Felicity McLean Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Felicity McLean is a journalist and mystery author best known for her debut novel “The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone” that she published in 2019. The novel has been published in different jurisdictions across the world including France, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States, Germany, and Spain. It also made the shortlist for an Indie Book Award and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick. In addition to her fiction works, she has also ghostwritten several works including the award-winning biography “Body Lengths” that she wrote alongside Leisel Jones the Olympian. As a journalist, she has interviewed many prominent authors including Jo Nesbo, Irvine Welsh, Joanna Trollope, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, and Lee Child among others. She is also regular at the Bryant Park Reading Room in New York, Adelaide Writers’ Week, and the Sidney Writers’ Festival.

McLean was born, raised, and went to school in Sidney which means she always talks a lot about real estate. As a twelve-year-old, she was a big fan of the character Josephine Alibrandi from the novel “Looking for Alibrandi” by Melina Marchetta. The novel was something of a talisman throughout her years in high school. By the time she was eighteen and in college, she so loved the life that she wanted to be a student forever. She managed to stretch out the years and studied for five years. As a thirty-year-old, she had two novels and was penning the manuscript for the third. But with a new baby and another on the way, she soon lost interest in writing as she was too tired. It was after her baby was a little grown that she got down to complete her manuscript and got her debut novel “The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone” published in 2019.

Felicity MacLean got the idea for writing her novel from thoughts of how unique an Australian Gothic novel would be. Given the blistering blue skies and the sparkling sunshine of her home country, the concept of Gothic literature such as garrets and gargoyles seemed like it would make for interesting reading. While Australia is a place full of light, she believes that the light serves to enhances the shadows, which makes the nightmares even more compelling. MacLean had read the Gothic works of several Australian authors such as Helen Garner, Barbara Baynton, Patrick White, and Elizabeth Jolley who have written antipodean Gothic works. Most of their works combine the terrifying with the everyday making their readers question a lot of the things that are most familiar to its audiences. MacLean has also been influenced by the lyrical language of Colum McCann and the humor and humanity of Anne Patchett.

“The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone” by Felicity MacLean is a comically black and coming to age story that is set in the summer when the three sisters of the Van Apfel family went missing. Tikka Malloy who is the neighbor of the Van Apfels of the eerie suburb inside the stinking river valley narrates their story. She explains that Ruth, Cordelia, and Hanna Van Apfel had gone missing while attending the “Showstopper concert” that had been organized by the school. She reveals the oppressive religious life that the girls had to endure and soon it becomes apparent that Cordie had a bizarre relationship with a teacher. It is clear that something disturbing had transpired on the night the girls went missing. Two decades later, Tikka comes back to the valley but is just as determined to find out what had happened to her friends all those years ago. She had been haunted by the events of that night for years and wants to resolve it. But she may just have to make peace with the fact that the mysterious disappearance may never be resolved.