February 9, 2022
◆ RIDING THE WAVE: Local author Margaret Hickey is working on follow-up books to her successful novel ‘Cutters End’. PHOTO: Nick Richards
Margaret’s landscape of literary success By SIMONE KERWIN LAUNCHING a book amid a pandemic can be a tricky business - just ask local author Margaret Hickey. The Beechworth-based Cathedral College English teacher and award-winning playwright and author released her novel, ‘Cutters End’, in
August last year, and was due to attend a series of launch events locally and in Bendigo, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, before the pandemic stepped in. “I was able to have a small launch at the Beechworth Library, which was wonderful, but all the others were cancelled,” she said. “For Albury and Bendigo, we made up the time, but ini-
tially it did feel like a let-down. “However, I was mindful that that was small fry compared to other people who were suffering in numerous and far more significant ways than me.” Among launch events being rescheduled for this year is a session at the Wangaratta Library set for Thursday, February 10 from 6.30pm, and Margaret said this would be another great opportunity to
meet readers and writers. “It’s great to be able to discuss the plot with readers, hear feedback, and talk about other, similar authors,” she said. ‘Cutters End’, Margaret’s foray into crime fiction, is set in an outback South Australian town where a mysterious death on New Year’s Eve in 1989 leads to a shocking murder investigation 32 years later.
It tells the story of teenager Ingrid Mathers as she hitchhikes her way to Alice Springs and, separated from her friend, accepts a lift to the remote town of Cutters End. Moving forward to 2021, the novel follows Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti as he is seconded to a recently reopened case with which he has a personal connection, and has no choice but to make the long
journey up the highway to Cutters End. He soon learns that this death isn’t the only unsolved case that hangs over the town. The novel was prompted by Margaret’s recollections of hitchhiking with her cousin. “When I was younger, my cousin Josie and I did a lot of hitchhiking in between university,” she said.
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