NEWCASTLE fiction writer Wendy James has mastered the art of transitioning a historical event into a contemporary setting.
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Her latest book The Lost Girls, which is released this month, is a domestic thriller that traces the murder of a 14-year-old girl living in Curl Curl, Sydney.
Thirty years after her death, a journalist comes knocking, questioning the girl's extended family about their versions of events.
James said she was inspired to write the book after reading an article by fellow novelist Matthew Condon.
Condon wrote about a young girl living in Newtown in the 1940s who went to the shops and never returned.
James said the article started her imagination ticking, and she shifted the storyline into a time and place she knew well - Sydney's northern beachside suburbs in the 1980s.
The article also aroused her interest in the effects of crime on ordinary people.
She's married to an ex-cop and often uses his knowledge to make sure the police proceedings are accurate.
The Lost Girls is James' sixth book; she won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Fiction in 2006.
■Wendy James will be at MacLean's Booksellers, 69 Beaumont Street, Hamilton, today, Wednesday, March 5, at 6pm, free entry, for bookings phone 4969 2525. She will also be at the Newcastle Writers Festival on Saturday, April 5, 2-4pm, for a workshop called Why They Dunnit, Newcastle Room, tickets $50; and at the festival on Sunday, April 6, at Agosti Espresso, 7 Darby Street, from 10am, to discuss The Lost Girls, entry is free.
