December 3

The Last Resort – Susi Holliday Q&A

It is an exciting day here at Grab This Book as for the first time in 18 months I have the pleasure of introducing a guest.  Today I host the latest leg of the blog tour for The Last Resort – the new creepy, tech, chiller-thriller from Susi Holliday.

I reviewed The Last Resort before the tour kicked off (my review here) so this was the perfect opportunity to try to kick start my brain again and see if I could remember how to ask intelligent, book-related questions.  Unfortunately 2020 has mainly been me asking my children “what do you want for dinner?”  After deciding Susi would probably not want to chat about turkey dinosaurs or potato waffles I came up with a few questions about heroes, villains and all things technological.

 

My first question is never a question. Instead I invite you to introduce yourself and take the opportunity to plug your new book: The Last Resort.

Hello, Gordon – thanks for having me on your fabulous blog… again 🙂 I’m Susi Holliday, also known as SJI Holliday, and I write dark psychological thrillers. The latest, The Last Resort, follows the fates of seven strangers as they navigate a small island, lured by the promise of a luxury adventure. It becomes apparent quite early on that there won’t be much luxury, and the promised adventure actually involves them having their shameful secrets projected to the rest of the group.

I reviewed The Last Resort last month when it launched onto the Amazon First Reads programme. In my review I tried to describe the story as “Agatha Christie meets Westworld with some Enid Bylton and Michael Slade”. Not my most elegant description – how do you describe The Last Resort?

I like yours! I’ve been describing it as “Agatha Christie meets Black Mirror” but I love Derek Farrell’s: “The book that Michael Crichton would be writing if he were alive today.” I’ll take that!

Can we focus first on Amelia? I felt the story demanded she was capable and level-headed, particularly when compared to her travelling companions, but she couldn’t be too GI Jane. Could you introduce Amelia and give us a bit of her background? I did wonder if you determined her history before dropping her on the island or did she evolve to cope with what you were throwing at her?

Amelia is meant to be the “good guy” in the story (is she though? You’ll have to read it to find out…) She’s a humanitarian aid worker, and she thinks she’s been invited to the island to assess the infrastructure for the so-called luxury retreat. She’s immediately ill at ease when she meets the other invitees – an influencer, a games designer, a photographer, a journalist, a businesswoman and a nutraceuticals CEO. She’s singled out from the start as being different and she has to work hard to prove herself. She was sketched out a bit upfront as I knew what I wanted her to achieve, but as always, the characters do grow and develop as they interact with the others.

The Last Resort comes with a lot of technology integral to the plot. One key element is the device each of the guests to the island are invited to wear upon their arrival. Could you perhaps outline some of the functions these gadgets can perform?

Then as a further expansion on this. How much of these technological wonders come directly from the Susi Imagination or are the core elements of their devices already out there and you just embellished them up a bit?

Well, they are given a small device about the size of a fitness tracker, and it is clipped over their ear – but then a sharp metal prong pierces the skin and I guess, attaches to their brain! It serves a couple of functions. First, it’s intended to tap into the wearer’s thoughts/feelings/likes/dislikes and help the hosts to determine how to tailor the experience for them – giving them things they want. The Host can also use it to communicate directly with the wearer. All sounds good, right? Except it has another function, where it taps into the wearer’s memories, and at opportune moments through the day’s journey (the whole story unfolds over 24 hours), it projects these memories for the rest of the group to see. This, of course, leads to some shocked reactions from the others. But there are no innocents on this island. That’s the real reason that they are there.

I got the idea for the technology after reading an article in an inflight magazine, where a company in Sweden were using nanotechnology to place chip-like devices into people’s thumbs. The chip would allow you to use your hand as an in-body contactless system, where you could wave your hand over a scanner like you do with your chip and pin card or your smartphone. I thought if that was happening now, it would only be a matter of time before a company started tapping into the wearer’s brain – ostensibly to help in some useful medical way. But of course I decided to twist it around so that the device could only be used for evil purposes. Just as I finalised the edits, I read an article about one of Elon Musk’s companies who are already working in this field. The future is already here, folks!

Joining Amelia on her island adventure is an assortment of largely unpleasant characters. Is it more fun to write about the bad guys in a story? Can you cut loose a little more with the characters the reader is intended to dislike?

Absolutely. I have had a tendency to write unlikable characters from the start of my writing career, because I find them fascinating. Everyone has a dark side – a shadow side – and it’s a lot of fun tapping into that. With this book in particular, it’s kind of all about these unpleasant characters getting their comeuppance. I was inspired by the epic disaster that was Fyre Festival, and all those rich, entitled wannabes paying $12,000 for a luxury festival that ended in them sleeping on wet mattresses in half-erected tents, with processed cheese sandwiches to eat. Yes. Did I mention that I was evil? Haha. Seriously though, yes. I love writing about horrible people.

The 2020 question also needs to be asked. How have you been keeping yourself sane and occupied this year? Personally I lost all my reading mojo between March and the summer and found some bookish comfort reading comic books or escapism through picking up videogames. Were you able to keep focus?

As you know, I have a day job in pharmaceuticals – so that kept me very busy. We were thrown into a position where we had to stop all of the clinical trials, because all healthcare settings were commandeered by virus-related activities. I work from home anyway, but I found myself doing longer hours and suffering more stress, as we had to work on COVID-19 contingency plans to make sure that we could carry on our drug trials as soon as it was possible again. Other than that, I took lots of long walks, and after torturing myself for several weeks, I stopped watching the news. My brain was overloaded. I couldn’t read a thing and struggled to focus on films and boxsets – weirdly, finding comfort in horror, as it made the world as it was/is seem like a walk in the park! I did manage to write a novella that had a deadline during lockdown, but I struggled again after that. I’ve found the whole experience a bit of a mental health rollercoaster to be honest, but now, while we’re in the second wave, I am currently coping a lot better. Reading a lot, writing, planning, and daring to feel a bit hopeful that from spring 2021, things might get a bit better. Ask me again in January when I am completely deprived of sunlight!

You recently Tweeted that your next book had received a thumbs up from your editor – any chance you can share a sneaky clue or two about what we can look forward to in 2021?

Well, seeing as it’s you… It’s called Substitute and it will be out in summer 2021. It poses the question “What if you could prevent the death of a loved one by choosing someone to die in their place?” It’s quite a high-concept idea, and possibly similar to some other recent releases – but I started writing this book in 2014, then put it aside as I wasn’t sure how to make it work. It fits in with The Last Resort in that there is a scientific backdrop to it, a huge moral dilemma, and it’s all wrapped around a domestic noir storyline. I’m editing it now, and I have to say, I’m very excited about this one!

Of all the reading recommendations I see on Social Media every week I think you have matched me with some of the stories I have enjoyed the most. What gems have you read recently which you think we should be picking up?

We have very similar tastes, I think. I’ve recently been raving about The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean, which scared the pants off me. A couple of months ago, it was all about Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, possibly the first book I have wanted to read with my eyes shut; and a recent one you might have missed me sharing called Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy – which is one of those books you can’t say much about, but I will just say if you liked Misery, you will love it… oh, and of course, next year’s big book – The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. The ultimate in books that can’t be discussed as any words at all would be a spoiler, but it is just brilliant – please tell me when you’ve read it so we can discuss it! Wait though… also a final shout for Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn – which is nerve-shreddingly dark and will be fighting hard against Catriona’s for best book of 2021!

 

My thanks to Susi for being a fabulous guest and allowing me the opportunity to return to sharing something other than my usual ramblings.  Her support is always very much appreciated and now I have the urge to chat with a few more people…watch this space!

The Last Resort is published by Thomas & Mercer and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085HCCP4W/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

 

 

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October 29

A Series Business – Mason Cross

Regular visitors will know that I love to read about recurring characters and watch their story develop over a number of books. This feature, A Series Business, was created so that I could ask authors to discuss all their books and try to put the focus on the wonderful back catalogue available for readers.

Today I am joined by Mason Cross, author of the Carter Blake books.

 

I never begin with a question. Could I ask you to introduce yourself and ask you to ensure you take full advantage of this opportunity to plug your books?

