![Dinuka McKenzie next to her book cover](https://regionriverina.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/IMG_8653-1200x789.jpg)
Author Dinuka McKenzie will be visiting Riverina libraries in the coming days. Photo: Supplied.
Crime fiction author Dinuka McKenzie wrote her first mystery, The Torrent, with her newborn baby at her side. The Torrent explores the idea of using a natural disaster, in this case a major flood, to disguise a murder.
“I’ve always loved crime fiction, so I wasn’t surprised that a detective came on the page, but she was going through something like me,” Dinuka said, explaining that her protagonist, Detective Sergeant Kate Miles, is a breast-feeding new mum trying to balance the competing demands of motherhood with solving crimes.
“She was very good at her job, but she was a mum, and she was trying to balance a demanding job with the demands of motherhood,” she explained.
“I don’t think that side of police work has been put front and centre in a book before.”
To mark the release of her second novel Taken, Dinuka is about to begin a tour of the Riverina and Central West libraries.
“The number of times I’ve had messages asking me to visit and now I can finally go out to these places and meet readers,” Dinuka said. “It’s just lovely that people are investing in my books and want to meet me.”
![Dinuka McKenzie](https://regionriverina.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/07/Dinuka-McKenzie-1200x967.jpg)
Dinuka McKenzie wrote her first mystery, The Torrent, with her newborn baby beside her. Photo: Supplied.
She feels privileged to be able to write full-time and said it is not that long ago that she was on the other side, wanting to meet her favourite authors.
“It’s mind-blowing for me. What a privilege. People are so generous. They talk to you about characters that have lived in your head as if they’re real. There’s a magic in that,” she said, enjoying the fact that her fictional Detective, Kate Miles, is developing a growing following.
“A lot of people have enjoyed reading about Kate and connected with her character. I get a lot of messages from people who feel like she’s a friend and connect with her,” she said.
“A lot of people relate to being a female in a male-dominated workplace.”
Dinuka didn’t particularly plan to be a writer, but explained that it “came out of the place I found myself in”.
“I had very young kids and a job and I felt pulled in different directions. I could feel bits of my identity falling away,” she said. “I was feeling like I wasn’t doing a particularly good job of either parenting or my work. I needed to reclaim a place for myself.”
Since first being published in 2022, Dinuka has met many other authors who have also turned to writing during new motherhood.
“It’s a phenomenon. Since I’ve had this book published, I have met so many other people who also wrote their first novel after they became a mother. I just wanted something on the table that wasn’t me as a mother or an employee – I just wanted something that was completely and entirely for myself.”
Dinuka is speaking at two events in the Riverina: Cootamundra Library on Friday 7 July at 3 pm and at Temora Library on Monday 10 July at 10:30 am. Books will be available for sales and signings.
Find out more about upcoming events at Riverina libraries here.