"There wasn't a chance in hell of me being a writer!

Actor-turned-author Bryan Brown tells The Weekly about his new book and the real-life struggles that inspire his storytelling.

- WORDS by ALLEY PASCOE

It was an ordinary moment that sparked something inside Bryan Brown. On an average weekday, the actor opened the front door of his home in the Nambucca Valley to a tradesman who was there to sort out the wi-fi and solar power. He let the tradie inside and left him to it, without any hesitation. That's when the thought hit: “Jeez, this bloke must get a lot of access to people's houses.” From that thought, a character was born, a crime was conceived, and a story began to take shape. The solar-system installer, Donny Lucas, appears in Bryan's new novel, The Hidden, which is set in a small coastal town, not unlike the beachside villages of the Nambucca Valley. “The last two books I've written have been set around this area. You can see people clearly up here. The great thing about small towns is that there's not a lot of people. You reckon you know everything about them, but of course you don't. They've all got secrets,” says Bryan, 78, speaking from the verandah of the mid-north coast property where he wrote parts of The Hidden.

The book begins with an overdose. A young mother begs her 'medicine man' to visit. When he does, the consequences are fatal. It's up to Sergeant William Jarrett to find the medicine man and bring him to justice. While investigating the death, the sergeant keeps following leads to the aforementioned solar installer, Donny, who has something to hide.

The characters in The Hidden are figments of Bryan's imagination, but they are carved with the precise blade of lived experience. “Someone I knew had been caught up with drugs, and I was interested in how that happened. Was there a single moment or a trigger?” explains Bryan.