Thank you! I’m from Glasgow and I write American thrillers, just to confuse people. The first Carter Blake book, The Killing Season, was published in 2014 by Orion, and so far there have been four more Blake books: The Samaritan, The Time to Kill (aka Winterlong), Don’t Look For Me and Presumed Dead.

I live outside the city with my wife and three kids, and I procrastinate a lot.

 

As the purpose of A Series Business is to discuss the Carter Blake books could you now introduce us to Mr Blake?

Carter Blake is a freelance person locator. He finds people who don’t want to be found. That can be almost anyone, from a spree killer roaming across several states, to a missing person thought long-dead, to someone who’s on the run with a shipment of stolen diamonds. He’s not tied down to any one city or supporting cast, so he gets to explore the map quite a bit.

 

Had it always been your intention to build a series around a recurring character?

Yes. I knew publishers liked series, and a lot of the books I liked to read featured recurring characters. I think one of the reasons they’re popular is that the reader can see the character develop over a number of books, even though each one has a self-contained story. Readers like to check in with an old friend who they’ve been reading about for years.

 

Have you a character path mapped out and are you building up towards key events? Or is the future for Blake still unclear, even to you?

Nope. It’s a mystery. I had the key events in the first three books roughly mapped out before I wrote them, but I’m not sure what the future holds for Blake. I think if I had too rigid a plan it would probably get stale, for me and the reader. That said, there are some characters from previous books I definitely think Blake will meet again.

 

Have you written anything thus far in the series which you now wish you could undo?

Kind of… he doesn’t have a passport, and is on a No Fly list, which means no trips overseas for the time being. I don’t think there’s anything too major though.

 

Do you include “spoilers” from earlier stories in subsequent books? If I were to be reading out of order could I possibly learn of a character death or a murderer’s identity which was a twist in an earlier story?

There might be the odd small spoiler, but hopefully nothing to spoil the enjoyment of earlier books. Although Blake’s story is a through-line, the books are designed to be read as self-contained stories. As long as you know Blake looks for people who don’t want to be found, that should be all the information you need to start reading any of the books.

 

Do your characters age in real time, living through current events and tech developments or are they wrapped in a creative bubble which allows you to draw only on what you need for the latest book?

Real time. Each book takes place in the year it’s published, and I always know the exact dates when the action unfolds, down to the average temperature and what time the sun sets in that location on that day of the year. It’s much easier to keep things consistent when you know when the books happen in relation to each other. I actually enjoy the challenge of keeping up with new technology. A few years ago people thought the mobile phone would kill the thriller, but it hasn’t happened. I think there are always ways to make technology work in the service of your story.

 

Do you have ideas for a book which just don’t fit in the Carter Blake world? Is there a standalone story crying out to be written?

Yes, and I’m writing one just now in fact! I like done-in-one stories, and it’s been fun to write something completely different. In each of the Blake books I’ve had a point of view character who is, for want of a better word, the ‘normal person’ – the audience stand-in. The book I’m working on just now has a protagonist very much like those characters.

 

Can a Carter Blake novel end in a cliff-hanger?

Not a cliffhanger per se, but certainly with unresolved questions. The current one, Presumed Dead, ends with something big unresolved, even though the mystery itself is solved.

 

Colin Dexter famously killed off Inspector Morse. Agatha Christie wrote Poirot’s death and then released dozens more Poirot stories before Curtain was published. Will there ever be a “final” Carter Blake story?

There’s a rumour that John D. Macdonald wrote a final Travis McGee novel that has never been published. I do love the idea of having a final story under wraps so you know where everything’s going to end up.

It’s nice to think of having a closing chapter, but I don’t know if it’s advisable. Mark Billingham says readers wouldn’t be particularly bothered if the author died, but they would be really pissed off if the hero of the books dies.

 

My thanks to Mason for joining me today.  You can order all of the Carter Blake books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mason-Cross/e/B00FWO52KC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1540843330&sr=8-1

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June 24

Mark Brownless Q&A – The Hand of an Angel

Yesterday I shared my review of the darkly chilling The Hand of an Angel. If you missed that then you can catch up here.

This weekend is the blog tour for The Hand of an Angel and I am thrilled to be joined by author, Mark Brownless, as we chat about the nature of his story and consider why hospitals can be perfect settings for creepy tales:

 

The Hand of an Angel does get very dark in places. I had a quick check on Amazon and spotted it is ranked in Science Fiction and Fantasy classification and also Medical Thrillers – could consideration be made to class it as a Horror tale?

The book does cross a few genres, which creates its own challenges when trying to categorise and promote it for the reader – Sarah Pinborough has had huge success of late by doing this, however. There are science fiction elements, but it’s more ‘fictional science’ rather than spaceships and aliens.

Essentially The Hand of an Angel is a psychological medical thriller. It plays with the idea of reality – what is real? Do we believe all the main character says he’s seen when he has his near death experience, or is it the product of an oxygen-starved brain?

I’ve always been fascinated by unexplained phenomena like near death experience in this case, alien abduction, Nessie and Bigfoot. These type of themes lend themselves to the horror genre from the fear of the unknown, and I agree, that late on there are some more horror-type elements in the book. When I wrote the ending I had Stephen King in mind with some of his big set pieces like at the end of It and Needful Things. The tension building over the last few chapters, and the increasing presence of Hoody has that supernatural element as well. I hope people find it satisfying.

 

Much of the story is set around a hospital.  All those rooms, all those corridors, the strange contraptions and the ever present presence of illness and even death.  Does a hospital make a great setting for a thriller?  As a supplemental question…are there too few medical thrillers?

Oh yeah, hospitals make great locations. I had to build my own hospital in The Hand of an Angel, because I didn’t know of one that had all the elements I needed for the story. If we are talking about scary hospitals, one has to think of Victorian asylums. I had great fun in writing about the old parts of ‘my’ hospital and trying to make them have that kind of feel in the type of bricks used and the design of the corridors, etc. The hospital is such an integral part of the story that I’ve always felt it’s a character in itself – the old and the new struggling with each other, the underfunded research wing that hasn’t even been completed, in contrast to the ostentatious atrium foyer and glass roof.

I’m not sure if there are too few medical thrillers. I love Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta books, but there are a lot of others in that pathologist / post mortem sub-genre. I think a medical thriller has to be intrinsically medical – it can’t just be a story that happens to be set in a hospital or with doctors and nurses, so in that sense there may be too few. There are a lot of good medical thrillers out there, though, and I hope mine measures up.

 

The one element I found most disturbing in The Hand of an Angel was the transformation in the lead character, Tom, through the story. Is it fun to build up a character to then break him down or did some guilt creep in?

The book starts off slowly with us getting to know the family at the centre of the story. I really want you to get to know them, to share some experiences with them almost as if you are part of their family. As a kid I read a lot of James Herbert. His book, The Magic Cottage, spent the first hundred pages or so building the relationship of this couple in their holiday home. I loved it and actually didn’t like it when Herbert started to pull the rug out from under them. So yes, I want you to like Tom and Sarah and the family, and I want you to be annoyed with me when bad stuff happens. Because it does.

 

What comes next from Mark Brownless?  Is there a work in progress which you can chat about?

Well I’m just about to upload the second of my Locksley short story series to Amazon for pre-order. It’s a re-telling of Robin Hood and arose from a challenge in a writing group about getting a short story written, edited, with a cover done and on pre-order within a month. I want Robin to be real and grounded, to be someone who doesn’t really have a choice with what happens to him, and to be driven by doing what is right. I’m hoping to release a chapter a month for the next few months, each with a cliff-hanger ending like those old Saturday morning serials.

My next novel again looks at reality, but this time in the form of memories. Can you trust them? Can you rely on them? And what happens when you find out that your memories aren’t quite what you thought. I decided to revisit memories and incidents of childhood, but as an adult looking back from present day. Earlier on I was talking about unexplained phenomena, and The Shadow Man will follow this theme by having a background of spontaneous human combustion, and lean a lot more to horror than The Hand of an Angel. I’m hoping to have The Shadow Man available by the end of the year.

