Today I'm delighted to welcome
MARTIN HOLMEN
to share his BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
When it comes to
crime I would have to say Jim Thompson. Even if he was little-recognized in his
lifetime, his literary heritage lives on. He wrote about 30 novels and a number
of his books became movies after his death. Only two books have been translated
into Swedish, but I’m pushing for more to come every chance I get. I’m quite
into a few writers whose work borders the crime genre as well, like Cormac
McCarthy, or Hubert Selby Jr.
... FILMS/MOVIES
”Loneliness
has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores,
everywhere. There is no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.” Again, even if it’s not crime per se I would say
that Taxi Driver has a noir feel to it so I’m gonna go for that one.
... TV DRAMAS
Arsène Lupin. A more modern one: The Wire. An even more
modern one: Fargo.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
Gonna go with Jim
Thompson again here: Lou Ford, a small town sheriff and a complete sociopath in
The Killer Inside Me. Casey Affleck did a
good job in the movie based on the book as well. I must say he is one of my
favorite actors.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Mickey Spillane’s
Mike Hammer without question. My parents taught literature (and so do I) and my
favorite play when I was about seven or eight was Hamlet. Secretly I
read a lot of pulp fiction after bedtime though.
... MURDER WEAPONS
I tend to like a
proper good old beating.
... DEATH SCENES
I kind of like
one of my own which happened to be one of the first scenes I wrote for my first
novel Clinch. A man gets stabbed in the throat with a meat thermometer:
it ticks up, and ticks down.
... WRITING TIPS
Read the
classics. If you want to write good dialogue have a look at Hemingway’s short
stories or Moby Dick. There is no writing class that can teach you that
stuff.
... WRITING SNACKS
It used to be
anything with alcohol in it but I’m trying to cut down so it’s coffee and
protein bars if anything at all. Sadly.
About MARTIN HOLMEN
Born in 1974, Martin Holmen
studied history, and now teaches at a Stockholm secondary school. Down for the Count is the second novel
in The Stockholm Trilogy starring
Harry Kvist: the third, Slugger, will
be published by Pushkin Vertigo in 2018.
CLINCH and DOWN FOR THE COUNT by Martin Holmén are the first two books in The Stockholm Trilogy (Pushkin Vertigo)
featuring ex-boxer Harry Kvist. The third in the series, SLUGGER, will be
published next year.
About DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Publisher's description
November, 1935. Harry Kvist
walks out the gates of Langholmen jail into another biting Stockholm winter. He
has nothing to his name but a fiercely burning hope: that he can begin a new
life with the lover, ‘Doughboy’, who he met in his cell. That he can leave
behind his old existence of gutter brawls, bruised fists and broken bones. That
he can finally go straight.
But the city has other ideas. Nazis are
spreading their poison on the freezing streets, and one of Kvist’s oldest
friends has been murdered. Before he can leave Stockholm’s underworld for good,
he must track down the killer. As Kvist uncovers a trail of blood leading to
the highest echelons of Swedish society, the former boxer finds himself in a
fight to the death with his most dangerous opponent yet.
Down For The Count was published by Pushkin Vertigo on 13 July 2017.
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