We chat with author Nicola Solvinic about The Sister’s Curse, which follows a detective haunted by her serial killer father must uncover whether revenge, ancient legends, or if something darker lurks beneath the surface with mysterious drownings plaguing her small town.
Hi, Nicola! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! It’s nice to meet you and your readers!
My journey to writing has been a little convoluted. I have a master’s degree in criminology, and I’ve worked in and around criminal justice for over a decade.
I’m an avid gardener. When I built my garden, I treated it very much as an experiment, but I was delighted by the wildlife that moved in. My favorites are the catbirds, the hives of bees, and the little brown snakes that hang out in the rocks. It’s amazing what will move in if you create the habitat for them.
I spend a lot of time outside in the garden in the summer, writing. I get to listen to the drone of the bees, the little catbird yells, and sometimes I’m joined on the patio by the little snakes sunning themselves after they’ve eaten their fill of slugs.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I love reading thrillers and mysteries, so I thought it would be fun to try and write my own book. It was something I tried one summer on a lark. I wanted to see if I could create a fictional tale and make it sound real by including details I’d picked up on over my career. Little things like how radio chatter sounds, procedural rhythms, and atmospheric details. I hope they make the larger story ring true.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: That would be Puff the Magic Dragon. My mother read that one to me a lot as a kid.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Karen Dionne’s THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Madeline Miller’s CIRCE.
Your latest novel, The Sister’s Curse, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Murder lurks under the surface.
What can readers expect?
I’m revisiting my protagonist, Anna Koray, from THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER. Anna is the daughter of a prolific serial killer, a secret she’s tried to hide as a decorated sheriff’s lieutenant in a rural county that was once her father’s hunting ground. A series of drownings suggests that something more than human is lurking in the forests and waters of Bayern County, and Anna can’t help but wonder if these murders are connected to a delusion that her father called “The Forest God.” As Anna investigates, she learns that Bayern County draws in strange people and even stranger powers, both of which will stop at nothing to exact revenge for unsolved murders.
Where did the inspiration for The Sister’s Curse come from?
I didn’t think that I was done with Anna Koray. She’s very unpredictable to write, and I wanted to write the story to find out what happened next with her. She tries very hard to do the right thing – sometimes. At other times, she’s willing to achieve her version of justice by any means necessary. I hope readers will be as surprised as I was.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I enjoyed diving into the myth of the Rusalka – the idea that restless spirits of drowned women lie at the bottom of streams and rivers, waiting for their opportunity to exact revenge. I thought they were the perfect metaphor for some of the goings-on in Bayern County’s dark underbelly.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I found that writing a sequel book is challenging, because I’ve established a world and characters in the first story. A world with rules! I had to decide which rules I was going to follow in THE SISTER’S CURSE, and which ones I was going to break. Rules get broken in real life often, after all.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on some new stories about rural murder and mayhem. I like writing about the land as a character, and the interaction of the characters with the land. Some of that is mysterious, and some of it is just plain unsettling.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
I’m reading Lauren Nossett’s THE PROFESSOR. Lauren has such an amazing, nuanced understanding of power and academic intrigue in her writing.
I’m looking forward to Wendy Walker’s BLADE in February. I always enjoy her books – she keeps me guessing “who done it” until the end.
