Crime author Dave Warner says that after writing about dark topics with serial killers he enjoys the relief of injecting humour into his novels.
“There’s a mix,” he says. “Certainly, some of my books have been slightly satirical with an undercurrent of serious crime. Bringing in humour is a lot of fun.”
Dave will be expressing his passion for all kinds of crime fiction at this year’s Manly Writers’ Festival, 19 to 22 March. He will be discussing his new book Sound Mind Dead Body. It’s a novel which harks back to the golden age of crime writing and the genre’s queen, Agatha Christie.
Dave really got into Christie’s work while on the road with his band Dave Warner From the Suburbs, in the early 1980s. “I thought ‘wouldn’t it be great to experience an Agatha Christie play around people’,” he says. “In July 1984, I wrote the script and along with our tour manager David Zampatti we held quite possibly the world’s first ‘murder weekend’ at Cave’s House at Yallingup, WA.”
Dave really got into Christie’s work while on the road with his band Dave Warner From the Suburbs, in the early 1980s.
At the time it whet his appetite for crime fiction and now, after 15 novels, the cluedunnit Sound Mind Dead Body brings Dave full circle. “I thought the murder weekend was a good story so I reworked it, set it in Devon, England, and brought in the character Fred Willets – a WWI fighter pilot turned inspector. There’s also possibly some romance with a clever local pharmacist named Prudence Meadows!”
Dave grew up in a suburb of Perth, WA, and knew early-on what he wanted to do. For a school assignment at the age of 12, he wrote ‘writer’ as his ideal occupation. “I was never going to make that happen at that age,” he says. “But I could get together with some mates in the garage and play music.” For ‘six or seven years’ after leaving school, music was his pursuit and Dave Warner From the Suburbs emerged, releasing the number one album Mug’s Game in 1978.
Now he’s a successful writer of novels, musicals, television shows, screenplays and more. And he still plays and records rock. While he can’t pinpoint from where his ideas emerge, he does remember a decision in the early 2000s to hone in on setting. “I wanted to write books where the location, such as Australia, was as big a character as anyone or anything,” he says.
Dave’s personal location for nearly 30-years has been Balgowlah, where he and wife Nicole raised three children. “We found it by accident,” he says. “It reminded me of a suburb back in Perth – it was pretty ordinary but people still hadn’t realised how great it was.” His move to the peninsula was notwithstanding him being one of WA’s favourite sons, as he had been the first inductee to its Rock ‘n’ Roll of Renown.
Dave says he is not a political animal at events like Manly Writers Festival – he likes reading and writing and talking about these. “Audiences come for all kinds of reasons. They might be aspiring writers and want to get inside the minds of authors. Or they might be people who also visit art galleries, other writers’ festivals and films. It’s all fine with me.”
This year’s Manly Writers’ Festival again brings together a diverse group of homegrown writers and hosts. This will be Dave’s first appearance at the event. He says he enjoys the passion of the organisers and volunteers at festivals like this, as well as meeting readers and other writers.
For programs and tickets visit manlywritersfestival.org.au
