"The Midnight Secret" is the fourth and final book in Karen Swan's series, Wild Isle. Read the interview with the author below.

What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?

"The Midnight Secret" is my fourth and final book in the Wild Isle series, set on St Kilda, the outermost of the Scottish Outer Hebrides islands. The island was evacuated at the villagers’ request in the summer of 1930 when their numbers fell below critical mass, and they could no longer support themselves. Unlike other isles, no crops or trees could grow there, so the islanders survived by hunting the seabirds and catching their eggs on the vertiginous sea cliffs. My series tells a story in the round, each of the four books told by a different young woman and their involvement in the disappearance and death of the most powerful man in their community.

What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?

The same as writing with pride. I believe books are our opportunity to live different experiences to our own actual reality and that gender, sexual orientation, race and creed are not barriers to that experience but actually bridges. The Wild Isle series features a same-sex relationship which, because it is set in the 1930s, was necessarily and sadly hidden from the world. As the writer, I wanted to show the validity of the love in that relationship and the consequences of having to live against their own desires. I did receive some negative pushback from some readers which both surprised and angered me, but it didn’t put me off; if anything it made me double down. I would rather lose those people as readers than alienate others through bias or discrimination in my stories.

Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?

It’s important we all feel seen, whoever we are, and I think books — in this age of social media — are becoming evermore important in safeguarding that. Our brains are constantly being hacked by technology — how long do we watch a reel; the dopamine hit from getting a text — and sophisticated algorithms are increasingly pulling us into echo-chambers which are only refining and narrowing down our viewpoints: we consume content in ever shorter soundbites; we no longer retain facts and phone numbers…

Books by contrast give us hours, if not days and weeks, of full immersion in a world which will not change if we fall asleep mid-chapter. They offer a broader-ranging experience in which we don’t have to like what we read/see/feel. We can choose to reject a character and still commit to reading the whole book. There is actually value in being confronted with something which challenges how you think and feel and doesn’t just reaffirm extant bias. Books are important precisely because they can offer a different perspective or a fresh narrative, and for that reason it’s vital they are wide-ranging and inclusive.

Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.

"The Midnight Secret," as the concluding book of the series, is told primarily through the perspective of Jayne Ferguson, but also reunites the reader with the other heroines Effie, Mhairi and Flora. Jayne is a background figure throughout the rest of the series, but she steps forward here, largely on account of her gift of Second Sight, a well-accounted Celtic phenomenon. The action pivots from Paris and Quebec, to the grand castles of the Scottish Highlands, as well as small village life on the Scottish west coast. It has a sweeping epic feel and is very pacy.

What can fans expect from your book?

Resolution at last to a mystery they first started reading four years ago! They are also — finally — being reunited with the much-loved heroines from the other books and can expect several twists as drama, passion and tragedy are intricately intertwined to a surprising conclusion. It was hugely satisfying to write.

What's up next for you in the bookish world?

I have just finished the first draft for my new book "Three Summers," set in Puglia, Italy, during the 1950s and 60s. It features a love triangle between a young woman and two men, so it’s been an exciting development for me to write a book in which two-thirds of the perspective is male.