BEST OF CRIME with Linda Green

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 

LINDA GREEN

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

Louise Doughty is a hugely accomplished writer who manages to weave brilliantly addictive plots while writing beautiful prose and making us care about the characters she is writing about. 

... FILMS/MOVIES

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is one of my favourite novels. It begins after a murder has been committed and the film adaptation is suitably chilling whilst beautifully conveying Susie Salmon's love for her family. 

... TV DRAMAS

Three Girls. I’m interested in crime stories from the victims’ perspective and the dramatised story of the appalling Rochdale sexual abuse grooming case was compulsive viewing. 

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

I'm more of a psychological thriller fan than a hard-core crime fan, so it's the people close to home who turn out to be killers who I find particularly unsettling. 

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

I like my detectives to be human and have the ability to make me laugh and cry, which is why I'd have to say Olivia Coleman's brilliantly portrayed Ellie Miller in Broadchurch. 

... MURDER WEAPONS

I'm a great believer in less is more in terms of writing a terrifying scene, which is why I'm not going for a murder weapon but the scissors used to secretly cut off a child's hair during the night in The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins. A truly chilling scene. 

    

... DEATH SCENES

I love Sister by Rosamund Lupton and the final scene in that (not wanting to give anything away) is one that stayed with me for a long time. 

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I'm fortunate enough to have a friend who's married to a police officer, which has proved very helpful. Also, having worked as a journalist on regional newspapers for ten years, I managed to pick up quite a lot about how the police and the media operate in criminal cases. 

... WRITING TIPS

Read widely and try to work out why a book does or doesn't work for you, you can learn a lot by reading books which you don't like. And remember that it is characters who move us. You can have the best plot/twists going but if the reader doesn't actually care about any of the characters, it will be quickly forgotten after the last page. 

... WRITING SNACKS

Bananas and brazil nuts - I'm an annoyingly healthy eater! 

About LINDA GREEN

Linda Green is the bestselling author of eight novels. Her latest psychological thriller, After I've Gone, published by Quercus, is a top five Amazon kindle bestseller. Her previous psychological thriller, While My Eyes Were Closed, was the sixth bestselling novel on Amazon kindle in 2016, selling more than 450,000 copies across all editions. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and son. 

Find Linda Green on her website, on her Facebook page and on Twitter - @LindaGreenisms

About After I've Gone

Publisher's description

Status Update - You have 18 months left to live . . . 

Jess Mount goes online one wet morning in January, and discovers that her Facebook timeline appears to has skipped forward 18 months to a day when shocked family and friends are sharing heart-breaking tributes to her following her death in an accident. Jess is left scared and confused: is she the target of a cruel prank or is this a terrifying glimpse of her true fate? Amongst the posts are photos of a gorgeous baby son she has not yet conceived. But when a post from her best friend suggests her death was deliberate, Jess realises that if she changes the future to save her own life, the baby boy she has fallen in love with may never exist.

After I've Gone was published by Quercus Books on 15 June 2017.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

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