 

Huge thanks to Mark for finding time in his busy week to answer my questions.  The Hand of an Angel is available to order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hand-Angel-shattering-thriller-heart-stopping-ebook/dp/B077Y83GT1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529830185&sr=8-1&keywords=the+hand+of+an+angel

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April 18

Two O’Clock Boy – Mark Hill

Today I am delighted to welcome Mark Hill to Grab This Book as I have the honour of hosting a leg of the blog tour for Two O’Clock Boy.

Mark had previously agreed to join me to take part in my Book Chains Q&A (he was nominated by Susi Holliday who also left me a question to put to Mark). As the blog tour for Two O’Clock Boy was approaching we made Mark hold out a bit longer than anticipated to see what burning question Susi had lined up for him. For those keeping count, Mark is the sixth link in my chain…

Before we cut to the questions here is the book you should be looking out for:

Two O'Clock BoyTWO CHILDHOOD FRIENDS… ONE BECAME A DETECTIVE… ONE BECAME A KILLER…

Thirty years ago, the Longacre Children’s Home stood on a London street where once-grand Victorian homes lay derelict. There its children lived in terror of Gordon Tallis, the home’s manager.

Then Connor Laird arrived: a frighteningly intense boy who quickly became Tallis’ favourite criminal helper. Soon after, destruction befell the Longacre, and the facts of that night have lain buried . . . until today.

Now, a mysterious figure, the Two O’Clock Boy, is killing all who grew up there, one by one. DI Ray Drake will do whatever it take to stop the murders – but he will go even further to cover up the truth.

 

First Question is never actually a question. This is where I ask you to introduce yourself and give you the opportunity to get a couple of plugs in early.

Hi, I’m Mark Hill, I’m a crime author. My debut novel Two O’Clock Boy has just been published in paperback, to great acclaim – at least in this house. It’s in the shops right now! It’s the first in a series about DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley, two North London coppers.

 Now can you introduce us to Ray Drake?

Ray’s a Detective Inspector. A good man, I think, but someone with a lot of baggage. I mean, we all have a bit of baggage, don’t we? But Ray’s baggage is heavier than most. He’s got some secrets, dare I say… some dark secrets. So when a guy goes round killing people – people Ray may or may not have known a long way back – well, it opens up a whole can of worms. Flick’s just doing her job, trying to find the murderer, but Ray keeps sticking his nose in…

 It is a London based story and I am Glasgow based, so I need to ask…is Longacre Children’s home a real place? Have you written about places you know or have you adopted an artistic interpretation of the city?

It’s a combination of real places and not so real places. Sometimes I couldn’t write a scene without having a very specific sense of a particular place, but the scenes set in the 1980s Hackney have elements of a fever dream. They were a composite of some of the things I remember seeing when I came to London as a kid – fenced-up gaps in streets where bombed houses still hadn’t been rebuilt after the Second World War, wastelands and long grass even in the heart of the city – a real sense of urban decay, of an era coming to an end. It’s long redeveloped now, of course.

What I can promise you is that the Longacre is totally made up, although I’m sure places like it have existed.

Did all those reviews, the author interviews, the guest posts help you decide what you wanted to write?

I was already writing the book that became Two O’Clock Boy when I was helping Crime Thriller Fella on his blog, but you can never read too many books – and to find out what all those amazing authors thought was hugely useful and inspiring. Reviewing also helped me think about what made a book motor, and analyse more carefully the kind of things I liked about it. Reading is essential if you want to write.  But what you realise, ultimately, is that you have to find your own way. I’ve never understood when some people say they can’t read novels while they write in case they’re unduly influenced. If that was the case, I’d never be able to read or I’d never be able to write, both of which consequences are unacceptable.

As a supplemental to that, can you single out any books which may have influenced how you approached writing Two O’Clock Boy?

That’s a hard one. I don’t think there’s one particular book, but there are a lot of influences in Two O’Clock Boy. It’s both a psychological thriller and a police procedural with historical elements. A lot of fantastic books influenced it, I’m sure –  but also a lot of terrific movies and film scripts, which is probably why many people have said it has a very filmic quality to it.

Why do you think crime readers particularly enjoy serial killer stories?

I can’t imagine murdering someone. Living with the knowledge of that kind of transgression, the burden of it, must rot the soul. The idea that there are people out there who are impelled to take the lives of others, who positively thrive on it – and that these predators could be walking among us – is fascinating and terrifying. Crime novels, horror novels, allow us to look safely through that looking glass. Oddly enough, I’ve never regarded the Two O’Clock Boy as a serial killer, although clearly he’s an enthusiastic murderer. Serial killing suggests some kind of random urge, but the Boy has a very specific deadly agenda…

Mark HillSo who was Crime Thriller Fella and why did he have to slide off into the shadows?

It’s a very sad story. Crime Thriller Fella was a blogger, a very odd character, who briefly fancied himself as a bit of a playa in the blogging firmament. But between you and me, he was a bit of an oddball who got a little bit too big for his boots and started confusing crime fiction with reality. He sadly fell in with a bad crowd. I can’t go into specifics, but a criminal enterprise went wrong, he double-crossed some people of dubious morals, and was forced into Witness Protection. I don’t know where he is now but he sometimes leaves drunken rambling messages on my voicemail in the dead of night about WordPress settings, or delivers the odd threatening message in the mail disguised as book post. Sometimes, very occasionally, I get the sense I’m being watched. He’ll turn up sooner or later, I’m sure. At the bottom of a canal, probably.

 

Now the quickfire ones:

Last film you saw at the cinema?

Life, the Alien knock-off with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gylen… Gyllin… Jake Gallenhi… That guy from Brokeback. It was okay.

The coffee Revels are the best ones in the bag – True or False?

Don’t be daft. It’s the orange ones.

Which has been the Best Bond film?

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is easily my favourite. Poor old Lazenby had just the one shot at the role but, oh, what a Bond movie to star in.

You have been invited to appear on a reality tv show – which one would let your skills shine?

Gogglebox. I’m really, really good at watching television.

Which one concert/show from history do you wish you had been able to see?

I’ve got Orson Welles’s notorious radio production of War Of The Worlds on vinyl somewhere. Presented as a mock news report, a lot of the hysteria it allegedly caused – riots and suicides and suchlike – has been proved to be false, but the conceit is astonishing for its time, Welles was such a genius. I often wonder what it must have been like to be a kid in 1938 listening to it in an isolated cabin beneath a sky full of stars, watching in terror a comet trail across the heavens. 

Bookmark, corner folder or “any old scrap of paper” – how do you keep your place?

I do like a nice postcard, but the whole book usually ends up covered in tiny post-its stuck everywhere, like it has some kind of flaky yellow disease. I like making notes.

As you may know this feature is called Book Chains and it was Susi Holliday that nominated you to keep my Q&A chain going.  Susi wanted me to ask you the following question:

What’s your karaoke song?

High And Dry by Radiohead. I can clear a room super fast.

 

My final question to Mark was to ask him to nominate my next guest and to set a question. While the question will remain under wraps for the time being, I CAN confirm that in the near future Mr Derek Farrell shall return to Grab This Book as he has agreed to continue my Book Chain.

My thanks to Mark for being so patient and for being such a good sport. But we do need to be clear…the coffee Revels are (and always will be) the best in the packet.

Two O’Clock Boy is published by Sphere and is available now in paperback and digital format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-OClock-Boy-detective-killer-ebook/dp/B01FFZH4LW/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

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July 12

When The Music’s Over – Peter Robinson

Before I get to my review of the 23rd DCI Banks novel, When The Music’s Over, I am thrilled to be able to share a short Q&A with Peter Robinson. I wanted to get a sense of the history of Alan Banks, it’s been a few years since I first picked up book 1 (Gallows View).

From Gallows View to When the Music’s Over

When the Music’s Over is the 23rd Banks Novel how do you feel looking back over the Banks Legacy?

It’s hard to believe there are 23, but I feel pretty good about it. Looking back at Gallows View and then at my more recent titles, I think both Banks and I have come a long way, and it has been interesting journey. I hope it continues that way.

