Claudia MacTavish

Based in Western Australia, Claudia has always been drawn to the stories hiding beneath ordinary places: an old photograph with no name written on the back, a school corridor after everyone has gone home, a forgotten document tucked inside a book, or the small detail that everyone else seems to have overlooked.

It is probably no surprise, then, that her stories are filled with curious characters who ask questions.

Claudia writes mysteries grounded in friendship, family, school life and the complicated business of growing up. Rather than detectives chasing criminals through distant cities, her characters usually begin with something much smaller: a rumour, a missing object, an unexplained message, a secret someone would rather leave buried. From there, one question tends to lead to another.

Her two mystery series explore different stages of that journey.

The Lyla Thomas Mysteries introduce younger readers to Lyla Thomas, an observant and determined girl with a habit of becoming involved in mysteries she never intended to investigate. Beginning with Sabotage, the series explores friendships, rivalries, loyalties and secrets against the familiar backdrop of school life.

The Martha Thomas Mysteries take readers into darker territory.

Set largely around Mercy College, an old Catholic girls’ school with nearly two centuries of history, the series follows Martha Thomas through a world where traditions run deep, reputations matter and the past has a persistent way of finding its way into the present. Beginning with The Newcomer, the books blend contemporary school life with mystery, suspense and the lingering question of how well we ever really know the people and places around us.

Although the two series are written for different age groups, they share the same fictional world and the same fascination with what lies beneath the surface.

Claudia has a particular fondness for history, old photographs, family stories and places that have accumulated generations of memories. Those interests frequently find their way into her fiction, where objects, buildings and seemingly insignificant details can carry stories of their own.

She is equally fascinated by people: the friendships that survive difficult moments, the ones that do not, the secrets people keep for good reasons and bad ones, and the strange chain of consequences that can begin with one seemingly harmless decision.

At the heart of Claudia’s stories is a simple idea: mysteries are rarely only about discovering what happened.

They are about discovering why.

When she isn’t disappearing into the worlds of Lyla, Martha and Mercy College, Claudia can usually be found following some new curiosity, researching something she had no intention of researching, or wondering whether an interesting old building might be hiding a story.

There usually is one.