Friday 26 May 2017

BEST OF CRIME with Louise Beech

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 



Today I'm delighted to welcome 

LOUISE BEECH

to share her BEST OF CRIME ... 




... AUTHORS
In The Cut by Susanna Moore is a phenomenal book. It doesn’t shy away from dark and taboo topics, yet is stunningly, achingly beautiful. The prose is to die for. (ha!) It’s one I read regularly because it makes me happy to have eyes, makes me strive to be a better writer, and blows my mind.


... FILMS/MOVIES
Gone Baby Gone is a very under-rated but fantastic film. It came out in 2007, right around the time Madelaine McCann went missing, and so I think (due to the subject matter) it didn’t have the full/wide release intended/deserved. It’s a cracking story with a twist you really don’t see coming.


... TV DRAMAS
The darker the better for me, so I loved The Fall, Luther, and The Shield. God, The Shield had the best final few episodes of a series I had ever seen. I needed therapy to get over it.


... FICTIONAL KILLERS
I’m a little bit in love with Dr Hannibal Lecter. Who could not love a man who won’t tolerate rudeness? A man who can draw beautifully, is super intelligent, and won’t kill you if you extend him a little courtesy? 


... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Jane Tennison from Prime Suspect. The character is so under-stated, so perfectly played by Helen Mirren, and so absolutely real that you forget you’re watching fiction. (Columbo is a close top favourite, but that’s for privately sexual reasons...)


... MURDER WEAPONS
I love an unusual object. Like when Roald Dahl had a character kill someone with a lamb joint, then cook it and eat it. Once defrosted, none of the police could figure out what the weapon had been. Thomas Enger ‘did it’ with an icicle. And wasn’t there a film (can’t recall which?) where a woman killed men with sex? I’m trying to come up with something unusual for book five. Maybe an egg whisk? Lawnmower? Watch this space...
    

... DEATH SCENES
Just about every death scene in the film Seven has stayed with me since the first time I saw it back in 1995. Who can imagine being forced to eat until your stomach explodes? Having to eat your own flesh? Being starved for a year until you eat your own tongue? It’s not for the faint of heart. So, it was definitely for me.
  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES
There aren't any specific websites I use. I just tend to google the topic I'm interested and see where it takes me. Trust me... I've been places.... Also, I use my own experiences...


... WRITING TIPS
Your voice is all you have that’s really you. We all have the words, the grammar, some ability. But only you can write the way your heart dictates you should.


... WRITING SNACKS
I’m limiting those these days. When I’m being a good girl I drink lemon in boiled water. But when I’m bad... biscuits. Or boiled brain with a side of relish....



About LOUISE BEECH
Louise Beech has always been haunted by the sea, and regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines. Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums’ Army on Lizzie and Carl’s BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show.

Find Louise Beech on her website and on Twitter - @LouiseWriter


About THE MOUNTAIN IN MY SHOE



Publisher's description
On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she's leaving, he doesn't come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she's befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers. With the help of Conor's foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband's secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all.

The Mountain in my Shoe was published by Orenda Books on 30 September 2016.


Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

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