Publication date: December 1st 2013
Genres: Mystery, New Adult
Synopsis:
Dream cars have no registration plate…
One evening, Adam’s mum pops out for the milk and doesn’t come back, launching a frantic nationwide search. Yet after weeks with no leads, the television crews drift away, the police start asking hairy questions, and Adam’s dad starts seeing someone else. Adam’s life is falling apart. But then he meets Skye, who it seems has misplaced a parent too, and things start to look up. That is, until a body is found…
Purchase:
Interview:
We talk with Lee Murray, the award winning author of Battle of the Birds, about the release of her latest book, young
adult novel Misplaced:
What concept or
situation about Misplaced makes it
unique?
Death is final. It’s terribly sad, but the person is
gone. But when someone goes missing, there’s always a chance they might come
back. That perennial spark of hope is perhaps the thing that makes loss through
disappearance the most difficult. In Misplaced,
Adam’s grandpa has Alzheimer’s, an incurable disease in which a person loses
their memory over time. I felt this was an important parallel to Adam’s story
of loss as a person suffering from Alzheimer’s can have occasional periods of
lucidity, providing family members with the cruel hope that the person might
one day come back.
What is your
favourite scene from Misplaced and
why?
I particularly like the scenes in which Adam and his
friends seek answers from a medium. From the outset the teens are sceptical,
something the medium doesn’t know, which made it fun to write.
If you could
tell us one thing about the young adult genre that makes your mind spin with
ideas, what would that be?
Teenagers are a contradiction. On the cusp of
adulthood, they can accomplish almost everything an adult character can: drive
a car, make a meal, use a cash machine, wield a sword, incite a riot, design a
robot, even have a relationship. Yet their youth means they’re still trying to
make sense of the world, so when faced with a particular situation you never
quite know how a teenager might react. This makes them hugely exciting to
write.
The book cover
is lovely. Haunting. Who designed it?
Thank you! The book cover was designed by Gisborne
artist Romilly Brown, and is based on a photograph of one of my daughter’s
school friends. I particularly liked the Mona Lisa character of the image: the
way the boy looks as if he’s incredibly sad, but about to break into a smile,
too. Romilly used that image, and gave it an interminable sense of waiting in
keeping with the theme of the book.
Are any other
books planned in this series? Will we see Adam and his friends again?
I’d love that. When you’ve worked with characters
for a while, it’s surprising how attached to them you become. I think that’s
why we often see books in series: because their writers haven’t been able to
let those characters go. It’s a bit like letting your teenager go off to
college. So far, I’ve managed to distract myself with other book projects, and other
characters, but Adam is a particular favourite and he has some plans… [laughs]. So, yes, there could be a sequel in
Adam’s future.
**Giveaway**
AUTHOR BIO:
Lee Murray is a full-time writer and editor with masters degrees in science and management. Lee wrote Misplaced after a friend, Florence, went missing from her home in France in 2003. Sadly, Florence is still missing. Lee lives in Tauranga, New Zealand with her husband and their two teenaged children.
Author links:
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