Nathaniel Sario is hoping to go far as a murder mystery novelist.
EVERYONE likes a murder mystery story once in a while but Nathaniel Sario is so obsessed with the genre that he wants to make a career out of writing crime novels.
And the 29-year-old from Sabah seems to have made a great start after he was announced the winner of the 3rd Fixi Novo Malaysian Novel Contest in February.
It was third time’s the charm for the Kota Kinabalu boy who came out tops over nine other writers, after the first two tries didn’t work out so well for him in the competition.
The judges liked his 72,000-word mystery novel titled Big Trouble in Little Paradise, calling his piece “an exciting and fast-paced murder mystery set in a sleepy town in Sabah”.
Their citation further noted that Nathaniel managed to successfully explore the dark side of tourism and development through his clever whodunnit novel.
Without giving too much away, Nathaniel said the story involves its main character returning to Sabah after a job stint in Kuala Lumpur where he went through a traumatic experience of his colleague dying.
“He just couldn’t perform at work anymore, so he went home. And his parents thought he could do with a change of scenery so instead of keeping him in KK (Kota Kinabalu), they ask him to move to a kampung, a little place called Darat Kumut which is totally fictional,” he said.
“I’ve always been a reader and fan of murder mystery stories since I was young,” said the articulate young man, who previously tried his hand at journalism, including an internship at The Star newspaper once.
The mystery genre, he said, appeals to him as a writer for a number of reasons.
“The first has to be the puzzle solving element that is an inherent component of the mystery genre.
“It’s a little like a magic trick – you’re so focused on the magician’s one hand that you don’t see him pulling off the trick with the other.
“You get the clues, the potential witnesses and a chance to actually solve the crime,” Nathaniel said.
He added: “Also, writing about crime or mystery allows me to explore the minds of people, and this means everyone – from the people investigating the crime, the perpetrators, the victims and even the bystander, which for me, is my favourite part of writing mysteries or crime stories.
“Additionally, I am also able to explore the nature of evil from a safe distance,” he said.
He pointed out that his parents were a big influence on why he went the way he did with mystery novels.
“They enjoyed writers like Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham, and I ended up discovering authors like Michael Connelly, Thomas Harrris, Tana French, Val McDermid, Stuart MacBride and Christopher Brookmyre to sate my constant crave for a good crime story.
“So, I guess it’s not surprising that my debut novel ended up being a murder mystery,” said Nathaniel, whose current day job is working as a manual writer in Kuala Lumpur.
And it is worth noting that his penchant for writing was inspired and very much shaped by his father, Ruben Sario, a veteran journalist who used to be with The Star as well.
“And also, because of him being a journalist, almost all of the characters that I have created for my novels or short stories are writers or journalists or someone related back to journalism.
“He’s one of the reasons why I’m doing this. He’s a big influence in my life, especially writing,” he added.
The Fixi Novo Malaysian Novel Contest, Nathaniel said, is a perfect platform for his taste in writing, where the community of authors and fans are more likely to have a fascination with the mysterious.
“You can write any genre you like but they like books that are very pulpy, crime thrillers and horrors as well as ghost stories,” he said.
So, what did he get for his endeavours? A total of RM1,500, plus standard royalties for each copy of the Big Trouble in Little Paradise novel that is sold.
This was actually his fourth publication with Fixi Novo, as he previously wrote three short stories before, all set in Sabah and involving Sabahan characters.
The book, Nathaniel said, would also probably be launched during the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair sometime in May or June.
From this point on, he said it’s back to donning his thinking cap and sitting at his laptop so that he can churn out his next work.
But he’s not worried too much where his next source of inspiration will come from.
“It’s my fictional town. I already have an idea what to do and I hope it will be considered to be published not for competition but directly as a novel by Fixi Novo,” he said.
