Amber Cowie’s Last One Alive offers plenty of dangerous action as a group of 10 are eliminated one by one.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission for purchases made through links on this page.
article content
squamish writer amber cowiethe novel the last alive is a fast-paced, character-packed thriller that uses a remote area on the edge of Howe Sound as a creepy and deadly backdrop for a Key code-like a story that will keep you guessing all the time.
Announcement 2
article content
Recently, post media News caught with cow and ask about her novel and your writing:
Q: Where did the inspiration for this story come from?
A: During the weird days of the pandemic in 2021, I took my two kids to the tourist attractions in the Sea to Sky corridor to stave off the boredom of a socially distanced spring break. We went to the Squamish-Lilwat Cultural Center and the Britannia Mine Museum, where indigenous tradition and settler history intertwined in my mind. Eventually the threads came together to become the story of the Stone Witch.
Q: Was there a local ghost story you drew from? Is there a true Stone Witch story?
A: The legend of the Stone Witch was inspired by an incredible storyteller from the Squamish Nation who spoke of the myth of Kálklilh, which translates to “giant cannibal woman.” She was a huge woman who roamed the woods after dark to capture children to eat, which captivated me because she was invented to embody a warning about the danger of nature.
Announcement 3
article content
The Squamish were right to teach their children to be careful, as that wilderness was incredibly dangerous for the miners and their families, who made their home on the rocky slopes around the newly operating copper mine in Britannia a hundred years ago. Landslides pulverized camps and settlers were often injured.
The myth of Kálklilh, coupled with the danger of the early settlements around the Britannia mine, inspired me to write the story of a young woman alone in the same forest, accused of witchcraft due to various horrific and unexplained events surrounding her.
Witches are a tense subject as misogyny, mistrust and the subversion of gender norms often come into play when a woman is accused of black magic. I loved the idea of creating a creepy, complex legend in the form of Ruth Stone that could play into those themes.
Announcement 4
article content
Q: Why did you set the story in this part of BC, so close to home?
A: Even though my college degree is in history, I’m a terrible historian. I love reading local history books, but often find myself inventing characters and stories to bring them to life. I live in Squamish, which has a mind-boggling wealth of indigenous and settler history for you to dig into and spin me in all directions.
Q: As a writer, did you feel any fear about turning your leading man into a writer?
A: Last One Alive is a novel about stories: the ones we tell ourselves and the ones others believe. It’s kind of taboo to write a book about a person who writes books, but I needed my main character to live and breathe fiction for the story to work.
Q: Your protagonist was desperate for an idea for a second novel. Is it something you can identify with? Does the blank page haunt you?
ad 5
article content
A: With two kids and a lot of freelance work, I’m more obsessed with blank pages that I don’t have time to fill. My despair as a writer comes from different places: the feeling that I can’t get my ideas down on paper before they’re gone forever.
Q: What was the research process for this book?
A: Drawing on indigenous myth and settler history, I spent a lot of time at the Squamish-Lilwat Cultural Center talking to storytellers and interpreters. I also pored over a local history book called Britannia: The Story of a Mine, and used stock photos and lots of maps to create my remote Howe Sound location.
Q: The press releases for your book say that your Internet search history is puzzling. Can you expand on that?
A: Some of the scenes in my books require some… sensitive research. I had to Google head injuries and how to inflict them, lethal doses of drugs, and true crime cases where people got away with it. On paper, it might seem worrying.
ad 6
article content
Q: You have a lot of characters and a lot of moving parts in this story, so how do you go about mapping out your narrative?
A: This one was intense in terms of plot. I created a kind of hint board for my characters so I could move them around in certain scenes and I had a very complex layout that made sure everyone was where they needed to be when I needed them to be there.
Q: What are the keys to a great mystery novel?
A: Crackling tension, likeable characters and embedded references to great works of the past.
Q: What inspires you in this genre of novel?
A: We live in a world where there are so many problems that seem insoluble. A book that promises and offers a solution to your distressing inner problem is a great comfort.
ad 7
article content
Q: What suspense/mystery novelists do you love?
A: This could take all day. Thomas King, Sheena Kamal, Samantha Bailey, SM Freedman, Marissa Stapley, Robyn Harding, SA Cosby, Riley Sager, Catherine McKenzie, Zakiya Dalila Harris, AJ Devlin, Shari Lapena, and Ruth Ware are (some) contemporary authors in this genre that I consider I would leave everything to read.
I also love classic writers like Agatha Christie. P.D. James, Patricia Highsmith, and Dorothy Hughes.
Q: Obviously, we don’t want to reveal the circumstances of the murders in this book, but could you explain how you decide how someone will meet an untimely end?
A: You mean the funniest part of writing a book like this (insert evil laugh)? Interestingly, it’s often the characters I like the most that I take out first. Worst compliment of all, I guess.
Q: What are a couple of summer reads you’re dying to open?
A: Return to Solitude by Grant Lawrence and More than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez.
I’m also very lucky to host a panel of crime and thriller writers at my beloved Whistler Writers Festival in October, so I know I’m getting four amazing works of fiction from Charlie Demers, Anna Pitoniak, Daniel Kalla and Sandra Wong to read during the summer too.
