The Couples Retreat, #author Mercedes Mercier

The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier is a tightly wound destination thriller set on the remote beauty of Kangaroo Island, where three wealthy couples reunite for a weekend of luxury, indulgence, and celebration. 

Beneath the polished surface, however, old friendships are strained by jealousy, buried history, and long-held secrets. When the group wakes to a brutal murder, the glamorous escape quickly turns into a pressure cooker of suspicion, with everyone forced to question how well they really know each other.

Cut off from the mainland by a violent storm, the island becomes a closed circle .....trapping both the survivors and the killer together. Rookie police officer Emily Quinn is thrown into the case, navigating hostile locals and her own complicated past as it collides with the investigation. 

As tensions escalate and truths unravel, the novel explores privilege, identity, and the dangerous weight of history—revealing that no one is as perfect as they seem, and that the past has a way of catching up with deadly consequence

To connect with Mercedes ....
https://mercedesmercier.com/about
https://mercedesmercier.com/books
https://www.instagram.com/mercedes.mercier.writes/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

It's good morning, Mercedes Mercia. Welcome to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Oh, thank you for coming on. I mean, you have released lots of books, but your latest book is about to come out, The Couples Retreat. Congratulations. Tell us all about it. What do we need to know?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Thank you so much. So, yeah, so The Couples Retreat is set in beautiful Kangro Island, which is off the coast of South Australia. We often sort of call it the uh the jewel in our crown. Um, and it's told from to view. So, first up, we've got rookie cop Emily Quinn, and she is on her first posting out of the police academy, um, and she is running from something in her past. And so, then for the other point of view, we've got Ash, and she is a business owner. Um, she's recently made a bit of money through her business, and she has begrudgingly agreed to go on a luxury hedonistic holiday with her husband's old uni friends who are they're old money, they're very wealthy, they're very privileged, they're quite unlikable. Um, so they go off and they stay in this beautiful beachfront mansion that's um you know in Kangaroo Island. Um, and without giving too much away, don't want to do any spoilers, um, the group the group wakes up one day and there has been um a murder, murders, um, and at the same time a storm is rolling into the island. All the fairies have been suspended, they're stuck on the island with with the killer. Um at the same time, Emily Quinn, the the rookie cop, has been thrown into you know the most uh high profile, you know, biggest um case of you know her very, very short career. Um and at the same time her past is catching up to her. So it's this boiling, simmering, yes, sort of locked room uh tension.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, and that's what I felt. I mean, I you know, I've never been in a scenario like this, but reading the book, I kind of put myself in snippets of you know journeys through my life where you are in situations where the dynamics isn't always great, and you know you need to make it work, and then something, you know, happens, and you know, always it's been simmering and festering. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, I really wanted to play on this sort of phenomenon that I've realized. It's like you think that, you know, the adult, you know, you think that jealousy and envy and competition is something that might be, you know, a very sort of a high school sort of phenomenon experience. But it actually continues, you know, well, well into adulthood and it actually often increases and gets worse as the stakes get higher, you know, people are getting promotions, getting, you know, dream houses, having kids or not having kids, or you know, traveling the world, doing all these sort of milestones. Um and I was really interested to see and explore sort of how this affects like these old friendships and old relationships that you might have had, you know, for 10, 20 years since you've since you graduated uni, and how these resentments and these competition and this rivalry sort of festers and builds over the years, and how it can really warp these friendships that on the surface look great, like you know, he's my buddy, I you know, longevity, yeah, yeah. You know, he's been in my life 20 odd years. But you know, are these friendships still, you know, are they are they still working? Do they still need to be part of your life?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Or yeah, no, I felt the realness in that. I felt, yeah, I felt aspects of like, yeah, this is this is this is real, like these, these, you've you've you've drawn that in. So, Mercedes, do you want to tell us a bit about you? You've written other books, plenty of information is on your website, but uh, you know, take us through your journey as a writer and anything we need to know about you. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Well, so I guess I've been writing just, I mean, like a lot of authors, I've just been writing my whole life. I've always, always, always wanted to be an author, but it is one one of those dreams that, you know, sort of what's one of those careers that sort of seems like a pipe dream, I guess. And you sort of, you know, you're uh convinced away from it in your youth because you know it's not going to be a stable job, it's not etc. etc. Of course. So I sort of had that path as well where I thought, okay, this isn't um a feasible career for me to, you know, to have. So I went to uni and studied media and communications because I figured that way writing is still a part of my life. I'm, you know, writing press releases, speeches, you know, communication pieces, all of that kind of stuff. So I did that. And then I hit 30, and I just had looking back now, I know 30 is quite long. I'm now 40. Um but at the time I felt that 30 was this huge turning point, and I was really unhappy with my life. Um, I had a couple of things sort of break down at the same time. I had a long-term relationship that broke down. I thought we were gonna get married, we had a house together, we had pets together, all my friends were getting married, started phase, all that kind of stuff. So I just sort of had a real moment of what's going on in my life. Like, I'm not, I'm not happy. How can I, what, what control can I have over my life to to push it in a in a happier direction? Yeah. Um and there is a South Australian author called Fiona McIntosh. She writes, yes, she's multi, multi-million copy bestseller. She writes across historical fiction, crime, fantasy. Um I think that's it. Um, and she runs a masterclass in South Australia, a five-day boot camp, sort of for aspiring commercial fiction authors. So I went along to that. That was my treat for my 30th birthday. I went along to that, and on one of the days, she sort of sat me down, and I when you go to her masterclass, you bring along what you've been working on. Sure. And I'd been working on a romance uh manuscript. I loved romance, I still love romance, still love reading romance. Um, haven't written it for for a while, but so I brought that along, and she said to me, Mercedes, I have no idea why you are not writing in crime. And the reason for that was because my background in my working life is I work in the criminal justice system, so I do media and communications um for you know uh the criminal justice system in South Australia. Um and I'd sort of said to her, Oh, there's a couple of reasons why firstly I I was afraid that um the conflict of interest between crime and and my background. Um and secondly, I just think I was I was really intimidated by crime. I was intimidated by just the I don't know, the you know, the clues, the red herrings, just everything that you know crime readers rightfully expect out of a crime book. Of course. Yeah. Um and so I made another big mistake in my life in that I didn't listen to a multimillion bestseller author's advice and continued to write uh in romance for a couple of years, and across those couple of years I just got rejection after rejection after rejection. But not nothing came of it. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I then just just one day I think I I maybe just got frustrated with my own self-doubt, and I was just reading a crime novel, and I just sort of thought, why can't I do it? Like why have I got this belief that I can't write a crime novel? And so I sat down and I started writing, and my first book, White Noise, just came. I mean, it wasn't when I said it came out of me, it wasn't it wasn't as easy as that that makes it sound. Um, but I guess in a way it was that easy, and that as soon as I started writing, I felt this was right. I sort of I knew that I was writing what I should be writing.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

