Auckland, Catherine’s daughter Vicky was born in 1981 with a rare chromosome abnormality, of which there were then only six reported cases globally.
She was tiny with club feet and, even in her thirties, dressed in clothing made for eight-year-olds. Vicky’s condition led her to age quickly and she passed away from cirrhosis of the liver in 2014, aged 33.
“She was only supposed to live until she was six, so she did pretty well,” Catherine shares.
Grief as inspiration
“She had a happy life. She was bubbly and in her own little world. Academically, she could barely write her name, but by God, she knew how to get what she wanted! “You have your moments when you’re looking after a disabled child. It’s a lonely existence, especially for single parents because you realise that they’re never going to grow up and leave home, so you’re always in that circumstance.
By the time you reach a point where your child can go into care, you’ve missed the best working part of your life.”
Following Vicky’s death, Catherine poured her grief into writing the Elizabeth McClaine series, which features a girl with special needs. At age 57, she self-published The Candidate’s Daughter on Amazon. After it hit the top-sellers list, she released second and third novels in the series.
A fresh start in Keri Keri
Yet surrounded by memories in the house she’d had purpose-built for Vicky and having to return to work to maintain it, Catherine realised she could instead downsize, retire and focus on writing.
With family connections and childhood memories of summers spent in the north, it felt like coming home when she moved to Kerikeri in 2019.
In her eye-opening new surrounds, she became aware of a Far North underbelly. Her research into this world became the catalyst for setting her new series in Aotearoa and creating flawed but determined crime-solving detective inspector Nyree.
The series has now been picked up by Bateman Books and includes Water’s Dead, Better Left Dead and the newly released The Deeper The Dead. Yet Catherine points out that while locals will recognise characteristics and landmarks of Northland towns in her series, they and all the characters are fictitious.
“The crimes that come into my head are from my imagination and I certainly don’t base my characters on living people,” she insists.
“They might be composites of people that I’ve known, but I would never take advantage of a situation and someone’s grief.”
Championing local stories
With its familiar setting, the Nyree Bradshaw series has a mostly local readership and part of Catherine’s mission is to inspire more Kiwis to read New Zealand storytellers. It’s why she’s co-organised the first Northland Writers, Readers and Poets Festival to celebrate local talent.
The three-day event in Kerikeri takes place this week, and features authors, librarians, publishers and book influencers from around the country. She hopes the event will support budding writers to
get to know their local authors and perhaps experience the same kind of full-circle fangirl encounter she had with Ann.
So was Ann aware that Catherine was also a best-selling author?
“Oh, I don’t know!” she laughs.
“I was just thrilled to meet her and she was just lovely.”
The Deeper The Dead ($37, Bateman Books) is out now.
