Lucy V. Hay's Blog, page 35

BOOK LOVE: My Crime Fiction Faves With Male Leads

I recently took part in THE Book Club’s 20/20 Blogger Event on Facebook. 20 bloggers shared their all-time favourites – and I was lucky enough to get picked for crime!

Luckily we were notified quite a few months in advance … and I really needed it! I had about 75 books on my list to start with, which I then whittled down by theming them. So first up, here are my top 5 choices featuring MALE LEADS … enjoy!

1) Dead Simple by Peter James. Book 1 in the Roy Grace police procedurals, set in Brighton. A young man is buried alive as a prank for his stag night, but his four mates are killed in a car accident. Grace must track him down before it’s too late! This is in my Top 20 cuz it’s got a real sense of time running out for our poor stag and it’s SO claustrophobic! Classic crime.

2) Flowers For The Dead by Barbara Copperthwaite. In this book, Adam, a serial killer stalks Laura – but this is a serial killer story with a difference! A brilliant and original offering from indie author Copperthwaite, Adam is absolutely mesmerising. I could not believe I was actually rooting for this guy, he’s a serial killer for Pete’s sake!!! The author’s clever use of flowers too really adds to the storyworld. Very much recommended.

3) Stalkers by Paul Finch. Book 1 in the DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg novels. In this one, Heck must track down the infamous and sinister-sounding Nice Guys’ Club who are behind the disappearances of several women. This is in my Top 20 because it is a pacy and visual feast, but beware – it’s gory and violent and NOT for the faint-hearted!

4) The Dry by Jane Harper. When Aaron Falk returns to his Outback home for the funeral of a friend who’s killed himself and his family, he’s pulled into a web of intrigue, secrets and lies that goes back two decades. This is in my Top 20 because I LOVED the storyworld here: the arid, overheating Australian landscape really stayed with me. Brilliant story.

5) Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham. Book 1 in DI Tom Thorne Novels, where our police protagonist must investigate the murders of three women and the case of Alison, who’s been left with ‘Locked in syndrome’ consigned forever to a hideous waking hell. Hugely original, this novel showed us the inside of a killer’s head and was a massive influence to police procedurals. No Top 20 crime list is complete with it, IMHO!

NEXT: My Top Female Leads in Crime Fiction … stay tuned!

CRIMINALLY GOOD: Interview with author Gillian Brightmore

1) So, who are you & what have you written? 

I’m Gillian Brightmore, a fiction writer with a leaning toward screenplays. I have published a number of short stories in magazines and anthologies but namely, The Woman Who Loved Cucumbers (Honno Modern Fiction: title story – 2002). My crime noir is out on Kindle, Blood On Butetown. I hope at some point to convert to a screen drama.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

I write crime fiction as a way of exploring the society we find ourselves in. I’m also interested in the psychological motivation behind criminal behaviour, especially of crimes against women.

3) What informs your crime writing?

The book is set in Cardiff Dockland of late 1980’s ( previously known as Tiger Bay ) among an ethnically diverse and vibrant community. This was a time when the gay scene in the town was very much under the radar and many gay people migrated to the night life of the docks.

The ‘inspiration’ ( but not the theme) was the real life savage murder of a young sex worker, Lynette White and the botched police investigation that followed it.

The book that motivated me was Patricia Highsmith’s This Sweet Sickness where the action, which is film-like is seen primarily through the eyes of the criminal as follows a mistaken romantic obsession leading him to murder.

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

I have no particular routine (wish I did!) but I do research and character outlines first, then sketch in the storyline.

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

The book I wish I’d written would be Sleeping Cruelty by Linda La Plante (2000 ).I think it is a masterly exploration of money, power, seduction and evil. I was once so enthralled listening to the audio-book version I miss my turning off the M4!

CRIMINALLY GOOD: Interview with author Gillian Brightmore (any time)

1) So, who are you & what have you written? 

I’m Gillian Brightmore, a fiction writer with a leaning toward screenplays. I have published a number of short stories in magazines and anthologies but namely, The Woman Who Loved Cucumbers (Honno Modern Fiction: title story – 2002). My crime noir is out on Kindle, Blood On Butetown. I hope at some point to convert to a screen drama.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

I write crime fiction as a way of exploring the society we find ourselves in. I’m also interested in the psychological motivation behind criminal behaviour, especially of crimes against women.

3) What informs your crime writing?

The book is set in Cardiff Dockland of late 1980’s ( previously known as Tiger Bay ) among an ethnically diverse and vibrant community. This was a time when the gay scene in the town was very much under the radar and many gay people migrated to the night life of the docks.

The ‘inspiration’ ( but not the theme) was the real life savage murder of a young sex worker, Lynette White and the botched police investigation that followed it.