What changes have you noticed through the years, how does publishing book 23 compare to that first publication day?

Too many changes to list. When I started out in 1987, I remained relatively unknown for many years, and then I became known a bit more but was mostly neglected for a few more years. It was only In a Dry Season, my 10th Banks novel, that brought me to wider attention, and things have got even better since then. As for Banks, he has aged well, been through divorce, children leaving home, the death of his brother, and he now lives a more isolated life and is perhaps more philosophical and melancholy than he was when he was younger. He still enjoys wine, women and song, though!

How does the passage of time in the books compare to the real world?

It’s complicated. Basically, time passes more slowly in the fictional world. Although I publish a book a year, more or less, the cases Banks investigates are never a year apart, so less time has passed for him. On the other hand, the contemporary references, such as music and world events, are of the time when I’m writing the book, so there’s a sense of anachronism there. I try to get around that by not mentioning dates. So Banks remains younger than me, but inhabits the same time period as me. I told you it was complicated. I try not to worry about it too much.

 

When The Musics OverWHEN THE MUSIC’S OVER

In a remote countryside lane in North Yorkshire, the body of a young girl is found, bruised and beaten, having apparently been thrown from a moving vehicle.

While DI Annie Cabbot investigates the circumstances in which a 14-year-old could possibly fall victim to such a crime, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Alan Banks is faced with a similar task – but the case Banks must investigate is as cold as they come.

Fifty years ago Linda Palmer was attacked by celebrity entertainer Danny Caxton, yet no investigation ever took place. Now Caxton stands accused at the centre of a historical abuse investigation and it’s Banks’s first task as superintendent to find out the truth.

While Annie struggles with a controversial case threatening to cause uproar in the local community, Banks must piece together decades-old evidence, and as each steps closer to uncovering the truth, they’ll unearth secrets much darker than they ever could have guessed . . .

 

A huge thank you to Kerry at Hodder for my review copy of When The Music’s Over

I have been reading Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks books for more years than I initially realised.  I remember meeting Mr Robinson at a signing event in Glasgow.  It was hosted in Ottakers bookshop and I got my talking book signed (on cassette). Gosh things have changed.

What has not changed, however, is the enjoyment I get when I return to Yorkshire with Banks and Annie Cabbot. I have loved following how the characters have evolved, the stories they get caught up in and the hours of reading pleasure that Peter Robinson has given me. In fact, Aftermath remains one of the best police procedurals I have read.

When The Music’s Over is the 23rd book in the series and takes on one of the more uncomfortable topics to read about.  Banks is asked to investigate a (very) cold case – an allegation of sexual offences made by a national tv celebrity many years ago.  Although the accused is now in his advanced years he still maintains a degree of celeb status and Banks is under no illusion that pursing an investigation so many years after the incident will be a challenge.

Sadly recent years have shown that investigations of this nature are all too real. It was actually quite fascinating seeing the investigation unfold as I have never given too much consideration towards how crimes of this nature could be investigated.

The scenes where Banks conducts his interviews of the victim and also the alleged perpetrator were quite unsettling at times. They were well handled by the author and I felt my anger rise as events (fictional but all too believable) were laid bare for Banks to consider.

Elsewhere Annie Cabbot is investigating the murder of a young girl. Her body has been found on a remote road, seemingly beaten and thrown from a moving vehicle.  Annie has to identify the victim with virtually no clues to work with. However, as her investigations proceed we find that Annie risks stirring up deep rooted tensions within the local community – diplomacy skills may not be sufficient to quell an angry mob if Annie doesn’t tread carefully.

I was delighted how quickly I fell back into step with Banks and his team. The familiarity of the characters and the story telling skill of Peter Robinson made this an enjoyable read. It is always a disappointment when the book is finished and I know there will be another 12 months before the next.

When The Music’s Over is one of the more memorable DCI Banks stories and one which fans will surely love.

 

When The Music’s Over is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 14 July 2016 – you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Musics-Over-Banks-Mystery/dp/1444786717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468277880&sr=1-1&keywords=when+the+music%27s+over

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July 1

Karl Drinkwater Q&A – They Move Below

They Move BelowI am delighted to welcome Karl Drinkwater to Grab This Book as I have the honour to kick off the They Move Below blog tour. My review of They Move Below follows this post but before you scroll down, Karl has kindly taken time to answer a few of my questions.

 

Were you always most likely to write horror stories or are there other genres you enjoy?

I was always a horror fiend, and had no intention of writing anything else. “Darkness or nothing,” I would mutter. But then I did English Literature at A level and university, and was forced to read other books. I recently wrote about how that changed my attitude to Shakespeare; the same happened with Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Toni Morrison, Charles Dickens and so on. At one point I studied Byron and the cult surrounding him for a full year. I learnt to appreciate other modes of expression, and thus began my strange writing career where I alternate between horror and literary/contemporary fiction.

When we talk horror stories the name that most people jump to is Stephen King. Are we overlooking other great horror writers?

Absolutely. I love and respect King’s work, but the danger in any genre is that some authors are so successful and shine so brightly that it is hard to make out the struggling waifs in the shadows. There are so many great writers in every genre. When I came across The Descent by Jeff Long I was amazed – it had one of the best-written and tense (yet understated) openings of any book I’d read, which was then backed up by an imaginative plot that kept growing in scope. My own Claws Truth Forebear was probably inspired by it subconsciously.

Should a horror tale ever have a happy ending?

Yes. A horror tale only implies you have to experience horror and fear, but doesn’t define whether that is at the start, mid-point, end, or any combination of those. In fact, it’s a common pattern to front-load the horror but resolve things and restore order (for writers in the “horror is a conservative genre” school). Let’s take Stephen King’s The Shining. People seem to remember the ending of the film more: coldness, Dick Hallorann being axed, endless evil. But in the novel Dick Hallorann survives, and the novel ends in the sunshine with Wendy, Danny and Dick on a kind of holiday by a lake. Their strength is rewarded with life.

Harvest FestivalWhat do you feel makes a good horror story?

You need to feel fear. It’s almost physical – a shudder, the hairs on your neck raising, faster breathing. That comes from being able to imagine yourself in the position of a character. It is a team effort between the reader (suspending belief) and the writer (creating the convincing narrative). Horror is very different from the baser effects such as revulsion.

I tend not to read many short stories and I find that when I do I turn most often to collections of ghost stories. Do you think “scary” stories are more effective as a short story (perhaps shades of campfire tales)?

I remember loving ghost story collections: I think I read everything by Algernon Blackwood, possibly by M.R. James too. Often short stories do work better. With limited words we are unlikely to have everything explained, so you finish it and look around nervously, your subconscious tricked into believing it has experienced a slice of reality. With a novel, where things are usually tidily-wrapped up, the sense of closure can often weaken the feeling of horror. “That’s all over then, well done Guvnor, another case closed.” If horror is about uncertainty, then closure is an end to horror.

Which horror tales do you rate most highly?  Are there favourites you revisit?

Here are a few!

  • Lot (Ward Moore, 1953). End-of-the-world panic. It’s as unsettling as you’d expect.
  • Children Of The Corn (Stephen King, 1978, in Night Shift). A gripping horror that captures a sense of place brilliantly (and happens to be one of the many inspirations for Turner).
  • To Build A Fire (Jack London, 1908). I read it as a child and decided I would rather freeze to death than burn.
  • Weekend (Fay Weldon, 1978). I count this as horror, even though I may be the only person to do so. [Can’t find a good link about it.]
  • More Tomorrow (Michael Marshall Smith, 1995). Internet horror. You put this one down with a mix of relief and horror.
  • Splatter Of Black (Charles A. Gramlich, 1995). A great example of how to write an action-packed tale.

Have you ever experienced a supernatural phenomenon?

