Interview with Tamara Moss author of Five Voices

We chat with Five Voices author Tamara Moss on her thrilling new YA murder mystery.

A&U: Hey Tamara! Thanks so much for chatting with us. First up, can you tell us a bit about Five Voices?

TM: Hi! The short pitch: Five Voices is a YA murder mystery about five friends who make a podcast together. One of them is murdered, and his last words imply it was one of his co-hosts who did it. There are secrets, lies, betrayals and killer plot twists. Bonus: You will cry multiple times.

A&U: The mystery of Five Voices is so well put together. Did you know all the threads from the very beginning and how it would all end, or did you make it up as you went along?

TM: The very first draft was scratched out in notebooks – and yes, I was making it up as I went along. I hadn’t decided who the killer was when starting it, but I did know everyone’s secrets (each suspect has at least two big bombshells to drop during the book).

A&U: The book is divided into multiple POVs as well as separated into before the murder, and after it. Was that structure always your vision for the book?

TM: Yes! I love books that follow different point-of-views, where everyone’s hiding something, and wanted to have a go of that myself. It was one of the main aims of writing the book.

A&U: We love how each of your characters perspectives feel so unique. How did you go about finding each of their (no pun intended) voices?

TM: It’s important for the podcast that each character has a different outlook on life, so I had to decide how their past informed their current ideologies. I spent a long time building their socio-emotional framework and working out their speech and thought patterns. And I asked questions like: What is their experience with death before the book starts? How does their home life influence their personalities? What is their relationship with the others in the group, and how does it differ between individuals? How do their personal understandings about life impact their interpretation of events? (If this sounds like a lot of work… trust me, it was.)

A&U: Without any spoilers of course, was there a chapter or scene that you really enjoyed writing, or maybe found particularly challenging?

TM: No spoilers is a hard one! Let’s just say everything about Simone was difficult. Then again, they were also the scenes I found the most compelling to write.

A&U: And lastly, do you have some advice for any budding writers out there that might be reading this Q&A?

TM: I don’t think you should go to university to study writing. You’ll learn how to write by actually doing it. Instead, I’d recommend getting experience in something else, so you have something to write about.

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Five Voices

by Tamara Moss

Five characters. Four suspects. All of them are hiding secrets. None of them can be trusted. A thrilling and addictive YA murder mystery from a New York Times bestselling Australian author.

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