Today I'm delighted to welcome
CAZ FREAR
to share her BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
It’s so
hard to pick just one but if I base it on who has me clawing at the bookshop
door on the day of publication, it would have to be Tana French. I’ve read In the Woods that many times that my
copy isn’t so much well-thumbed as battered-to-shreds. I should probably get a shiny new copy but it
would be like washing your childhood comfort blanket, it just wouldn’t feel the
same….
... FILMS/MOVIES
I love
anything gangster-related but it needs to have heart rather than simply being
two hours of ‘very-bad-people-do-very-bad-things’. Donnie
Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, is a near-perfect example of
this. For me, the film belongs to Pacino
– his portrayal of an aging bit-part gangster, a man on the fringes who never
got near the power or wealth that he craved, is sublime. The final few scenes when he realizes……well I
won’t spoil it…..let’s just say it’s an amazing performance, so full of pathos,
and it really should have bagged him his second Oscar IMO!
... TV DRAMAS
Mmmm, Prime Suspect 1 or Line of Duty?? *Pulls
thinking face. Prime Suspect, I
think. I first watched it when I was 13
and I was instantly blown away. THAT
moment at the end, when George Marlow loses his rag in the interview room and
Tennison finally knows it’s him, actually winded me. I’ll never forget it. I must have watched it twenty-thirty times
since and I’m fairly sure I can recite the whole thing, word-perfect. In fact, scrap ‘fairly sure’, I know I can!
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
I’m going
to go with the Coen Brothers/Javier Bardem’s interpretation of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. I’ll
sheepishly admit that I haven’t read the book and I’m not sure I could now,
Javier Bardem’s performance is just so engrained in my mind. As a killer he’s just so relentless, slaying
practically everyone he meets without a shred of mercy or remorse. And the hair - only a true psychopath would
rock that long bowl-cut.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Back to
Tana French again but I absolutely love Detective
Cassie Maddox who features in two of her novels, In the Woods and The Likeness. She’s just so normal in a whip-smart, witty, wholly
compassionate kind of way. It’s also for
this reason that I love DS Manon
Bradshaw from Susie Steiner’s, Missing Presumed and I can’t wait for
the follow-up. Peter Robinson’s DCI
Banks is also a big fave – never better than in Aftermath which is a master-class in crime fiction.
And obviously Superintendent Ted Hastings from Line of Duty. Who doesn’t love him?
... MURDER WEAPONS
Death by
typewriter – Stephen King’s, Misery.
... DEATH SCENES
It has to
be Brendan Gleeson’s leap from the top of the bell-tower at the end of In
Bruges. Gleeson’s character jumps to his death in
order to save the life of much younger hitman, Ray, and his face expresses so
much in his last 10 seconds – panic, resolve, regret. It’s an incredibly moving end to a cracker of
a film.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
Sword & Scale – a true crime podcast. They’re up to episode 91 now so you could
literally lose a week of your life listening to this. Definitely not for the faint-hearted though –
nothing is taboo and a few of the episodes are particularly hard-going. Like most authors, I visit Google about a hundred
times a day, all in the name of research.
And Twitter, all in the name of procrastination.
... WRITING TIPS
Join a
writing group, a creative writing class, anything that gets you feedback. It’s a tricky one though - you have to be
very open to feedback but also know how to filter it because at the end of the
day, no one knows your book better than you.
A very obvious tip is that if the whole group/class is saying that
there’s an issue with your protagonist/plot/prologue, then there probably is. However, if only one or two people raise it,
it’s something to think about but not necessarily act on.
... WRITING SNACKS
Tea and
peanut M&Ms. Water and sugar-snap
peas if I’m trying to be good. It all depends
what’s in the house, really – I have been known to dip mini Shredded Wheats in
Nutella because I was deep in rewrites and didn’t have time to shop….
About CAZ FREAR
Caz grew up
in Coventry and spent her teenage years dreaming of moving to London and
writing a novel.
After
fulfilling her first dream, it wasn’t until she moved back to Coventry thirteen
years later that the writing dream finally came true.
She has a
first-class degree in History & Politics which she’s put to enormous use
over the years by working as a waitress, a shop assistant, a retail
merchandiser and, for the past twelve years, a headhunter. When she’s not
agonising over snappy dialogue or incisive prose, she can be found shouting at
the TV when Arsenal are playing or holding court in the pub on topics she knows
nothing about.
Caz is the
winner of the Richard & Judy Search for a Bestseller Award 2017.
Find Caz Frear on Twitter - @CazziF
About SWEET LITTLE LIES
Publisher's description
What
happens when the trust has gone?
Cat
Kinsella was always a daddy's girl. Until the summer of 1998 when she sees her
father flirting with seventeen-year-old Maryanne Doyle.
When
Maryanne later disappears and Cat's father denies ever knowing her, Cat's
relationship with him is changed forever.
Eighteen
years later, Cat is now a Detective Constable with the Met. Called to the scene
of a murder in Islington, she discovers a woman's body: Alice Lapaine has been
found strangled, not far from the pub that Cat's father runs.
When
evidence links Alice to the still missing Maryanne, all Cat's fears about her
father resurface. Could he really be a killer? Determined to confront the past
and find out what really happened to Maryanne all those years ago, Cat begins
to dig into the case. But the problem with looking into the past is that
sometimes you might not like what you find.
Sweet Little Lies was published by Bonnier Zaffre on 29 June 2017.
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