I’ve never been asked this before, but … yes. Even though I’m a rational person, there are things I’ve experienced which I would count as supernatural. All were in my childhood and teenage years, when strange events seemed to follow us from house to house. We moved home a lot. My family was made up of me, my mother, my sister (Sarah); my father died when I was young. If there was a single event it might be easier to block it out, but this was a sustained sequence of events that can’t be easily explained. Hauntings? A poltergeist that followed us? The element that stands out was that this wasn’t just creepy things in the night (though there were those) experienced by the same three people; many things occurred in broad daylight, when other people were present. People who didn’t believe in the supernatural, but who were so shaken afterwards that their views had changed. My best friend of the time (I was 14 or 15) was with me during one of them, and his opinion that I was being over-imaginative totally reversed one night when something happened that left him visibly pale, afraid to cross a room, and admitting that he believed us totally; I don’t think he was helped by my calm statement that it wasn’t out of the ordinary and we should just go back to my computer and that we’d be okay as long as we didn’t go near the dark end of the kitchen. My first girlfriend a year or so later was a creature of awe to me; I couldn’t believe this beautiful and tough woman had somehow fallen for a nerd like myself; but when she told me what she’d heard downstairs in the night, and that she couldn’t wake me up, and she also now believed in the things she’d scoffed at before, I realised that it wasn’t just my imagination. Some time ago I met up with her after many years of being out of touch, and she mentioned again, unprompted, how scared she’d been. It was still with her over 25 years later.

TurnerOkay, I’ve skirted round any details. It’s too big a topic. I could fill a book with it, and no-one would believe half the stuff we came to take for granted. I’m going to tell you about one thing, quite minor in many ways, but I’ve never written about this before.

I was about 15. We lived in a council house on Barton Road in Stretford, Manchester. There was only me and Mum and the dogs in the house. It was a grey day, had been drizzling earlier, but wasn’t particularly creepy: just Manchester. I was watching TV in the living room downstairs. Mum was hoovering upstairs, the drone of the subdued vacuum cleaner somehow comforting. We had two dogs back then, Toby and Tiny, Yorkshire Terriers. They wanted to go on the back garden so I opened the French door and let them out. I could see them through the glass trotting round and sniffing and taking it in turns to wee on the same spots. I usually left them out for a quarter of an hour, or until one of them came back to the door. I lay on the floor in front of the TV again. I heard a noise upstairs, like furniture being moved. All so normal. The hoover stopped. Footsteps coming down the stairs. Measured and slow. Nothing to make me look up.

“Karl,” said my Mum from the doorway. “Where are the dogs?”

“Outside. I just let them out.” I could see them near the bushes.

“Will you come upstairs with me for a minute?”

“Sure. Why?”

I was now following her up the stairs.

“There was a noise under my bed. I just want someone with me when I look.”

I nearly laughed. A noise! In daytime!

“No problem.”

We went into Mum’s bedroom. The vacuum cleaner was still plugged in but off. We stepped over the cable. The bed was on low legs, so there was a dark shadowed area underneath that you couldn’t see into while stood up. I wasn’t in the least bit perturbed. We both started to kneel. Then there was a growl from under the bed. A deep, rumbling, throaty growl like nothing I’ve heard before.

To my shame I didn’t stay with my mum. I pegged it out of there and pretty much flew down the stairs and out the front door, stood by the main road and ready to run even further, leaving my mum to follow calmly. “What’s the point of running?” she asked me later. It was half an hour before I went back in the house.

Mum let the dogs back in. Both of them.

I wouldn’t go in her room for a long time.

If you wanted to be rational, you could maybe argue that the floorboards there creaked in some way. They never creaked like that at any other point in the years we lived there, even when you knelt on that same spot. But it could be an explanation, even if my gut tells me it’s wrong.

After writing that I have just dug out my old diaries. It took me nearly two hours to track down a mention of the event – but I was pleased to find it, because so many things in my diary of the time seem to be just about boardgames, role playing games, computer games, money, and school, and the weird events rarely got a mention. I cringe a bit to read them, but here’s the entry. (Actually, I cringe a lot to type it up, but it also makes it seem more real to see it in a record that’s been closed for about 28 years!) My memories actually differ from the entry, but the gist is the same; there were some surrounding details in the diary entry I’d totally forgotten.

Monday 14th March 1988

I write this with beating heart. Last night Sarah woke up screaming, Mum and Eddy heard noises, smelt burning and sensed something and when I got home today I heard a noise. Mum asked if it was me. We went upstairs to make Mum’s bed and she bent down to look under it. We then heard a horrible growl and ran for fuck. I feel a bit like crying – there have been noises all night. Sarah is in my room tonight and some medium people have contacted us.

Tuesday 15th March 1988

Nothing too bad has happened so far tonight except for knockings outside. Last night I only got 3 ½ hours sleep. I was well scared. On a lighter note, I completed Monty On The Run. A gas mask & rope help.

[Then some normal entries, then this.]

Friday 18th March 1988

Paul likes BMX Simulator as much as me – it is ace. The vicar came round with his friend and daughter. I felt strange after a while and could not help breathing deeply and quickly. I started shaking and crying – I don’t know why. It was really bad. I hated it.

By the way, just in case you suspect I’m making this up – I have attached a photo of the diary entry I took just now. It’s like unearthing the past!

 

1988 diary

 

My most sincere thanks to Karl. I can honestly say that no question I have asked in a Q&A has ever returned such a surprising reply and nobody has ever shared their diary either!

You can find and order all of Karl’s books by clicking through this link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Karl-Drinkwater/e/B006JZWOPE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1467407789&sr=1-2-ent

 

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June 15

Ava Marsh Q&A – Exposure

ExposureI am delighted to welcome Ava Marsh back to Grab This Book.  Last year Ava’s debut novel Untouchable topped my 2015 Top Ten Reads – a dark thriller with a lead character that worked as a high class escort. It pulled no punches and stood out as one of the most memorable books I had read for a long time.

Ava’s new novel Exposure is released today and this time we are being taken behind the scenes of the porn industry following the story of Kitty Sweet.

It is an absolute thrill to have the chance to chat with Ava about Exposure.

 

For those that have not yet read Exposure, what can we expect?

In a nutshell, a blow-by-blow account of how a young porn star ends up in prison for murdering two men.

Tell me about Kitty Sweet – is she entirely imagined or perhaps a composite of a number of people?

Kitty is entirely imagined, though oddly I came across some notes I made years ago for another project and found I’d used the same name before. Unlike Grace from Untouchable, Kitty was a tough character to get to know. I spent many, many hours trying to get into her head, something I had no trouble doing with Grace. Eventually I realised why I was finding it so difficult, but explaining that might spoil the story.

First it was escorts, now porn – are you highlighting the unseen side of some of the less discussed (and possibly controversial) parts of modern society?

Yes. I feel strongly that these aspects of society are often ignored and marginalised, particularly the women who work in them, often dismissed by people as either slags or exploited. As with escorting, I wanted to explore what the porn world would feel like for someone immersed in it. For instance, I read in a lot of memoirs, that there is a big sense of ‘community’ amongst porn workers – similar, I suppose, to the kind of community you get with other marginalised groups who look to each other for understanding and support.

When we spoke about Untouchable you said you had interviewed a number of escorts to discuss their lifestyle.  Have you taken a similar research approach for Exposure?

Sadly I don’t know anyone who’s worked in the porn industry, and I was too shy to approach anyone cold! But there’s plenty who have written about their experiences, and their memoirs were invaluable. It’s also an industry that’s attracted a lot of articles and press coverage, which was useful.

How was the reaction to Untouchable? Were you surprised with any of the reactions you saw or perhaps that there was a fair bit of focus on what became referred to (amongst the bloggers) as “the party scene”?

Untouchable coverI was pleasantly surprised by the reaction to Untouchable. I knew I was pushing the envelope with some of the sex scenes – particularly that scene – but almost universally people have said that none of it felt gratuitous, which pleased me a lot. The sex in both books is there not to titillate, but to provide context and understanding of the world these women inhabit. For them sex is largely work, part of their everyday routine.

Away from writing what does Ava Marsh do with her free time? Can you switch off and get away from the book?

Oh yes, I am very good at not thinking about my work. In the early stages of a book, I can only write for about an hour a day – after that my brain kind of burns out. So I’m left with another 23 to fill. I sleep for eight, spend another ten or so pissing around on the internet, leaving just enough time for three meals, a shower, and a few hours vegging in front of the TV. I am very boring.

