Walking through the gates of Northcote public golf course in Melbourne is like travelling back in time for the author Matthew Reilly. “When I was 12, my brother and I would go to a little public golf course in Sydney just like this,” he says. “It was called Northbridge golf club. Our dad took us.” As if this moment was scripted, the first players we encounter are a man with three boys, all of them around the same age Reilly was when he first got into the game. “That’s the half set you start with,” he says, gesturing towards the clubs of the smallest in the group, whose bag looks far too big for him. The sight brings a smile to Reilly’s face.
Reilly himself would be unlikely to write such a scene – it doesn’t have enough car chases or explosions. He has written more than 20 adrenaline-charged thrillers that collectively have sold more than 8m copies around the world. In 2022, he also ventured into the movie business, directing and co-writing the thriller Interceptor, which starred Elsa Pataky and was executive produced by her husband, Chris Hemsworth. The week Interceptor was released, it shot to number one on Netflix in 93 countries.
