An unexpected sighting of an old friend in a crime documentary set David Whish-Wilson on the road to his new book, O’Keefe.
By Ara Jansen
During a night of insomnia author David Whish-Wilson went down an online video rabbit hole. He emerged having seen an old friend and the idea for his latest novel.
While watching a documentary about the 2021 death of well-known Dutch investigative journalist Peter de Vries, David spied an old friend in a crowd outside de Vries’ Amsterdam home, where mourners were gathering.
Having not talked to the man for decades, they reconnected, discussed the dead journalist and David started having ideas of what his fictional character Paul Cutler might do next.
RELATED: From comedy to sculptures and Fringe – what’s on in the West this summer
This led to the Fremantle resident’s twelfth crime novel, O’Keefe. In it, undercover operative Paul Cutler takes on a new identity as Paul O’Keefe. He’s a security guard working on the wharves at Fremantle to investigate the Mexican cartel meth which is flooding the streets.
O’Keefe discovers a world of off-the-books operations which has little to do with security and a lot to do with who has control over the port’s drug smuggling operations.
RELATED: Poetry catches a killer – a new Perth mystery
The de Vries documentary inspired the author to look at drug transport routes around the world and how they might end up off the coast and at WA ports. Then he started to think about what O’Keefe might get up to in a fictional story with real practicalities.
“Drug smuggling is a rapidly evolving situation and a lot of information is online,” says David. “This happens all over the world and there’s a lot of information online going all the way back to growers through to transport information.”
Part of the attraction of writing for David is the opportunity to use his imagination and create something that doesn’t yet exist. He likes to create something with his mind, turn it into a narrative and gets great pleasure from making things with his hands. He also makes jewellery, knives and whiskey.
“Writing is like my meditation. I go into a completely different mental state and writing is a great pleasure. It’s definitely something I feel a strong pull to do. I start to feel a nagging sense of frustration if I don’t write for a while and a need to get into that state.”
Originally David thought his previous book Cutler would be a standalone, but once he started thinking about his latest book he realised there was more to the character that he wanted to know and was intrigued by him playing such a high stakes game, where one wrong move could be fatal.
“O’Keefe is the same person playing a different role. He’s very chameleon-like and can move across different groups and see how far he can push it. He’s also figuring it out as he goes along. He’s surrounded by people that if they find out who he is, he would be in trouble.”
Set largely around Fremantle, David enjoys writing about the city he loves and knows so well. It allows him to use both true details and let his imagination run wild – and a reason he also loves reading other people’s novels set in Western Australia.
“In a place like Perth, there’s always what’s happening on the surface – the beautiful beaches, clear skies – and a story like this is a good vehicle for the stories happening underneath that.”
O’Keefe is out now through Fremantle Press. Medical Forum has a copy of O’Keefe to giveaway, head to our competitions page to enter.
Want more news, clinicals, features and guest columns delivered straight to you? Subscribe for free to WA’s only independent magazine for medical practitioners.
Want to submit an article? Email [email protected]