Thriller author

Colin Hadler: already an old hand at the age of 23

Author Colin Hadler

(Bild: Julian Schmelzinger)

At the age of 23, Graz-based author Colin Hadler has already published his fifth thriller: "Seven Ways to Tell a Lie" is a suspenseful school thriller about deepfake videos. Hadler is touring the country with his own reading cabaret to whet people's appetite for reading the book.

At the tender age of 15, Colin Hadler from Graz wrote his first novel. "I wanted to be an actor, but the texts I had to perform were often too boring for me. So out of boredom, I started inventing stories myself," he recalls his beginnings in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper. Now his fifth novel, "Seven Ways to Tell a Lie", has been published. Hadler may only be 23 years young, but he is now an old hand as an author: "That's a funny discrepancy. But it's not age that matters in writing, it's experience and the courage to try something new."

"Being funny is like an illness"
And Hadler is always up for something new: He has been relying on the humor factor in his readings for years: "Being funny is like a disease, I just can't help it. I joke with everyone - from my grandma to my urologist. The world is stressful and brutal enough, so at least my readings should be funny," he says.

Colin Hadler presents "Seven Ways to Tell a Lie"

(Bild: Julian Schmelzinger)

He calls his new format reading cabaret. Instead of simply reading aloud, he talks humorously about the topics in the book and how it came about. "I think people who go to readings are more interested in getting to know the author and the background to the book. They then like to be alone with the story itself - at home while reading."

Book should be "exciting for all ages"
The story he tells in his new novel is a real page-turner: one day, a video of the school bus accident in which nobody survives appears at a school in an idyllic small town. The shock is huge, but it soon becomes clear that the accident never happened - it was just a deepfake video. But the relief doesn't last long. More videos soon emerge, revealing the darkest secrets of some of the students.

And even though Hadler wants to get boys in particular to read this thriller, he resists the term "young adult book": "The novel is written from the point of view of teenagers, but I made a real effort to write the story in such a way that it is exciting for readers of all ages - from granddaughters to grandmothers."

Colin Hadler's "Seven Ways to Tell a Lie" (368 pages, 16 euros) is published by Planet! Verlag publishing house. He will be performing his reading cabaret on March 6 in Graz (Buch Moser) and on March 25 at Kunsthaus Weiz.