Presuming that you have nothing to do with it - and we're all friends here, so let's go ahead and presume that - to say it would come as a bit of a surprise would be an understatement.

But it's that train of thought that got Holly Throsby on track for her latest book, Clarke.

Set in the regional hub of Clarke, the book begins one hot morning in 1991 when Barney is woken by police to one such event. Minutes later, his new rental is the site of an intense police search for the body of missing woman Ginny Lawson.

Meanwhile, next door neighbour Leonie Wallace and four-year-old Joe watch from their kitchen window. Leonie has been waiting six years for this day to come and never understood why they didn't look for the body of her friend there before now.

Neither is a situation that you would want to be in, still, it was a real case that inspired Throsby.

The author was listening to the Teacher's Pet podcast at the time, which revolved around the Lynette Dawson case.

Lynette Dawson went missing in 1982 leaving two daughters and her husband, former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson. Her whereabouts are still unknown, but two coronial inquests found that she had been murdered. Chris Dawson was found guilty of the 40-year-old murder in August this year and is waiting for sentencing.

However, during the investigation, police descended on the former Dawson home in Bayview, on Sydney's northern beaches. It was revealed that the residents at the time had no idea about the property's past.

"I was having a conversation with my friend and mentor at the time, [publisher] Richard Walsh ... of how that would feel on a human level to just one morning, having the police arriving with a search warrant," Throsby says.

"How horrifying would that feel for the people who occupied that house and how would it make them feel about their house and their home?

"So the initial idea of the book was this idea of Barney, living in this house and not knowing that was the history and having police show up one morning. And then how does he react, especially in a pre-internet time when you can't just Google it."

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For the reader, however, the mystery of Ginny Lawson is not the only one that unfolds in Clarke. Barney lives alone, and not only is there a wedding ring on his finger with no mention of a wife, but he also makes regular trips to the local McDonald's to watch his son work because it's the only interaction he can have with him. Meanwhile, we know Leonie lives with Joe, but where and who is Joe's mother?

Both Leonie and Barney - who take turns sharing their perspectives throughout the book are haunted by these women no longer in their lives.

But while there are three "missing" women in Clarke, Throsby says she never set out to write a book with that theme. It wasn't until after she finished the first draft that she realised that there were two other missing women, besides Ginny Lawson.

"I often really have no idea where the book is taking me," Throsby says.

"But I do like to start with a chrysalis of an idea that feels like it has potential and bring in characters that I can see this vague outline of. And Leonie Wallace is mentioned in my previous book Cedar Valley in one paragraph.

"There's a scene where the police go to interview a man that works at a pie cart in Clarke, who also makes an appearance in this book, and Leonie Wallace is a witness and she calls the police and they speak to her on the phone. And all we know about this woman is that she works at Harvey World Travel in the Clarke Plaza."

This lack of planning - which is impressive considering how considered each of the mystery's revelations seems - is probably the only similarity between author Throsby and songwriter Throsby.

The singer-songwriter and one-third of Seeker Lover Keeper says her music is usually the result of intensive bouts of writing, that come and go. Whereas for her books, she needed a more reliable process.

"When I began writing my first book Goodwood, it began with writing a series of vignettes. I was exploring character and place, basically, and they might have been a couple of paragraphs, like a small scene," Throsby says.

"And then I realised I've got to write more. A vignette is just that, and it's not a novel, and how do I get to form an entire story that has some kind of outcome? In order to complete a novel just by the sheer length of it, I needed to be very disciplined and to work as if it was a Monday to Friday job."

Holly Throsby will be at Muse on November 12 to talk about Clarke. Tickets from Trybooking.

Clarke, by Holly Throsby. Allen & Unwin. $32.99.

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