Today I'm delighted to welcome
SUSIE STEINER
to share her BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
The Dry by Jane Harper. Astonishing that this is a
debut. Best opening pages I’ve read in a long, long time. Kate Atkinson
with her Jackson Brodie series,
which some might not see as crime novels in the traditional sense. These are
the books that I was emulating in writing Missing, Presumed. Jackson is a
wonderfully laconic, hang dog private eye and the writing is to die for. Funny
and clever. It’s that mix of literary riffing with page turning plot which
really floats my boat.
... FILMS/MOVIES
The
Third Man directed by Carol
Reed and written by Graham Greene. I saw this at a cinema screening and it
totally blew me away. So scary and gripping but also artistic and modern. That
music. That fairground scene.
... TV DRAMAS
I loved The Night Of – US crime drama starring
John Turturro as a physically unappealing lawyer defending a Pakistani student
on a murder charge. The latest series of Happy
Valley was extraordinary, with such a subtle ending.
Always Line of Duty. Always.
I’m
learning a lot about structure from the current adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
I can’t
remember any! And I wouldn’t want to tell you who did it, anyway.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Maeve
Kerrigan in the series by Jane Casey. I loved her latest, Let the Dead Speak,
which is so twisty and well plotted. This is book 7 in the series, but I began
with it – so you don’t have to have read the earlier ones to dip in.
... MURDER WEAPONS
Tony Last
being made to live out his days in Brazil reading Dickens aloud to Mr Todd in A
Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. What could be worse?
... DEATH SCENES
There is a
scene at the end of Susan Hill’s amazing The
Various Haunts of Men (the first in the Simon Serrailler series) that shook
me to the core. I’ll never forget it. I can’t tell you what it was without a
giant spoiler, but it was so brave and it totally wrong-footed me. Read it.
Hill is fearless in delivering a double twist/blow in this book.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
For interesting
jobs for your characters, try: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/home
... WRITING TIPS
Think of
your first draft as an undercoat. Just slap it up. Don’t try and beautify it
because lots of it won’t make the cut. I think the best, most important and
most enjoyable work in the construction of a novel, is in re-drafting. As
Michael Crichton said, ‘Books are not written, they’re rewritten.’
... WRITING SNACKS
I get
through a shocking amount of Tassimo Americano coffee.
About SUSIE STEINER
Susie
Steiner is the author of three novels, including two in the Manon Bradshaw
detective series. The first, Missing, Presumed, was a Sunday Times bestseller
and has sold more than 200k copies. Its sequel, Persons Unknown, has just been
published and is also a top ten bestseller. It was described as ‘Strikingly
modern’ by the Sunday Times. ‘It
is refreshing to see a detective grappling with real life dilemmas but they
never get in the way of the plot, which is clever and original. A series to
watch from a confident writer who draws even minor characters with care and
sympathy.' She is working on a third Manon Bradshaw novel.
Find Susie Steiner on her website and on Twitter - @SusieSteiner1
About PERSONS UNKNOWN
Publisher's description
Manon Bradshaw is back.
As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from
home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls; cradled by a
stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life.
DI Manon Bradshaw can’t help taking an interest – these days
she only handles cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police
station where she works.
She’s horrified to discover that both victim and prime
suspect are more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. And as the
Cambridgeshire police force closes ranks against her, she is forced to
contemplate the unthinkable.
How well does she know her loved ones, and are they capable
of murder?
Persons Unknown was published by The Borough Press on 29 June 2017.
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