Shari Lapena
© TRISTAN OSTLER

A dream realized

Shari Lapena pens compelling thrillers

by ELLEN SCHWARTZ

Shari Lapena had a habit of putting off the realization of her dreams.

Her first dream was to become a writer. Speaking from her home in rural Ontario, the author reveals that she was a bookworm as a child, devouring the Nancy Drew series, and longed to become a writer from the age of 9. “But I was afraid that writing wasn’t a practical profession, and so I became a lawyer,” she explains. “As well, I was intimidated about whether I had the talent to be a writer. I made excuses and kept putting it off .”

That changed when Lapena was a stay-at-home mom with her first child. Taking a course at Humber College, she was mentored by the Canadian author David Adams Richards. With his encouragement, she wrote a literary comedy, Things Go Flying, which was published by a small press and was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. Her second comedic novel, Happiness Economics, was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal.

Both novels did well, but Lapena was still squelching her second dream—to write thrillers. “I’d always loved reading page-turners,” she says. “But I didn’t think I could write one, because I figured that a thriller or mystery had to be plotted out in advance, and I’m not that type of writer. My approach is to jump in at the beginning and write the story to find out what happens.”

After the success of her first two books, however, Lapena decided to take a chance. She wrote her first thriller, The Couple Next Door, without planning it out in advance—and it worked. The book was placed with a major US publisher and marked the beginning of a prolific career in her chosen genre.

Lapena’s newest book, Everyone Here Is Lying—her seventh crime novel—tells the story of a “perfectly normal” family whose 9-year-old daughter goes missing. As the search unfolds, deeply hidden secrets and lies are revealed. Witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true—and the repercussions are felt throughout the neighbourhood.

As the title suggests, lies play an important role in the story. “Lies underpin all my books,” Lapena says. “When characters hide the truth, this gives me rich material and drives the plot.”

In the novel, family dynamics crumble. Lapena confesses, “I love to read and write about dysfunctional families. In Everyone Here Is Lying, I start with a simple act of violence between a parent and a child, and tease it out into all the different ways families can go wrong.”

Because Lapena started writing when her children were small, she wrote during their naps and then when they were in school. Now her preferred time is the morning. “I’m very disciplined and aim to write 1,500 words a day,” she reports. “When I achieve that, it makes me feel productive.”

Lapena is working on an as-yet-untitled book; she simply calls it Book No. 8. “It’s a bit of a departure, a murder mystery”—and that’s all she will say about it.

With this success, and with her intense satisfaction in the writing process, one thing is certain: Lapena is no longer putting off the realization of her dreams.

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Ellen Schwartz is the author of 19 books for children and adults. She lives in Burnaby, British Columbia.

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