The book that motivated me was Patricia Highsmith’s This Sweet Sickness where the action, which is film-like is seen primarily through the eyes of the criminal as follows a mistaken romantic obsession leading him to murder.

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

I have no particular routine (wish I did!) but I do research and character outlines first, then sketch in the storyline.

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

The book I wish I’d written would be Sleeping Cruelty by Linda La Plante (2000 ).I think it is a masterly exploration of money, power, seduction and evil. I was once so enthralled listening to the audio-book version I miss my turning off the M4!

INFOGRAPHIC – DNA of a Successful Book

This infographic is FASCINATING! There’s lots here about reading habits I would never have guessed … such as books with a female protagonist are more likely to become to bestsellers. I would have bet actual £££ it would have been the opposite. I also found it really interesting that most readers read for such small increments of time … I’d assumed people would time aside to read, like they do TV. Enjoy!

by NowSourcing.

From Visually.

DARK MINDS – How I wrote LOVE YOU TO DEATH

LOVE YOU TO DEATH is part of the Dark Minds anthology, a charity collection of short stories to raise money for Hospice UK and Sophie’s Appeal. Available in ebook, paperback and audiobook.

Like all my stories, long or short, LOVE YOU TO DEATH is part real-life, part research-based. Before I start, I should say – my story is a work of pure fiction. Nothing in it relates specifically to the elements I describe here. But as they say, ‘from small acorns, large oak trees grow’! And this is mine.

First, the research part. Around the time I wrote this short story, I had been reading When She Was Bad, a true crime book by Patricia Pearson. This is a fascinating account of some female killers and how society actively lets them get away with murder by presenting them automatically as ‘victims’.

Pearson’s book recounts studies, statistics and real-life cases such as Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka, who was convicted for the rape and murder of at least three young women, including her own sister. During her trial Homolka insisted she was under the manipulative influence of her husband Paul Bernardo, a claim that was accepted basically because she was female and he was male. Later it was revealed this was a lie, but by then it was too late: Homolka’s plea bargain, plus her resulting more lenient sentence, was in place.

Now, back to my OWN real life bits that helped inspire the story …

My Father-in-law lives in a remote cottage in Devon. There’s no internet, no mobile signal and pretty much nothing to do because he is either watching Jason Bourne movies or playing Wii bowling with the kids! This means I do a lot of reading or brainstorming for stories at his place.

So I was thinking about female killers and manipulative relationships, and murder/suicides when it started to rain. It’s absolutely freezing in this house and the window was open, even though it was October. There was a strong smell of woodsmoke in the air and soil, as rain poured down. I knew immediately that was my setting.

My gaze wandered over to the rayburn. There was a whacking great poker next to it, a weapon in effect, yet just sitting there. A thought jumped into my head: ‘That would be handy, if I needed to kill someone’!! Just like that!!! YIKES!

But that lead me back to thoughts of how a villager and his wife had been found dead near us some years before. There had been total shock in the local community – even more so when it was discovered he had shot her in the face, then himself.

My father-in-law recounted how he had known this man for fifty years and had always found him to be mild-mannered and non-threatening. The dead couple had seemingly been ‘loved up’, appearing together at local events such as fetes, farmers’ markets and so on with absolutely no hint of any issues between them. They’d not had any children. Whether there had been domestic abuse in the household all along, or whether it had been just a one-time thing that got out of control for some reason, no one will ever know.

‘Goes to show though maid, you never can tell.’ My Father-in-law said.

So from all that, came LOVE YOU TO DEATH … Hope you enjoy it!

LOVE YOU TO DEATH is part of the Dark Minds anthology, a charity collection of short stories to raise money for Hospice UK and Sophie’s Appeal. Available in ebook, paperback and audiobook. 

DARK MINDS – get a taste of the tales in the book!

So, the charity collection DARK MINDS is here!

Raising money for two GREAT causes, this anthology of short stories has some of your favourite bestselling authors in it … oh, and ME too! It’s available in eBook, paperback and audio book so to order your copy, CLICK HERE or on the first pic below. We really want to get it into the charts, so please support these two fab causes — the book will make a fab Christmas present or holiday read.

What’s more, the online book launch is TONIGHT, Dec 13th – to check out how the authors all got their inspiration for their short story maaaaadness, CLICK HERE to attend.

In the meantime, check out this fab gallery of pics from the authors themselves to give a cool visual taster of what you can expect inside the pages of this great collection … Pass it on!

CRIMINALLY GOOD – Interview with author Lisa Hall

1) So, who are you & what have you written? 

I am Lisa Hall, and I’ve written two psychological thrillers – Between You and Me which came out in March 2016, and Tell Me No Lies, which was released in October 2016. You can find my books on Amazon HERE and HERE. And you can find me at http://www.lisahallauthor.co.uk and on Twitter as @LisaHallAuthor.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

It’s what I love! I didn’t set out to write this genre, I seemed to naturally fall into it.

