Before Nelson mystery author Rachel Greenaway became author R.M. Greenaway she was a lot of other things.
Always a writer — she began constructing her first stories at age five — she’s worked in nightclubs, darkrooms, and other occupations to fodder her narratives. But perhaps it was her work as a court reporter in a northern BC town that had the most impact. “I got to see a lot of murder trials unfold,” she says.
Greenaway launches her first novel Cold Girl, published by Dundurn Press, on Thursday, March 31 at 7 p.m. at the Nelson Public Library.
The narrative, set in northern BC, involves a popular rockabilly singer who vanishes and the efforts of lead RCMP investigator David Leith to find her. Victims and suspects begin to multiply in this hot-off-the-press page-turner described by Kirkus Reviews as a “multilayered debut” to which the author “brings a keen understanding of love, loyalty, frailty, and greed.”
Between crafting her novels, Greenaway blogs with the group 7 Criminal Minds, and she’ll be one of the New Female Voices in Crime panel at the CUFFED International Crime Fiction Festival in Vancouver this spring.
Greenaway credits her success to her years in the courtroom, which provided insight through the opportunity to“see people in the most incredible, stressful situations,” she says. “As a writer, I just want to tell a good story.”
Cold Girl won the Arthur Ellis “Unhanged” Award for the best unpublished novel. It’s the first in the BC Blues Crime Novel series, with two more set for publication in the near future. For now, the question remains: who is the coldest girl of all?
Otter Books will be on hand with copies of Cold Girl, and refreshments will be served.