The suit who writes crime fiction

I don’t actually think I’m that good at writing.

Writing is an exercise in maybe. Maybe someone will read it. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they will like it. Maybe they won’t.

You won’t know until words appear on paper (or pixels). And that’s the thing — getting the words down, and in the right order.

Sarah Bailey had always wanted to write a book and she set herself the goal of writing one by the time she hit 35. She was sick of talking about it and fantasising about it. “I just want to do it,” she told herself.

Her first book, crime thriller The Dark Lake, was published the day after her 35th birthday in 2016.

Bailey was appointed managing partner at VMLY&R Melbourne in February 2019. Her third book, Where the Dead Go, a crime thriller set in regional Australia, was published by Allen & Unwin less than six months later.

Her first priority at VMLY&R was to hire 30 people in five weeks to work on the Defence Force Recruiting DFR account.

“My initial task was to hit the ground running when the DFR contract began,”