Can we ask if there is a new project underway?

I have a couple of things up my sleeve. I’m halfway through a first draft of something a little bit different; still a thriller, but a slight change of direction. And I’ve another book I’m brainstorming in case that one goes nowhere.

Are you a bookworm? If I were to see your bookcases what sort of books could I expect to see?

I have all the books! I’ve got one room devoted to them, which I like to refer to as ‘the library’ (using a posh, country-house sort of voice). I also have a scary number taking up space on my Kindle, and a load more on Audible. I need to conduct a purge, but I hate parting with books. I’m a pretty wide-ranging reader.  I usually have several on the go at the same time – one in hard copy, one on Kindle, and one I’m listening to. I love literary as well as genre fiction, and spent my teen years reading the bulk of the classics. I’m much lazier these days, and tend to read to please rather than educate myself.

 

Exposure is published on 16 June by Corgi and you can order a copy here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exposure-Ava-Marsh/dp/0552171212/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466015086&sr=8-1&keywords=Exposure+ava+marsh

Here is the description:

Kitty Sweet isn’t like anyone you’ve ever met before.

She’s an infamous porn star, imprisoned for double murder. As damaged as she is charismatic, as dangerous as she is charming.

But once no different from you or I.

Kitty’s past is full of heartbreak and desperation, of adulation and glamour. Of ruin. She’s descended to an underworld most people can only imagine, and lived to tell the tale . . .

This is her story.

 

 

 

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November 16

Blood Axe – Q&A with Leigh Russell

Today I am delighted to be able to welcome Leigh Russell to Grab This Book. I  was introduced to Leigh’s work last year when I read Race to Death a great murder mystery which featured DI Ian Peterson who also takes the lead in Leigh’s new book: Blood Axe.  I was thrilled to be offered the chance to join the Blood Axe blog tour and I was delighted that Leigh agreed to take time to answer a few of my questions.

 

Can you tell us a little about Blood Axe?

Blood Axe features perhaps one of my simplest and yet most mysterious killers so far. It’s difficult to say too much without risking spoilers, so I think all I can say is, please read the book and find out… In Blood Axe, Ian Peterson has his work cut out trying to trace a very elusive killer while, at the same time, coping with the threatened break down of his marriage.

Blood AxeBlood Axe is the third book to feature DI Ian Peterson as the lead character yet readers may still primarily associate you with the Geraldine Steel novels. Why did you decide to give Peterson a chance to run solo rather than create a new detective team from scratch?

When Geraldine Steel moves to London, leaving her sergeant behind, they keep in touch. Ian Peterson appears briefly in her following books. So when the Geraldine Steel series became popular, and my publisher was talking about my writing a second series, a spin off series for Ian Peterson seemed like a good idea.  It has been a challenge to develop the two characters and have them  interact across the two series, at the same time making sure each book also works as a stand alone for readers who chance upon any of them. After what happens to Ian Peterson in Blood Axe, there are plenty of interesting possibilities for his future, but I don’t want to include any spoilers here!

Do you begin a new book by deciding that you are going to write a Geraldine Steel or Ian Peterson story or does the plot idea come first and you work out which character is the ‘best fit’ for the lead?

The process starts with my schedule, and which series I need to write for next. If I have to deliver a manuscript for Geraldine Steel in six months’ time, I can’t become engrossed in a story set in York.  Recently I  signed a three book deal with Thomas and Mercer, as well as accepting another three book deal for No Exit Press. With the new Lucy Hall series to write, I have decided to focus on Geraldine Steel and the Ian Peterson series is going to lapse for a while. But he is not going to disappear as a character, so you can speculate about what is going to happen next, which is what I’m doing right now.

As Blood Axe draws upon on the history of York, and features one of the main tourist attractions in the city, I imagine that Blood Axe was always going to be a Peterson book?

Yes, the inspiration for Blood Axe came to me while I was on a visit to York. By chance the British Museum was hosting a major exhibition, with lectures, about the Vikings, giving me access to some of the world experts on Viking culture and civilisation. The exhibition and lectures were fascinating, and the experts were incredibly helpful, as I was keen to make sure my Viking’s thoughts and beliefs were as authentic as possible.

Why did you choose York for Peterson’s stories?

I wanted him to move to a town or city that was a long way from Kent, where his wife’s family live. He has connections with the area, as he was born there. But the most important reason was that I love York, and setting the Ian Peterson series there means I can go there regularly on research trips. I’ll be back there in November for book signings, and back again in March when I’ll be talking at York Literature Festival about why I set my series in York.

I always like to ask this:  Why do readers love serial killer stories given how horrific the concept is in reality?

True crime is a popular  genre, and I understand its appeal, but I don’t like reading about real crimes. I find it too upsetting. Yet somehow, in fiction, crime becomes a form of entertainment. I think there are several reasons for the appeal of serial killers. Crime fiction is, basically, goodies and baddies. The more evil the villain is, the more desperate readers are to see the killer brought to justice. So serial killers make for tense reading. They can also be interesting characters, and I am always fascinated by my killers. A review in Crime Time wrote that ‘Russell takes the reader into the darkest recesses of the human psyche’. I’m not sure how I get there, but it’s all fiction!

On a more personal level, what do you enjoy reading? Who do you consider to be your favourite authors?

 My taste in reading is fairly eclectic. I was fortunate enough to spend four years studying English Literature at university, which meant that I basically spent four years reading. I really can’t pick out favourite authors, but a few I particularly like are Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, Mary Shelley, Dickens, Jeffery Deaver, Edith Wharton, Kazuo Ishiguru, Frances Fyfield, Lee Child, Simin Beckett… there are hundreds more… it’s a bit of a mixture!

leigh_russellWhen do you find time to write and do you have a writing habit or routine?

I am so busy at the moment, with a new book just out, that is quite difficult to find time to write. That said, I have no set routine, and am rarely free to spend a whole day at home focusing solely on writing. There is always something going on, meetings with my publishers, book signings, library talks, literary festivals, interviews, research, apart from everything else in life… When I can spend a day at home, I usually stay in bed until late morning, answering emails and planning my writing for the day… with a little procrastination on social media thrown in… After that, I move into my study and settle down to write. Truthfully, it doesn’t really matter to me where I am as I write in bed, at my desk, in the car (not when I’m driving!), on the train, in cafes. I never leave the house without my ipad. The final edited manuscript for the first book in my new Lucy Hall series, Journey to Death, was emailed from a beach in the Seychelles where I had gone on a research trip. With the Internet, you really can write anywhere in the world.

Are you a meticulous plotter, do you sit down and prepare exactly how the story will unfold before you start to write?

I try to plot my books carefully in advance, but my ideas don’t always work out. The overall shape of the book is in my head before I start, what Lee Child calls his “five second elevator pitch”, but writing books is an organic process for me. If is much more fun to write and see what happens. Sometimes it works out on the first attempt. With more books to write, I am having to work to tighter deadlines with less time for revising and reworking, so I might have to be more meticulous at the planning stage.

When not writing how do you enjoy spending your downtime?

I haven’t had any down time for about six years, but I enjoy what I do and think myself lucky to be able to write full time.

Finally, can you give us any clues as to what we can hope to see in your next book?

I’m just planning the ninth Geraldine Steel novel. There may be some surprising revelations about Geraldine’s family that lead her to question herself and the kind of person she is. Oh, and there’s a murder fairly early on…

 

My thanks to Leigh.

Blood Axe is published by No Exit Press and is available in paperback and digital formats here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Axe-Di-Ian-Peterson/dp/1843445433/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447632586&sr=1-1&keywords=blood+axe

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October 21

The House on Cold Hill Q&A with Peter James

The House On Cold HillToday I am delighted to welcome Peter James to Grab This Book. I have been a fan of horror/ghost stories for many years and when I first discovered Peter’s books his chilling tales gave me many sleepless nights. Peter’s new book The House on Cold Hill marks a his return to the horror genre, I am grateful to Peter for taking time to answer a few of my questions.

