The Reckoning #author Vikki Petraitis

Book #3 of Antigone Pollard book series

A dark, morally uncompromising crime novel about overturned justice, institutional failure, and the price paid when the system looks away.

When the system fails, justice must take another form.

When two convicted rapists walk free on appeal, the town of Deception Bay splits down the middle. The men swagger onto a packed cricket ground on Australia Day to a hero’s welcome. Before lunch is over, dozens of people fall ill. Among them, the newly released men.

As panic rips through the town and emergency services buckle, Detective Antigone Pollard and her partner, Wozza, scramble to figure out what has happened. Is it an accident? Or was this deliberate?

When Antigone’s mother, a doctor, vanishes while responding to a call for help, Antigone enters a desperate race to find her. But time is running out.

Antigone faces a choice and, this time, she doesn’t wait for permission. With no good options left, she does what she always does – relies on herself.  

The Reckoning is an unflinching, morally uncompromising crime novel about thwarted justice, institutional failure, exacted revenge and the price paid when the system looks away.

To connect with Vikki ...
https://vikkipetraitis.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/vikki.petraitis.author/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

It's good morning again. Welcome back, Vicki Petraeus. Welcome to Yellow Shelf again.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I am so excited to be here. I love Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Uh Vicky, thank you. I you know, we only we spoke maybe about six months ago in February this year. So you you're busy, and lucky for me, you're going to afford me the time to come back and share your latest book, The Reckoning. Tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

So The Reckoning is the third in the series, the Antigone Pollard series. And I wanted to, in the first book, The Unbelieved, Antigone is quite alone. And then in the second book, she's kind of dipping her toe in the water of the community and starting to have people around her. And then in the third book, I wanted her to be really invested with family. Her mother has come back home, her nan has come back to the farm to live. And I just wanted her to be immersed in that. But of course, when we love, we also fear because when you're solitary, you know, no one can really get to you. But when you've got people that you adore and they're in jeopardy, and that's what I wanted to test. How does Antigone go when she's really fighting for her life and the lives of those around her?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

And what do you want us to know about uh this particular book in the series? What's where's the inspiration from? Tell us what we need to know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I think all of my inspiration comes from real life. And when I had uh I did a podcast series with Emily Webb called The Unthinkable, and we interviewed a woman called Louisa Hope, who's one of my favorite interviews ever. And she was involved in the Lent Cafe siege. She was a hostage from the minute those doors locked to the minute the shootout happened, and she was injured. And Emily and I, and the case file host, we just sat listening to her for hours. And I guess that got me thinking about sieges, and it got me thinking about how people you can be an everyday person, and you can be suddenly put in a siege situation, and you have to be professional negotiator, you have to be liaison between police and maybe the person that's taken you. And the most incredible skills can come out in people that are put in those kind of situations. And so I I guess I had that Louisa story swirling around in my head. And so, and of course, we've also got the sovereign citizen movement that you just that pops up every now and again, usually really violently. And I kind of wanted to explore what would happen if there was a character like that in Deception Bay.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Um, and you know, you mentioned real life, so tell us about Deception Bay, tell us about the town and what goes on.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I think Deception Bay is a bit of a microcosm for everyday life. So that you might have somebody who's um been wounded but doesn't tell anyone, and you might have someone who's just fights for the good, like we've got the Country Women's Association, and you've got Antigone who's kind of spent a lot of time there, but but she's kind of been cidified by going to work in Brunswick. And you've got Wazer and his family, and it I guess it's just this microcosm that you can have a little bit of everything, but in a country town, you put a border around it so that people can. I guess when novels are set in the city, anything can happen, and it could be anybody. But when you kind of put it in a town, it's always going to be people that are in that town. So you kind of close the borders, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

And Vicky, tell us. I'm not, I'm pretty sure I didn't ask you this in my last interview with you. Tell us about your writing process, because um, like, do you block out a couple of hours? Do you do writing retreats? How do you how do you prioritize the writing? And does it naturally flow? Or what's that like for you?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

I'm a full-time writer now. So I take an aqua class, like I've done my morning aqua class this morning, and I come home and pretty much make a cup of tea and start writing. So ideally, most days are writing. Uh, about six months of the year, I work really um intensively on a podcast series for the Australian First Peace, which I love. And then sort of for the other six months, or sometimes that goes down to four or five months, I write a book. So that's kind of the, you know, I mean, I've started book four in the series, but um, it will become really intense once I hand over my last podcast script, and then I'll just go bang back into it.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Well, you sound like you're, you know, you're very structured in your routine. You know, you have your morning time and your cup of tea, and then you're into it. That's um, thanks for sharing that. Vicky, if we're curious about your latest book, I know it's available now for pre-order. Um, so I'm really glad you chatted to Yellow Shelf because I know your life's gonna get really busy. Um, tell me how do we connect with you? Point us in the direction of your website or socials, where should we go if we want to learn more?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

So I have an Instagram page, and I'm not very good at it. I don't know how to even when they go link in the bio, I don't know what that means. Um, so but you know, I post kind of upcoming events, and then I have a Facebook page, just for you portrayed as author, crime author, crime writer, I can't remember what I called it, but uh author page. And you know, that's just I mean even since the beginning of the year, um, I think I had like five and a half thousand followers, and now I've got seven, and I don't know what happened. It's just like why are seven thousand people following me? But I do post all of my upcoming events on that and any kind of news or because we've got the TV series coming up soon. I know. I don't know when I don't have a date, but it it's this year. Uh the ABC has made um it will be showing a TV series of the unbelieved, and it will be called Dustfall. So I guess I'm gonna have to be a bit more savvy on social media, but geez, lately I don't have time to. I know that there's a lot of writers that do newsletters and yeah, you know, daily posts.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

I I just don't it's enough to be able to connect with you and get curious. So I'll put a link into Instagram and Facebook and and your website as well. Vicky, um, you have uh yet again accomplished so much in such a short amount of time since I last spoke to you. You'll always be welcome back on Yellow Shelf, but good luck with the reckoning. Best wishes. Thank you so much. It's been good. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Excellent.