Anna Downes

ANNA DOWNES was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but now lives just north of Sydney, Australia with her husband and two children. She worked as an actress before turning her attention to writing. She was shortlisted for the Sydney Writers Room Short Story Prize (2017) and longlisted for the Margaret River Short Story Competition (2018).

Q: What inspired the idea for this story?

Anna: During the on-and-off lockdowns of 2021, I was obsessed with travel, and road trips in particular. I dreamed daily about converting a campervan and setting off on a long-distance drive around the country, but I couldn’t make it happen for real, so I decided to do the next best thing and write about it instead. I wanted to craft something scary and fun, so naturally my first ideas included serial killers, ghosts, and hitch-hiking final girls – but my research took me into more sobering territory, and I found myself drawn more to the realities of life on the road and the true lived experiences of travelers, particularly women on their own. The story then became more about safety and the cultural messages we receive about danger. When women say they’re off to explore the world on their own, why exactly do we worry for them? What do we think is going to happen, and how does that compare with what actually does? Where and with whom are women truly safe? Those questions, combined with a highly unusual news story that I happened to read one day (no, I’m not going to reveal which one!), formed the basis for what became Red River Road.

Q: Why did you choose to start the book with a scene of someone driving under the influence, speeding, and sleepy?

Anna: When we first meet Katy, she’s in a state of emotional precarity, and I think I was partly trying to capture the disorientation she feels from the start: she’s in a strange new situation in a strange new place, it’s dark, and she’s totally out of her depth. I needed to convey a real sense of vulnerability and exposure from the outset, so I brainstormed a ton of different nightmare scenarios, and driving alone at night on an isolated road in the middle of the outback was top of my list. Add in fatigue, alcohol, the sinister appearance of another vehicle, and sudden mechanical failure, and you’ve got a whole bunch of real problems – the origins and consequences of which then kick off the plot.

Q: How would you describe Katy as a character?

Anna: I’d say that as a person, Katy is cautious, introverted, sensitive, and fiercely loyal. She doesn’t think much of herself but puts others on pedestals and would do anything for those she loves, no matter the cost. She hates attention and injustice of any kind and is quick to anger. At the beginning of the book, she’s scared, lonely, lost, and consumed by grief; without Phoebe, or any answers as to what happened to her, Katy’s own life no longer makes sense. As a result, she’s stuck in a place of endless waiting and wondering with no agency or recourse to healing or change. But the deeper she digs into her sister’s disappearance, the more she learns about herself, and even though some of what she finds is dark and painful, she also finds more strength and resilience than she’d ever imagined.

Q: How would you describe Beth?

Anna: Beth is a deeply thoughtful and intelligent person whose spirit has been repeatedly crushed, a dreamer with a broken heart. She’s smart, perceptive, and can read any room; but she’s also naïve in many ways and rarely affords herself the same compassion and insight she extends to others. She has a big heart but can be sly and ruthless too – qualities that often serve her well. Above all, she’s a survivor whose instincts keep her fighting to keep her head above water even when it seems easier to sink and drown.

Q: Do you think both Katy and Beth were vulnerable, fearful, caring, and experiencing grief?

Anna: Absolutely. Katy and Beth are both many things at once: secretive, manipulative, self-serving, but also full of love and fear and hope. Initially, they seem very different, two women whose natures seem completely at odds – but they have so much more in common than they know, which is what ultimately connects and binds them. In fact, you could even say they’re two sides of the same coin: each has the key to the other’s mysteries, though not in ways that either would expect.

Q: What role does Phoebe play in the story?

Anna: In terms of narrative, Phoebe is the basis for the story in that she’s the reason Katy is on the road in the first place; her disappearance is the thing that gets all the story balls rolling. Thematically, she’s a means by which I could explore the appeal and benefits of solo female travel and the lighter, more aspirational side of van life. Through her, I could delve into social media, influencer culture, identity as construction, and the risks and rewards of living at a time where we’re all constantly recording ourselves. She’s also there to remind us of all the ways women are deemed responsible for their own safety, especially when they look a certain way, and what happens when they ‘fail’ to protect themselves.

Q: How would you describe Wyatt’s role in the story?

Anna: It’s hard to answer that without spoilers, but Wyatt’s purpose is to show us yet another side of the story, one that we probably wouldn’t usually look for. As a young man growing up in a small fishing town in a remote area, his perspective is completely different from those of the female characters but no less essential to understanding the bigger picture. I loved writing him because I had to put myself in the place of someone whose life I will never live, whose circumstances aren’t easy to parse, which set my imagination on fire. It was challenging, but I think in the end I could see him more clearly than any other character in the book.

Q: Why did you choose to base the story around a road trip?

Anna: The short answer is that I’m obsessed with travel, especially road trips, and if you’re going to immerse yourself in a particular world for a year or two, it might as well be one you know and love. The longer answer is that I think at the time I was noticing a proliferation of crime thrillers, specifically those set in Australia, featuring small rural towns with big secrets, and while that’s great and valid, I really wanted to do (and read) something different. I was itching for something that moved rather than remained static, with literal velocity and an ever-changing landscape, where the characters are converging on one another as opposed to being stuck in one location. Then when I found Western Australia’s Coral Coast, I completely fell in love: not only was the scenery exactly what I’d pictured – topographically diverse and iconically Australian – but I could also see how the popular route from Perth to Exmouth might actively shape the narrative as opposed to just enhancing it.

Q: What inspired the line, “Some people know exactly how to inflict pain without leaving evidence”?

Anna: I guess the meaning of that line is two-fold. First, I’ve done plenty of research, and many survivors of gendered violence describe how their abusers often know exactly how to hurt them without leaving physical evidence; instead of targeting the face or arms, the marking of which could invite questions or intervention, they’ll go for parts of the body or skin that often remain hidden. Second, pain isn’t always physical. Psychological and emotional damage leaves no visible marks and can be hard to prove, as many perpetrators know well. It’s important to recognize all the various forms that violence can take and to normalize the idea that a situation isn’t made any less dangerous by an absence of quantifiable signs.

Q: Can you share anything about your next project?

Anna: I have an audio drama coming out next year, set in an LA acting studio, which I’m very excited about. And I’m currently working on a fourth novel, about which I can’t say too much except that it’s about an estranged mother and daughter, both with hidden agendas, who travel to a hotel from which guests are known to disappear. I’m aiming to hit a spot somewhere between The White Lotus and The Shining!

Red River Road by Anna Downes follows Katy Sweeney as she searches for her missing sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo van-life trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace along the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a guide, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, hoping to uncover clues the police may have overlooked. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she encountered along the way, and how dangerous were they?

Katy’s journey soon collides with Beth, a woman on the run from her own dark past. Realizing Beth may be her best—and only—hope for finding the truth, the two women form an uneasy alliance to uncover what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, treacherous place.

Anna Downes takes readers on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel in this gripping novel, exploring the forces that drive us to keep searching for those we’ve lost, the family bonds that can either sustain or destroy us, and the fragility of memory.