BEST OF CRIME with Corrie Jackson

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 

CORRIE JACKSON

for her The Perfect Victim blog tour

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

Man, that’s tough. There are a zillion crime authors I admire. But I’m going to plump for Tana French. She is a master-plotter, a stickler for detail and a creator of characters who walk right off the page. I’ve read every single one of her novels and what I love most is her writing smarts. For me, French proves that a police procedural can also be a literary masterpiece. 

... FILMS/MOVIES

Goodfellas. I don’t think you can match Scorsese’s gangster movie for pace, energy and (very) dark humour. Joe Pesci’s ‘do I amuse you’ speech still gives me chills. 

... TV DRAMAS

Fargo. Fargo. Fargo. I love everything about it. The plots, the characters, the music, the cinematography. The first series starred Billy Bob Thornton as the creepiest villain in TV history. Doesn’t make me want to visit Minnesota, though. 

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Right, don’t laugh but I’m picking the killer(s) from the Wes Craven Scream movies. That mask – oh my god. I hate being scared. Ironic, given that I’m a crime writer, I know. I remember wanting to flee the cinema but I couldn’t because my friends would take the piss. I haven’t toughened up since then. 

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

Sherlock Holmes. My fixation with crime started with him. In fact, while my school-friends were lusting after Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix, I was all about Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation. The aquiline nose! The pipe! The violin solos! I was so obsessed that, aged 13, I forced friends to attend my Sherlock Holmes-themed birthday party, complete with deerstalker cake (perhaps the real mystery is how I had any friends). 

... MURDER WEAPONS

My favourite is Umberto Eco’s genius technique in The Name of the Rose. A monk poisons the pages of Aristotle’s Poetics so that anyone who licks their fingers to turn the page is poisoned. 

    

... DEATH SCENES

Hannah Tinti’s new book The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is phenomenal. Halfway through the story you see how the protagonist’s mum died and I’ve never gripped a book so hard in my life. 

... WRITING TIPS

Stop making excuses. As Jodi Picoult says: ‘You can’t edit a blank page’. When you sit down to write, hammer out 350 words. Don’t think about it, just do it. This technique forces you past the ‘horror of the white page’ stage. Yes, you’ll end up deleting ninety percent of it, but at least your fingers are warmed up and your brain is engaged. 

... WRITING SNACKS

It’s a simple formula, really.

Draft 1 = fruit

Draft 2 = chocolate

Structural edits = gin 

About CORRIE JACKSON

Corrie Jackson has been a journalist for fifteen years. During that time she has worked at Harper's Bazaar, the Daily Mail, Grazia and Glamour.  Corrie now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband and two children. Breaking Dead, her debut novel, was the first in the journalist Sophie Kent series and was described by Glamour as 'Gripping . . .  crime with a side order of chic' and by the Sun as 'Original, amazingly written and tense'.

Find Corrie Jackson on her website and on Twitter - @CorrieJacko

About THE PERFECT VICTIM

Publisher's description

Husband, friend, colleague . . . killer?

Charlie and Emily Swift are the Instagram-perfect couple: gorgeous, successful and in love. But then Charlie is named as the prime suspect in a gruesome murder and Emily's world falls apart. Desperate for answers, she turns to Charlie's troubled best friend, London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent. Sophie knows police have the wrong man - she trusts Charlie with her life.

Then Charlie flees. Sophie puts her reputation on the line to clear his name. But as she's drawn deeper into Charlie and Emily's unravelling marriage, she realises that there is nothing perfect about the Swifts. As she begins to question Charlie's innocence, something happens that blows the investigation - and their friendship - apart.

Now Sophie isn't just fighting for justice, she's fighting for her life.

The Perfect Victim is being published by Bonnier on 16 November 2017.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

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