Jacqueline Bublitz is the author of the new novel Before You Knew My Name. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, and on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Q: What inspired you to write Before You Knew My Name, and how did you create your characters Alice and Ruby?
A: Before You Knew My Name was inspired by a 2014 murder that happened on my street in Melbourne, Australia. Renea Lau was murdered one Sunday morning after she was chased into a city park on her way to work, and her body was found by a jogger later that morning.
While I was devastated at the loss of yet another bright young woman, I also couldn’t stop thinking about the trauma that must have been experienced by the person who discovered her body, especially when I used to run in that park, myself. Out of that grief and rage I felt, the notion of a story about the connection between a murder victim and the person who finds her body was formed.
As to Alice herself, she came to me one afternoon while I was free writing, as if I had always known her. It was the strangest, almost magical thing, because she just sort of tumbled onto the page and kept going.
Drawing Ruby out was more like my usual experience of writing – it was hard work. Eventually, I came to understand she existed both as Alice’s equal and her opposite, and I began to have fun playing with all the parallels between these two women.
Q: In a review of the book for The Guardian, Zoya Patel writes, “Bublitz invests us in the lives of these two women, which drives the narrative forward with all the suspense and tension we expect from crime fiction – but with complex characters and themes that linger for longer.” What do you think of that description?
A: I often say that I consider myself an accidental crime writer. A very lucky accidental crime writer! Prior to writing Before You Knew My Name, I mostly read true crime. I was also a great admirer of twisty, page-turning fiction – I just wasn’t sure I could bring that to the page, myself.
For a while there, I genuinely didn’t know where the book might fit. But I learnt on the job how nuanced crime fiction can be, and just how many brilliant authors are out there, playing with form and language, while keeping that suspense and tension high.
I’m so grateful for the way the book has been received, and for the opportunities I now have to keep writing complex, character-driven crime fiction.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: With Before You Knew My Name, I knew the ending well before I knew how to get there. Writing this book was an exercise in getting myself, and my characters to that place I could see so clearly from the start, so you could almost say I wrote the novel backwards.
The final scenes as they exist in the published version are almost identical to those I wrote in the earliest drafts, and without spoiling anything, that’s because I always knew what note I wanted Alice Lee’s story to end on.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: All credit goes to my wonderful Australian publisher, Jane. Along with my agent Cara, and my UK editor Darcy, we had been workshopping our way through a list of prospective titles, but nothing stuck, mostly because I was quite attached my original, working title.
But when Jane suggested Before You Knew My Name, it was as if it had always been my book. It was an immediate yes from all of us, and quite an emotional moment. I love the way it speaks directly to the reader, letting them know from the start that Alice Lee has something to say.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I currently have my head down, finishing my second book. We have a title that I absolutely love, but I don’t want to get too attached in case it changes along the way.
What I can share is that this second novel exists in the same universe as Before You Knew My Name, and while it’s not a sequel, I feel like it’s a natural successor, both thematically and in terms of its hopeful optimism despite the dark subject matter.
I can also share that the story begins in New York, but I’ve been able to include a few more of my favourite locations this time around, including small-town New Zealand, and Oslo, Norway, where a little of Before You Knew My Name was written.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I am super excited for US readers to meet Alice Lee. I grew up in New Zealand and moved to Melbourne in my late teens, but I came to Flushing, Michigan, as an exchange student first, graduating with Flushing High’s class of ’94. In 2015, I was also lucky enough to take a sabbatical from my day job in Australia to spend a few months in New York researching Before You Knew My Name.
I consider myself something of an honorary American, so the US launch feels really special, and it can’t come soon enough!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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