Bergmoser doubles down

He grew up in the High Country, but Gabriel Bergmoser’s latest thriller takes place fifteen storeys up in a derelict Melbourne high-rise, crawling with enemies and packed with tension. And that’s just one half of his latest double release. High Rise, set to launch in August, marks another major milestone in what has been a prolific and wide-ranging few years for the bestselling Mansfield-born author. In that time, Bergmoser has cemented his reputation as one of Australia’s most versatile storytellers, producing gripping thrillers for adults alongside character-driven adventures for younger readers. In 2022, The Hitchhiker continued his run of high-octane thrillers, following on from bestsellers The Caretaker and The Hunted. 2023 saw the release of The Lodger, an Audible Original, and the middle-grade time travel fantasy Andromache Between Worlds, which introduced a new generation of fans to his work. Its sequel — and the second half of his latest double release — Andromache in the Dark, has also been released this month, highlighting the author’s versatility across genres and audiences. Andromache in the Dark picks up the pace of his dimension-hopping middle-grade series. It’s a high-stakes sequel filled with strange new worlds, shadowy organisations, and deadly surprises. At its centre is Andromache Peters, who thought her journey had ended after saving her dad from a parallel universe. But old enemies return, and a new mission threatens everything she fought to protect. There was no sequel planned, until the first book found success. "HarperCollins asked for a sequel, and I had about a three-month turnaround," said Bergmoser. "Writing Andromache in the Dark was chaotic; I was planning as I went. "One day I got stranded in Newcastle and ended up writing 8000 words in one sitting. "When I finished and looked over it, I realised it was so dark, thorny, conceptual, and weirdly topical. "I don’t normally do that, especially in the kids' space, but I think it’s the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written. "And that only could’ve happened because I had concentrated time to write the book and didn’t overthink it." While the kids disappear into parallel dimensions, High Rise drags adult readers into something much grittier — a brutal, confined-location action story set over one night in a seedy Melbourne tower. At its centre is Jack Carlin, a rogue ex-cop previously seen in The Inheritance and The Consequence (Audible Original), now caught in a desperate battle to save his estranged daughter while being hunted by half the city’s criminal underworld. While the premise sounds tightly wound, Bergmoser said the writing process for this one was anything but. "There was far less plotting than usual," he said. "I wrote a sample chapter and liked the concept, but when I actually sat down to write it, I couldn’t plan ahead. "I kept banging my head against the wall. “Then I wrote chapter two and it just flowed. “It was like walking through a forest with a torch but no map. "All you can see is what’s directly in front of you; the next step, the next part. "Normally I have a map, but this time I was mapping as I went. "It’s a risky way to write, but I think it worked, I never went off that cliff." Described by the author as “Die Hard meets The Raid,” but grittier and funnier with a Melbourne twist, the book continues his tradition of placing grounded, damaged characters into extreme and often violent situations. "It's two characters forced to work together, solving problems chapter by chapter," he said. "That gave the book a kind of dynamism. "I was writing in reaction to the circumstances the characters found themselves in." With crossover characters linking several of his standalone titles, and multiple projects in motion, Bergmoser isn’t slowing down anytime soon. “I’m currently working on The Reckoning, the finale to Maggie’s story, as well as some film work and a new Audible Original," he said. “I shift my time around every day, juggling different projects. “I’m looking at the next few weeks and realising I’ve got very few days off coming up.” One of them will be spent back in familiar territory. Bergmoser is scheduled to visit Mansfield’s Ink Bookstore on Thursday, 29 August (time TBC), as part of his ongoing book tour.

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