 

Can you give us a quick summary of The House on Cold Hill? What can readers expect?

The book is about a couple of townies, Ollie and Caro Harcourt, who move from the heart of the city of Brighton and Hove to their dream home in the Sussex countryside, with their twelve year old daughter, Jade, who does not share their enthusiasm.  Jade is stroppy and unhappy about leaving Brighton where all her friends are. But Caro and Ollie both love the idea of a big restoration project, and despite the huge financial strain, and a number of warnings in the surveyors report, they buy Cold Hill House – a huge, dilapidated, Georgian mansion.  Within days of moving in with, it soon becomes apparent that the Harcourt family aren’t the only residents in the house….. The first thing that happens is that Jade is up in her room a couple of days later, on Facetime, to her best friend in Brighton, when her friend suddenly says, ‘Jade, who is that lady standing behind you?’

 

As I was reading I was trying to work out if the House could possibly be considered the central character with Oliver and his family as supporting players. Do you consider this to be Ollie’s story or the story of the House?

Well, I love the strapline that my publishers came up with for ‘THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL’…. ‘Evil Isn’t Born, It’s Built’.   I’ll leave the context of that to your imagination!

 

Every town seems to have a house which the locals believe may be haunted – is the house in the book based on a real property?

The House On Cold Hill is very much inspired by – and modeled on – an isolated historic house in Sussex that my former wife and I bought in 1989, and lived in for a decade – and which turned out to be very seriously haunted.

 

Have you ever seen a ghost?

I have never actually seen a ghost, however, at the house I mention in the previous question there were many things that happened that I couldn’t explain. I saw on many occasions, tiny pinpricks of white light floating in the air.  A medium who I used a lot during my writing of Possession, visited my house and she told me I was slightly psychic, and that is why I saw these pinpricks, and that while I was not actually seeing the entire apparition, I was picking up on some of its energy.

 

Do you need to adopt a very different approach to building a horror story than you may need to write a crime novel?

It is a different approach for sure. With my series of crime novels I have to keep the consistency throughout the series and bring in continuity with characters, places, and my research with the police is as accurate as I can possibly make it. With the horror story which based on ghostly experiences I can go a little more free-form and let my imagination take over!

 

At the risk of spoilers – is there one scene in your book you are particularly happy with? Perhaps one that you had fun writing?

A key element of the story is a mysterious window in the dilapidated Georgian mansion that my couple buy.  A window that, they one day realize, is for a room that does not appear to exist.  A room that has no door…  I really enjoyed writing this part.   And there is a chilling postscript to my writing ‘THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL’.… In addition to my home in Sussex, I have an apartment on two floors in Notting Hill.   A month after finishing the book my wife, Lara, and I were walking along the street beneath, looking up, and talking about his particular part of the book.  Suddenly Lara asked, pointing up, ‘Which room is that window in?’ We stood there frozen for some moments, as it began to dawn on us that the window did not make sense.  We could not work out which room it was.  We ran in, raced up the six flights of stairs and into each of the two rooms which the “mystery” window seem to straddle.  But there was no window!  We finally did solve the mystery – the builders who had put a fitted wardrobe in the master bedroom had, for whatever reason, decided to lose the window in the process and, leaving the glass on the outside, had timbered over the inside.

Who says truth is not stranger than fiction???!

HOST 2

I first encountered your books around the time of Prophecy, Twilight and Host. Back then you were competing for my reading time with King, Herbert, Hutson and to some extent Dean Koontz. Although Mr King is still prolific do you feel there is less choice for horror readers these days or am I missing new talent?

For a long time horror went out of fashion, and many old horror writers that I knew found it increasingly hard to get published and to gain shelf space in bookstores, so I would strongly agree that there is less choice. It was one of the reasons my publishers asked me if I would like to return to the genre.

 

You spend months creating a terrifying story to chill your readers but what scares you?

Many things! I’m scared of heights, and I am deeply claustrophobic – although that claustrophobia helped a lot in writing my first Roy Grace novel, Dead Simple, in which one of the characters is buried alive in a coffin in remote woods after a stag night prank goes wrong, with everyone who knows where he is – bar one person – dead in a car wreck.  And that one person has a very good reason to keep quiet.  I had myself put into a coffin, and the lid screwed down, for thirty minutes, as part of my research.  It was the most terrifying thirty minutes of my life!

 

After concentrating on the Roy Grace novels for so long was it liberating to switch to something so very different?

Yes I really enjoyed writing this and many of my Roy Grace fans are excited to read it too. For my very long-term fans this book will be like returning to some of my earlier work… my first successful novel, back in 1988, was Possession, a supernatural thriller, and I wrote several in this vein before moving on to psychological thrillers and then crime.  Much though I love writing my Roy Grace books – I’m currently working on the 12th in the series, there are other areas I’m very keen to explore.  I wrote Perfect People, a thriller about “designer” babies, which was published four years ago, in which I look at the choices science will ultimately give parents on choosing the genetic make-up of their offspring.  I loved writing it and the book was highly successful.  My publishers thought it would be fun for me to have a return to the supernatural, and they were right.  I had a great time writing The House On Cold Hill, and certainly plan to write more in this field.  Possibly even a sequel!

 

Your books have enjoyed a great deal of success and you are a household name what advice would you offer to young aspiring writers?

There is only one way to penetrate the world of writing novels, and that is to write novels.  I don’t believe good writers can be taught, although I think their technique can be helped.  My most important recommendation to any young person who wants to write novels is to read, read and read.  Particularly the kind of novels they would like to write – and to deconstruct them, literally – and work out what made them like this or that particular book.  How did the writer get them hooked… how did the writer make them care for the characters….  It is impossible to stress this enough

 

What are you currently reading?Peter james

I read avidly and widely and my biggest regret is that being a writer ironically means I never get to read as much as I want.  The reason is I don’t like to read fiction while I am in the first draft writing process – which is around 7 months of each year – as it is too easy to pick up someone else’s style.  But then I read huge amounts of non-fiction, some for research and some for pleasure. I recently really enjoyed ‘I Let You Go’ by Claire Macintosh. I was first sent it as a proof, asking for a quote, and I was utterly gripped.  It is wonderfully written, with credible and interesting characters, and has one of the most astonishing twists I’ve ever read, turning the story completely on hits head halfway through.  It was one of those rare books I put down thinking, “Gosh, wish I’d written this!”

 

Are you able to give us any clues as to what you are currently working on?

I’m currently working hard to finish Roy Grace 12, it’s called ‘Love You Dead’.  I have the stage play of my novella, ‘The Perfect Murder’, coming back on tour early next year so we are casting for that. It will star Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace and has had two hugely successful nationwide tours already. I hope also to share some good news about Roy Grace on TV soon!

 

My most sincere thanks to Peter.

The House on Cold Hill is available now in Hardback and Digital format.  My 5 star review can be found here

Category: 5* Reviews, Guests | Comments Off on The House on Cold Hill Q&A with Peter James
October 15

The Girl Who: Q&A with Marnie Riches

the girl who wouldnt die 2Today I am delighted to be able to welcome Marnie Riches to Grab This Book. I  loved the first two books in The Girl Who series and have been dying for the chance to ask Marnie a few questions to get some insights into how these great stories came together.

 

First, could I ask you to introduce us to George?

Who is The Girl Who?

Georgina McKenzie – George, for short – is a South East London girl who hails from a very tough council estate in an impoverished, crime-ridden part of the city. Trapped between the tyranny of urban gangs and an unloving, disloyal mother, George uses her intellect to escape a future as a petty criminal. She learns her way to Cambridge University, where, in the course of the series, she blossoms from a social politics undergraduate into a fully-fledged criminologist. Her weaknesses are crisps, an often abrasive attitude and loving the wrong men. Her strengths include a keen analytical mind that can piece together the most perplexing of puzzles, razor-sharp instincts that cut through the densest of bullshit and a very low tolerance threshold for bullies.

How do you describe The Girl Who books to prospective readers?