3) What informs your crime writing? 

Everything starts with a “what if?…” I usually find a news story or article will spark my interest and a “what if?’ usually follows …

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

Drop the kids at school, make a large mug of tea and aim to bash out around 2000 words a day. It doesn’t always work out that way, and I find I can only work in short bursts before I need to either make more tea or mooch around on Twitter for a bit. I’m a plotter, but although I have an idea of the whole storyline at the beginning, I can only plan around three chapters out at a time.

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

I wish I’d written Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker, as the characterisation is incredible. I also recently read The Roanake Girls which was a stunning book.

BEST OF 3: Mike Thomas, Author

  1)  Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker

WHY I LIKE IT: A debut, and a blistering one at that. A three-year-old boy is snatched from his bed, in the small American town of Tall Oaks – what follows is a fantastic journey into the lives, lies and dark pasts of its inhabitants. Multiple characters, all convincingly written, and a suspenseful plot where nothing is quite as it seems. Think David Lynch or the Coen Brothers on top of their game but in book form and you’ve got Tall Oaks. Funny, moving and quite brilliant.

2) A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

WHY I LIKE IT: In a remote Ohio forest, three men stumble upon a downed airplane – and in it is a gym bag containing four million dollars. Their plan: keep quiet, keep the cash, and share it equally. But, humans being humans, their simple plan goes awry resulting in double- and triple crosses then murder. One of the best crime and mystery novels I’ve read in terms of pacing, plot and sheer page-turning, nail-biting thrills, and it depicts the fragility of relationships – siblings, spouses, friends, and how money can affect them – in a chilling way.

 3) Manners by Robert Newman

WHY I LIKE IT: Written by Rob Newman – of ‘Newman and Baddiel’ fame – this novel is a little-known gem that deserves a wider audience. John Manners is a cop coming apart at the seams. While on patrol in uniform, he is found by colleagues beating the lifeless body of a convicted rapist he has just killed in a fight. Suspended, Manners takes it upon himself to patrol the streets alone, listening in to his police radio in order to solve a planned murder – not realising who the intended victim really is… I love this book – it’s thought-provoking, deliciously unsettling and has a real sense of menace.

BIO: Mike Thomas was born in Wales, and for more than two decades served in the police, working some of Cardiff’s busiest neighbourhoods in uniform, drugs teams and CID. He left the force in 2015 to write full-time. He was longlisted for the ‘Wales Book of the Year’ in 2010 for his novel Pocket Notebook, and was on the prestigious list of Waterstones ‘New Voices’. His novel Ugly Bus is currently in development for a six-part series with the BBC. He lives in the wilds of Portugal with his wife and children. Follow him as @ItDaFiveOh on Twitter.

CRIMINALLY GOOD: Interview with author Anne Coates

1) So, who are you and what have you written? 

Anne Coates – I’m a freelance editor and journalist who’s published seven non-fiction titles and two collections of short stories. Dancers in the Wind is my début crime novel which was published in October, 2016 by Urbane Publications. You can see all the details of this on my website. The sequel, Death’s Silent Judgement follows in May 2017.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

Initially I think it was a reaction to editing romantic fiction in my staff job at Woman’s Weekly and Woman & Home. I wanted to get away from love stories and the happy ever after.  Then I discovered I loved writing short stories with a twist, many of which centred on a crime of some kind. I also wrote a spoof Sherlock Holmes story. I’ve always loved reading within the crime/thriller genre so writing a crime novel seemed a natural progression and it’s been a fantastic experience meeting other crime authors, bloggers and those who love reading the genre.

3) What informs your crime writing? 

For my short stories I often found a tiny news item or something/one in my life which made me think “What if…” This happened with the novel as I had interviewed a prostitute and a police officer in King’s Cross for a national newspaper and then thought “Supposing this happened…

Dancers in the Wind and its sequel feature a journalist, Hannah Weybridge, who finds herself in deep water when she starts investigating a news story. She starts off rather naïve and readers seem to appreciate this quality.

4) What’s your usual writing routine? 

I’m useless at routines. It seems as soon as I establish one, there’s a reason to change it. However one routine I can’t break is that of waking during the night so I often make notes then and try to think scenes through. As I was finishing the sequel I managed to go back to sleep just as I was concocting a particularly horrendous scene. My dream then really was the stuff of nightmares and I was never more relieved to wake up.

During the early morning I check emails and Twitter and try not to get to distracted by them again until lunchtime but that’s often a vain hope.

I write every day but not always many words. Some days I’m more prolific than others. During the first draft I like a lot of thinking time so going for a walk or a swim helps. I’m not a planner so the characters often lead me by the nose and reveal things I was not conscious of thinking.

