Kiwi author Jacqueline Bublitz says she was in her late 30s when she "really got honest" about writing a book.
Her debut crime novel Before You Knew My Name subverts the "dead girl" trope by focusing on the life and death of a murder victim – instead of the hunt for the killer.
Photo: Supplied / The Virtue
Jacqueline Bublitz currently lives between Melbourne and New Plymouth.
On her recent book tour across the United States, she revisited New York – the city where she wrote Before You Knew My Name and where the story is set.
“I got to launch the book and meet my publishers at Simon and Schuster, and genuinely go back and relive all the places where I'd set the novel back in 2015. That was pretty special.”
Before You Knew My Name revolves around Alice Lee and Ruby Jones and the connection that forms between them when Ruby discovers Alice’s body.
“Alice is an 18-year-old from the Midwest, Ruby is twice her age at 36. She's from Melbourne and they both land in New York City on the same day.
“A month later, and this isn't a spoiler … Ruby finds Alice’s body in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
“This unique connection is formed between them and the sort of the gentle twist of the novel is that it's narrated by Alice herself after her death. She creates this bond with the woman who found her body and they together try to solve whodunit.”
In 2015, Bublitz spent three months researching and writing the novel while on a career break in the States.
“It wasn't until my late 30s that I really got honest about the fact that I wanted to write, that I didn't just want to read voraciously, that I wanted to contribute something. It took me a really long time to figure out what that something was.
"And then in 2014, there was a real-life case on my street in Melbourne and it wouldn't let me go. And so for the first time, I had a story that I could work with and live with."
Bublitz took advantage of Australia's long service leave entitlement and headed for the States with her story idea.
“I was able to take a career break because I was paid three months long service leave when I left my job at Seek in Melbourne that was able to help fund something that I probably wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.
“So I went to New York with this little bit of money in my pocket, that I burned through pretty quickly, and this idea for a novel.”
Bublitz revelled in the city, she says.
"I wandered that city, mostly Manhattan, I wandered Manhattan up and down looking for the perfect murder spot. That was my first couple of weeks, which actually was proving quite difficult. It's a busy city. At that stage, crime was mercifully down in the city as well.
“And then I stumbled upon this perfect spot in Riverside Park, which is the lesser known park to Central Park but equally as beautiful.”
Having no friends in the city, Bublitz had just her two characters as company.
“I just took these two characters, Alice and Ruby, and my notebooks to as many corners of Manhattan as I could.”
Before You Knew My Name has sold over 100,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand alone. It was the double winner of the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards; winning Best First Book and Best Novel. It also picked up major awards in Australia and was shortlisted for the international Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award.
Related:
Jacqueline Bublitz's second novel to be set in NZ (Standing Room Only)
Before You Knew My Name - book review (Nine to Noon)
