Today I'm delighted to welcome
ANDREW HARRIS
for his A Litany of Good Intentions blog tour
to share his BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
The Daddy for me will always be John le Carre. His perceptions of character are masterly, his writing so descriptive and the tension he creates is truly breath-taking. But underneath it all there is an aching sadness about what we’ve done – and continue to do – to our people and our beautiful planet.
The Daddy for me will always be John le Carre. His perceptions of character are masterly, his writing so descriptive and the tension he creates is truly breath-taking. But underneath it all there is an aching sadness about what we’ve done – and continue to do – to our people and our beautiful planet.
... FILMS/MOVIES
It has to be The Third Man by Graham Greene. Even though it was filmed nearly 70 years ago, the drama is just as fresh. Orson Welles stole the show but the moody backstreets and haunting zither music set the scene perfectly. I went to Vienna to research The C Clef and found myself humming the tune.
It has to be The Third Man by Graham Greene. Even though it was filmed nearly 70 years ago, the drama is just as fresh. Orson Welles stole the show but the moody backstreets and haunting zither music set the scene perfectly. I went to Vienna to research The C Clef and found myself humming the tune.
... TV DRAMAS
I wondered how they were going to portray The Night Manager as a TV Drama, given the complexity of the plot. It proved to be a real winner. I don’t think a film could have done it justice. Tom Hiddleston seemed a natural choice for Jonathan Pine but the casting of Hugh Laurie as Richard Onslow Roper was a stroke of pure genius. Think I would have stuck to le Carre’s ending though, much darker.
I wondered how they were going to portray The Night Manager as a TV Drama, given the complexity of the plot. It proved to be a real winner. I don’t think a film could have done it justice. Tom Hiddleston seemed a natural choice for Jonathan Pine but the casting of Hugh Laurie as Richard Onslow Roper was a stroke of pure genius. Think I would have stuck to le Carre’s ending though, much darker.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
I loved the animal complexity of Martin Vanger in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We had the
charming façade of the sophisticated CEO who knew his way around a wine list
and seemed to have everything under control. But his dark side could not be
constrained. A chilling reminder that evil will always choose its own
disciples.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Jo Nesbo’s finest creation – Harry Hole, which I discovered is pronounced ‘Hooola’. His
unorthodox methods, flawed logic and vulnerability really got me wanting to
help him. It’s not often you find yourself shouting at a book; C’mon Harry, pull yourself together, they
need you!! It was great to see Nesbo’s writing style grow in confidence
over his early books. For me his masterpiece – and Harry’s finest hour - was The Snowman.
... MURDER WEAPONS
Firstly I must salute Jo Nesbo for creating the deadly apple
device in The Leopard. I nearly
choked reading it! But my favourite murder weapon has to be the Katana, the
ancient sword of the Samurai warrior and weapon of choice for the coolest dude of
all time, Nicholas Linnear. I must thank Eric van Lustbader for bringing the
magical world of the Ninja to my
hungry adolescence.
... DEATH SCENES
I really enjoyed Dan Brown’s early novels and will always shiver at the swirling mass of hammerhead sharks circling in Deception Point. It seemed impossible to escape certain death. Brilliant writing. For me his genius for stretching the reader’s imagination came with Angels and Demons: the trial by fire was amazing.
I really enjoyed Dan Brown’s early novels and will always shiver at the swirling mass of hammerhead sharks circling in Deception Point. It seemed impossible to escape certain death. Brilliant writing. For me his genius for stretching the reader’s imagination came with Angels and Demons: the trial by fire was amazing.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
Got to be Amazon and Wikipedia. I’ve stocked up my library with reference books through Amazon. And although I don’t believe everything I read on Wikipedia, it is a brilliant starting-off point for further research. I often wonder what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or HG Wells could have created with the internet at their fingertips.
Got to be Amazon and Wikipedia. I’ve stocked up my library with reference books through Amazon. And although I don’t believe everything I read on Wikipedia, it is a brilliant starting-off point for further research. I often wonder what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or HG Wells could have created with the internet at their fingertips.
... WRITING TIPS
Best advice – keep going. Sometimes the words just flow, other times every word is a struggle. But keep going and enjoy it. The story is in there trying to get out – your job is to let it. And don’t listen to the negatives. It’s your story, you tell it your way. If people don’t like it, they can read something else. Nobody dies, at least not in real life.
Best advice – keep going. Sometimes the words just flow, other times every word is a struggle. But keep going and enjoy it. The story is in there trying to get out – your job is to let it. And don’t listen to the negatives. It’s your story, you tell it your way. If people don’t like it, they can read something else. Nobody dies, at least not in real life.
... WRITING SNACKS
God invented marmite for a reason! The blessed union of marmite on toast, washed down with a mug of Yorkshire tea, has to be the ultimate writing snack. New Zealand marmite is a sad imitation – a miserable savoury plum jam. But you can still get the real thing over here. And Lurpak butter. It must be full of creative antioxidants!
About ANDREW HARRIS
Andrew Harris was born in Liverpool, survived a grammar
school education and graduated from the University of Leeds. He had a
successful career in people management and now lives in New Zealand.
One of his passions is crime fiction. Andrew strongly
believes this genre provides the perfect vehicle for stimulating debate and
challenging the status quo. He writes thrillers with a social conscience,
putting fictional characters in real life situations.
A Litany of Good Intentions is the second book in Andrew’s The
Human Spirit Trilogy, a series of thrillers with a social conscience
based on exciting scientific discoveries in medicine, physics and biology. The
second book follows The C Clef, published in April 2016 and available on Amazon.
In The Human Spirit Trilogy, Andrew
combines the factual world of science with pacey, action-packed thrillers to
explore urgent questions faced by humanity. Why isn’t there a cure for cancer?
How do we end world poverty? What will eradicate addiction? How are we going to
feed 9 billion people without destroying our precious planet?
About A LITANY OF GOOD INTENTIONS
Publisher's description
Leading oncologist Dr Hannah Siekierkowski and her partner
Lawrence McGlynn are visiting New Delhi for a conference on diabetes. They meet
Lawrence’s old Rotarian friend Toby and his passionate daughter Okki, a charity
worker. She introduces them to the organisation Sanitation In Action, and its
charismatic leader, the young Chinese philanthropist Jock Lim.
An end to world poverty is more than just a dream for Jock.
Through his charity connections and his fiancée Nisha’s extraordinary
scientific breakthrough, Jock has discovered a way to release 2.6 billion
people from the imminent threat of death and disease. Caught up in their
passion and energy, Hannah agrees to help present their project at a conference
in Uppsala, Sweden.
But with the discovery of a dead body, they realise that
someone will stop at nothing to prevent them from achieving Jock’s dream. As
the clock ticks down to the Uppsala conference, Hannah and Lawrence are drawn
into a web of corporate greed, racial prejudice and a seething hatred of the
new world order: a hatred that originates back in the Second World War, with
even earlier links to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
A Litany of Good Intentions is being published by Faithful Hound on 12 October 2017.
Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.
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Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.
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