Rachel Paris: portraying power

Your debut thriller, See How They Fall, has been compared with TV shows Succession and The White Lotus. What are some of the main themes in the book?

On one level it is about toxic rich people behaving badly and the dark side of wealth. But it’s also about the collateral damage that can come from the collision of wealth and power when people aren't held to account and how that power can be a corrupting force. For me, it's also a story of two women facing major obstacles and working together to overcome them.

Before becoming a writer, you spent two decades as a corporate lawyer. How much did your law career inform your work?

I guess having an understanding of the law helps when you're writing a crime thriller but unfortunately, I wasn't a criminal lawyer, I was a banking and finance lawyer. Nevertheless, it helped me for a few reasons. First, I knew how to research, and also in my finance law career I've met a lot of wealthy, influential people, some of whom definitely gave me some fertile ground for the characters in the story. Obviously, my characters are all fictional, but I think when you work in those circles and you meet some of these people, you start to see how that power can be quite a corrupting influence – so that definitely coloured my characters.

Why do you think the book has been so popular?

I think with reading about really wealthy people, there's always a bit of escapism. And probably one of the reasons people like the book is because you have these wealthy people who seem to have everything but actually we see that their mega fortunes come with mega problems. And we like to see them suffer and we like to see that on the inside things are slightly grubby. I think it’s the schadenfreude of these big wealthy families thinking they can do what they want, but seeing them meet their match in the end – especially when that match comes from people who are more vulnerable and don't have access to the same resources.

Was there any reason it is set in Sydney, rather than Auckland?

When I began writing the book, it was set here in Auckland and in the Coromandel. But the more I got into the story and worked out the details about the Turners [the powerful dynasty at the centre of the book], it just didn't feel credible anymore for that to be set in New Zealand. We've got wealthy people here, but they tend not to be globally known names. So I looked across the ditch and in Australia there’s these big dynasties that are known around the world, and that was the scale of family and wealth that I was wanting to explore. Sydney's a city I know pretty well. It also has a very glamorous reputation, and I always think it's interesting to look at these places that look so perfect and sort of twist them and see what else is going on.

How was the experience of returning to the University of Auckland to complete a Master of Creative Writing (MCW) after previously studying law and arts and then going on to have a successful law career?

It was a real change to come back to university after 20-odd years and to do something so incredibly personal, because for all my corporate career I was sort of putting a lid on creativity. So it was quite freeing but also quite nerve-racking, as you can't help but feel vulnerable when you're asking people to read what you've written and give you feedback. But the more I got into it the more I really loved it. It's quite invigorating being back at university and being surrounded by young people who are just excited about learning.

The MCW was fantastic. I think that while you can learn the craft of writing online or from books, there’s no substitute for having deadlines and structure and an expectation on you to deliver – and there is a real momentum that build during the course.

Learning from someone like Paula Morris, who runs the programme and is herself a very accomplished writer, and having the support of a community of other writers is really what made the difference for me. I don't think it's the actual qualification that matters – no one's going to publish a book just because you've got this masters – but what is really valuable is having the discipline and having that momentum to carry you through.

You’re currently working on your second book. What's it like being a full-time writer now?

It's obviously a delight and a treat to be able to write; it's just such a fun thing to get to do and call work. It does come with its stresses, though, in the sense that the first time around I was writing with no expectation of being published, I was just having fun. But his time I've got a deadline and an editor who's waiting for me to deliver something so there are definitely some nerves around the second book and making sure that people will like it. But overall, it's just such a terrific thing to get to do and I feel really lucky.

And what is your next book about?

The second book is a similar type of story about toxic rich people, also set in Sydney. It’s about three middle-aged sisters and their relationship with one another and their relationship with wealth and money – because some of the sisters have money and some don't. And of course, one of the sisters ends up dead, so it's bit of a who-done-it again; it delves into the role that money can play in jealousy and female friendship bonds and sister bonds. It's good fun to write.