By Romy Stephens
Sandi Wallace is one of those rare cases where a childhood dream came true.
“I was about 6-years-old when I first became addicted to reading crime. That’s about when I started dreaming about being a crime writer,” Ms Wallace said.
“Roll forward a few decades and that’s when I started to get published as a crime writer.”
The Mount Dandenong author is now “living the dream” as an award-winning crime writer who has recently published her sixth book.
Black Cloud is Ms Wallace’s fourth contemporary rural crime thriller. It explores the shattering outcome of a routine police welfare check at a farm in the small community of Korweinguboora.
The novel can be enjoyed as a standalone or as part of the series starring Melbourne journalist Georgie Harvey and Daylesford cop John Franklin.
Ms Wallace said there were two main factors that inspired the book.
“What led me to write this is firstly being a lifetime addict of reading crime fiction, my first inspiration is to write a gripping crime book,” she said.
“My second inspiration is, there will always be a book or a story that I feel like I need to write at that time and it will be a real life issue.
“I wanted to write about the dangers for emergency workers…It’s very relevant, very sadly, with what happened with that terrible incident on the freeway earlier this year.
“It’s relevant, it’s tragic and it really does have a huge effect on many people.”
Ms Wallace has lived in the Dandenong Ranges for 16 years and refers to the local environment as her muse.
“There’s no better place to write…It’s a beautiful place to be immersed with all this nature and get on with creating,” Ms Wallace said.
“There’s not a lot of actual crime to focus on…But at the same time there’s that sense of really knowing a small community and how they can pull together.
“That sort of stuff translates really well to the sort of things I’m writing about.”
Ms Wallace said there were numerous aspects of Black Cloud that locals within the Dandenong Ranges could relate to.
“The people in Korweinguboora and the environment are somewhat similar to our area in the hills and the foothills,” she said.
“Korweinguboora is very green and clean. They have great rainfall, it’s edged by forests so it’s got the beauty and the danger that we have in this area.
“The local audience will also be able to understand and relate to the characters.”
Black Cloud follows Ms Wallace’s books Tell Me Why (winner of the 2015 Davitt Award Readers’ Choice and shortlisted for the 2015 Davitt Award Best Debut), Dead Again and Into the Fog.
She has also won numerous prizes for her short crime fiction, including several Scarlet Stiletto Awards.
To find out more about Sandi Wallace or to get in touch for a signed copy of Black Cloud, visit www.sandiwallace.com.
