The Runaway Girl follows an Australian expat journalist who is investigating a criminal network in Lagos while a fourteen-year-old girl fights to survive it. Did Jade and Yinka’s storylines develop together from the beginning, or did one lead you toward the other?

I first wrote Yinka’s story as a stage show called Batonga that was produced in Lagos multiple times.

The Runaway Girl began with only Jade’s story. An editor suggested using a second point of view from one of the girls’ perspectives, so I used the opportunity to combine the two stories.

Why is reclaiming her identity as a journalist so important to Jade at this point in her life?

Before Jade moved to Lagos, her identity was largely wrapped up in her career. The move meant she had to relinquish her job in Australia, and she struggles to redefine who she is without it. She loves being a mother and a wife, but needs something of her own to hold onto her sense of self and to keep her brain active.

How did your experience as an Australian living in Nigeria shape the way you wrote Jade’s perspective as an expatriate?

When I left Australia, I gave up a job I loved as a career counselor, so Jade’s loss of identity came from personal experience. I began writing to fill this gap and have been writing ever since.

I also started salsa dancing in Lagos, so much of Jade’s experiences of dance, particularly her performance at the salsa party is drawn from life. I attended many events as the only white person in the room, and on several occasions, a comedian made jokes about me that I couldn’t understand. Fortunately, I always felt goodwill, never threatened, and it gave me great material for fiction.

The expat community was one of the best parts of expat life for me, but I didn’t really explore that in depth in The Runaway Girl because, for story purposes, I wanted Jade to feel more isolated. In the next book, The Desert Thief, that side of expat life is given more room to breathe.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Jade Riley and the direction of the next book?

In book five, The Desert Thief, which is the last in the series (for now), Jade and her family have moved to the Middle East.

How far would you go to protect your family?

Jade never set out to become a thief, especially not in the Middle East, but breaking into her husband Brett’s office is the only way to get information about a missing miner.

After the miner turns up dead at the copper mine where Brett works, a letter leaked to the press implicates him in the crime.

In search of the truth, Jade uncovers a web of infidelity, industrial espionage, and royal intrigue. But can she keep her husband out of jail and save him from the death penalty?

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