The Girl Who books are fast-paced, gritty international crime thrillers that examine the dark side of sexuality and expose the shocking fallout from trans-national trafficking. If you’re looking for gentle, quiet reads, this series is not for you. The language is sometimes strong and the body counts are high – reflecting what goes on in Europe’s criminal underworld. All three books start with the hunt for a brutal multiple murderer but twist and turn into something else. The stories don’t shy away from tackling tricky subjects like racial intolerance, drug misuse, pornography or child abuse. In many ways, they are reminiscent of Scandi-noir blockbusters by Nesbo and Stieg Larsson, but with a strong flavour of the quirky serial-killer brutality and intellectual flourishes that you find in Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs – principally because these three authors represent my main influences in the genre, and George is an academic. Police procedural balance is supplied by George’s partner, Amsterdam’s Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen, who is a middle-aged misanthrope, suffering from crippling health anxiety. The series is very definitely character led, and readers tell me that they enjoy the quirky dynamic between George and Van den Bergen.

You recently won a Dead Good Readers award for The Most Exotic Location – why did you choose to have Amsterdam feature so heavily in your books?

My degree was in German and Dutch, so I had to spend a year living abroad as part of my studies. Despite having grand intentions of spending that year out in Aruba in the Dutch Antilles, I ended up living, studying and teaching in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. It’s a great city but small for a big-city-dweller like me. I always loved my visits to Amsterdam, so when I considered where to set my novels, Amsterdam was the obvious choice. It’s extremely beautiful, historic and sleazy as hell in parts. The world-famous red light district is one of the most fun places to visit – I’ve had many a misspent weekend there! Every red-lit booth and coffee shop seems to inspire a story in me…

Over the first two books George has a couple of men in her life and she seems to hold power over them both – she appears to be the Alpha. Does George need to be in control of this aspect of her life or does she just enthral the men she attracts?

It’s funny you should say that. It’s true that George doesn’t do demure at all. She’s sexually confident and, unless they are intimidated and turned off by a woman who knows her own mind, men become deeply attracted to her. She’s clever and vivacious, so why wouldn’t they? But she’s emotionally honest too. I think, for all she’s assertive and confident, George is actually deeply vulnerable in love – not really Alpha at all. She falls hard for her men and only gives consideration to protecting her heart when it’s too late. That’s the point at which the anger and righteous indignation start to pour out of her at speed and at volume! It’s a defence tactic. So, I don’t think George seeks control in her love life at all. I think she reels from one heartbreak situation to the next because deep down, she’s passionate, headstrong and soft as hell.

Marnie 2

How much of Marnie comes out in George?  Can you have her do and say things you would like to do yourself?

Absolutely! George does and says all the things I’d like to do and say but can’t. At 20, as she is in The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die, she has none of the responsibilities and problems with stiff joints that I have as a middle-aged woman! It’s true that some of George’s experiences are mine, however. I also grew up on a rough estate. My mother was a single parent and we struggled in impoverished circumstances. I also learned my way out of the ghetto and went to Cambridge. I am also an opinionated gobshite, but then, there’s a part of me in Van den Bergen too. I’ll leave it for the reader to decide how much is fiction and how much is fact!

Your books can be quite graphic in their depictions of violence, as a reader I like the edge that this gives the story.  Did you ever worry about excluding potential readers by giving the books a ‘darker’ tone?

The films and TV series that I enjoy contain graphic violence. I’m a big Tarantino fan. I adored The Wire and Breaking Bad. In many ways, my series is the literary equivalent of those small and big screen phenomena. Fast-paced, vivid plot. Big characters. Racially diverse cast. Big crime. Lots of blood. Similarly, my series contains some humour too, to lighten those grim moments, and the violence always has its place in adding depth to our understanding of the criminal perpetrators’ psyches. So, given my love of Scandi-noir fiction and that gold standard of crime novels – The Silence of the Lambs – I was never going to shy away from incorporating violence into my writing. We have far more gory stories to tell in the real world. The news is overflowing with war, genocide and murder, after all. And as a bit of a softy, violence serves as a form of escapism for me.

No doubt, the body count does exclude a minority of readers, but The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die got to #69 in Amazon’s kindle top 100 and won an award. The Girl Who Broke the Rules is riding high in the rankings only weeks after release and reviews are outstanding. So, I’m not entirely sure the series suffers as a result of my literary bloodshed!

George has encountered several killers through her research and also during the adventures she has experienced. I always like to ask this:  Why do readers love serial killer stories given how horrific the concept is in reality?

Serial killers form an intrinsic part of our collective oral history, like childhood tales of the bogeyman or urban myths. Every grown-up has heard of the Moors Murderers, Fred and Rose West, The Yorkshire Ripper… They’re gruesome anti-legends. Serial killers are so rare, that they always make headlines, and we read their stories with macabre fascination, precisely because they are such an anomaly in our otherwise ordered, safe and fairly predictable lives. Death is inevitable, but premature death at the hand of a violent killer is a primal fear, statistically founded on very little, but which we nevertheless experience with perverse relish and vicariously through the suffering of a few unfortunate individuals who do fall victim to society’s worst predators. Serial killers will always be fascinating.

Who do you enjoy reading (and does their work in any way shape your own writing style)?

I enjoy reading my fellow crime authors’ work, although with such a tight writing schedule, I struggle to make time for a concerted and sustained reading effort at the moment. I read out of genre too. Children’s, literary fiction, contemporary women’s, historical. Over the last year, I’ve read everything by Joshua Ferris, one or two by Lionel Shriver, one by Matt Haig, one by Tom Rob Smith, a Gill Paul, a C.L. Taylor, an Ava Marsh, Angela Marsons’ first, half of an Elizabeth Haynes, a chapter or two of one of Simon Toyne’s, half an Eva Dolan. I tend to read the books of people who are signed to my literary agency or people whom I know. None of it particularly influences me. I’ve had my own voice since day one and have a backlog of story ideas! I’ve been writing seriously for ten years, after all and was published as a children’s author before TheGirlWho series burst onto the crime scene!

Girl Who Broke the Rules 2Are you a meticulous plotter, do you sit down and prepare exactly how the story will unfold before you start to write?

I work to a two-six page synopsis that I write and agree with my agent in advance of embarking on the real graft. I’m fairly fastidious. I always replot my novels once my first drafts are finished, to ensure my high points and turning points are all in the correct places. Because I write in distinct scenes, it’s fairly easy to move things around, if necessary. I’m not one of those authors whose plot plans are longer than the actual book, but I’m not a pantser either. Nesbo is very tight on plotting and I always see Headhunters as a shining example of how to get it spot on.

If you had one chance to change the ending to ANY book what would you like to alter? My personal choice would be to undo a ‘significant’ event from the end of Agatha Christie’s Curtain.

I read Philip Pulman’s His Dark Materials and enjoyed it immensely. I thought the last page, after hundreds of pages of written joy, however, was a let-down. I can’t think how I might have changed it, but I remember thinking I’d have liked him to finish an otherwise utterly perfect trilogy in a more satisfying manner. I think even the very best authors are often not especially good at ending novels. It’s a subtle art.

Finally, can you give us any clues as to what we can hope to see in your next book?

Ah, I’ve just handed The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows in, so I know exactly what kind of a twisty pulse-pounder is in store for you. In the midst of an Arctic freeze, George – now a fully qualified criminologist – must help fathom the mystery behind a brutal killer called Jack Frost and the ongoing fallout from one of Van Den Bergen’s stone cold cases… The theme of trafficking continues in this third instalment, and some of our favourite characters – goodies and baddies – put in an appearance. It’s a tale of loss, longing and revenge. As ever, there are murders to be solved, but this story is so much more than initial appearances suggest!

 

 

The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die and The Girl Who Broke The Rules are published by Maze/HarperCollins.

Marnie is on Twitter: @Marnie_Riches

You can purchase The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U1K18VY?keywords=the%20girl%20who%20wouldn’t%20die&qid=1444944722&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

and

The Girl Who Broke The Rules here:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Who-Broke-Rules-ebook/dp/B00U5NU62E/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Category: 5* Reviews, Guests | Comments Off on The Girl Who: Q&A with Marnie Riches