Once I’ve written the first draft, I print everything out and shuffle chapters, rewrite and add scenes, making sure the timeline works. Then I print out the new version and begin again…

5) Which crime book do YOU wish you’d written and why? 

Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow by Peter Høeg absolutely captivated me. Beautifully written and perfectly executed it’s a masterclass in crime writing with depth and a philosophical turn.

Top 10 Awesome Books That Influenced Me As A Writer

I recently took part in THE Book Club’s ‘What Writers Read’ Event on Facebook (still ongoing, until Dec 9th!) and it was quite the eye-opener! It’s fascinating to see what my fellow authors and favourite writers love to read. We must have the best job in the world … As an author, freelance writer and script editor for movies, I am in the privileged position of being able to read for work! Amazing.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 books and stories that left a lasting impression and influenced me to become a storyteller:

1) Poetics by Aristotle

It’s hard to believe just how OLD this book is, yet it still remains relevant. This book lays out the foundations of creative works, such as character and plot –just as fascinating are the various controversies surrounding exactly what he means by this (and how much is lost in translation and history). I like to try and re-read this every 5-10 years or so, I’m due another!

2) The Odyssey by Homer

The original ‘quest’ narrative, it’s easy to see how Odysseus’ epic journey has influenced books and movies, especially those in which a hero or heroine must go on a voyage of discovery (literal or metaphorical). In my opinion, every writer should have a read of this one as it makes one’s life SO much easier in terms of understanding narrative. There’s no need to read a fancy, hard-going version either if you don’t want to; there’s been some brilliant adaptations, including comic book versions.

3) I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

We were assigned this memoir for English Literature A Level and it became part of my personal journey as a young and scared teen Mum. Though Angelou and I had little in common other than our mutual young parenting status, her story of overcoming her underprivileged background made me realise my life wasn’t ‘over’! I could still be what I’d always wanted to be – a professional writer, just like her.

4) King Lear by William Shakespeare

Okay, this is a play, but my first exposure to it was reading it! The story of a vain old king who allows himself to be flattered by his two eldest daughters with agendas versus the honest third, younger daughter really struck a chord with me. It made me realise so many people prefer falsehoods over the truth. The play also began my lifelong love of wordplay and dramatic irony as both a writer and a reader.

5) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The story of Okonkwoo and his tribe in Africa plus the many hardships he has to face as a man, husband and father, this story really opened my eyes to the notions of differing viewpoints. Like many young people I had many polarised views of relationships, right/wrong etc but this book challenged me to look at situations from another person’s point of view. This was so valuable to me as a writer.

6) Singularity by William Sleator

A cult classic YA sci fi novel, I got this book from a bargain bin in a charity shop when I was about twelve. A tale of sibling rivalry and resentment, our protagonist Harry and his twin Barry discover time has been altered in their dead uncle’s shed, with one of them making a decision that will change their lives forever. This not only made me realise the nature of consequence in narratives, but started my love affair with twins and multiples, both on the page and in real life!

7) The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

EVERYONE knows what this is about (and not just because of its title). I loved the tales of Narnia when I was an under-10, but this one is my favourite because it made me realise the power of literary allusion. I went to a religious school, so immediately I could see the parallels between Aslan’s sacrifice and The Passion story. It made me want to find other allusions – and of course I did!

8) Children Of The Dust by Louise Lawrence

Growing up in the time of the Cold War and then the breakdown of the DWR, the USSR and former Yugoslavia, I worried a lot aboutapocalypse. This book started my lifelong love of dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature. I loved the strong female characters in this book, especially Sarah’s sacrifice for sister Catherine. It definitely started my bias towards strong female leads in the fiction I read AND write about, especially at bang2write.com.

9) Midnight by Dean Koontz

I read this ‘Frankenstein’ tale as a teen and was blown away: a scientist attempts to test his serum for ‘superior’ beings on a small rural town with horrific results. People start to regress to animal-like states, or conversely ‘plug in’ to computers. This book was WAY ahead of its time – the internet was not even in every home yet, never mind social media – and provided me with the insight as a writer that genre fiction could contain HUGE, ambitious ideas and issues. But more than that, this was a gory and terrifying ride!

10) Imajica by Clive Barker

This is a very adult dystopian fantasy that I read far too young so it totally fried my brains! Barker tells the story of various realms in which Earth is known as ‘The Unreconciled Dimension’ as it has forgotten magic exists. This means there’s magical wars going on that spill into our realm, yet we don’t realise. Violent, sexy, even scary, IMAJICA is not for the faint-hearted – but as a fourteen year old, its epic, stand-out ending made me realise the real power of ‘twists in the tale’.

What a brilliant bookish trip down memory lane … What is YOUR top 10 list of books that have left a lasting impression as a reader or writer (or both!!)? Over to you …