And yeah, I just yeah, I just felt I just I just knew from from that moment onwards. And I I yeah, I haven't looked back. I've I've published two books before the couple's retreat. They're both um about Dr. Laura Fleming, who is a criminal psychologist who works in a prison. Um and yeah, so that's uh in another time. What a journey!

SPEAKER_01 9:19

What what a journey and you know, those crossroads in our lives, like relationships, age, you know, rejection, like what what a journey to keep going. Amazing, well done.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Thank you. Yeah, it's um I think that's one of the biggest lessons I've learned is I did have a I used to have a framed picture on my desk. I've moved some, I don't know where it's gone, but it said something along the lines of the only difference between a published author and an unpublished author is that the published author didn't give up. And I I feel like that's relevant to so many things in life, not just getting a manuscript published. It's you know, if it's something that you really want, just keep it persevere and keep going for it. Because, you know, the second you stop, then you're it's you're saying no to yourself, aren't you? Like definitely going and keep trying, you're giving up the opportunity for others to say no to you. But if you stop, you're saying no to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yeah. And so the couple's retreat, it is out mid-April. Um you're gonna be really busy. I know lots of book launches, lots of events. Is the plan to keep writing? Like, am I allowed to ask that cheeky question? Is there more to come?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

I'm just kind of getting a taster of Yeah, yes, yes, definitely plan of keep writing. I've got I don't really know how much I can actually say. I haven't. No, I don't say anything. You've you've said enough.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

You've said you've said that you'll keep going. Yeah, no, that's um that's really great.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

That's really great. I'm also co-writing a book with another author. Her name is Rachel Johns.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

She's a I've interviewed Rachel three times.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

I have Rachel, yay! Um, yeah, so we are co-writing a book together. Um, it's a it's sort of a fusion, it's something we don't really have a name for, but she's bringing the romance expert on bringing the crime. Um, we're sort of melding it together in this chromance book that's got like a plot line, but a romance plot line. We together. It's called the number one insta detective agency. Um, should be out early next year. Um yeah, we're having a blast with that co-relation.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

I can guarantee the audience that one will be great. And I'm gonna get you both back together. Yes, yes. Talk about that on Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

We would love that.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Congratulations. Enjoy the journey of the couple's retreat. Um, I know you've got a fabulous website, it goes through all your previous work and about you and um any of the work you do. Is that the best? Do you want a audience to go to Instagram as well? You point us in the direction.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, so my website is um where I'll have sort of all my events and everything like that for tour details if people want to sort of see it all in one spot. But Instagram is where I am, um, social media-wise. I am on Facebook a tiny bit, but no, Instagram a hundred percent of the time. So drop me a message. Awesome. Um yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I will I will put the links in to make it easy for anyone watching around the world to get curious about the couple's retreat, to get curious about you as an author. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Cheers.