What started off as handwritten journal entries during slow hours at work has turned into a Vernon writer’s debut novel.
The One That Got Away is a thriller filled with murder and obsession set in the small and sleepy town of Ridgeway, where residents stay up late and university students mill around campus carefree—that is, until the bodies start turning up.
Author Myk Richelle, 25, describes the story as “pretty dark,” centring as it does on acts of brutality and the inner demons of the star police officer in charge of bringing justice to a barbarous serial killer.
Richelle, who studied film, acting and directing in Vancouver, says she always knew she wanted to be a published writer. She started writing it by hand in a journal five years ago as a way to pass time.
“I started writing it when I was at work one day and it was just supposed to be a short story,” she said.
“When I got to about 400 pages in my journals I started transferring it to my computer, and it just kept going and going,” she said. “I surprised myself because I didn’t expect it to continue.”
The further she got into the writing process, the more she started pulling inspiration from American thriller bestsellers Lisa Jackson and Kevin O’Brien, two of her favourite authors.
“They’re both very descriptive and their books have quite the storyline,” she said. “That’s what I want my books to be about, I want them to be captivating the whole way through.”
Richelle calls the release of The One That Got Away “a dream come true,” and while it may have taken five years the first time around, she says she’s hoping to finish a sequel by December to be ready for publishing early next year.
“There’s definitely going to be a second part to it, so it’s going to be an actual series,” she said. “This one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.”
The novel is available for online purchase through publisher Xlibris, as well as the online shopping portals for Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
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