Today I'm delighted to welcome
GILLY MACMILLAN
to share her BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
It’s so difficult to choose one author but James Lee Burke wins the day. His Dave Robicheaux books pull you into the world of Louisiana crime and rarely let you come up for air. Burke’s prose can be spare and beautiful, sometimes even poetic like the some of the best crime writers, yet he writes unflinchingly about the most brutal of events and takes you right into the heads and hearts of his characters. At his best, his books have a page-turning intensity that’s hard to match.
It’s so difficult to choose one author but James Lee Burke wins the day. His Dave Robicheaux books pull you into the world of Louisiana crime and rarely let you come up for air. Burke’s prose can be spare and beautiful, sometimes even poetic like the some of the best crime writers, yet he writes unflinchingly about the most brutal of events and takes you right into the heads and hearts of his characters. At his best, his books have a page-turning intensity that’s hard to match.
... FILMS/MOVIES
Fargo. I’ve loved the movie for years and really enjoyed the recent TV remake, too. The combination of top class characterization and performance, brilliant direction, action from both criminal and law enforcement points of view, elements of a classic detective murder mystery and darkest possible comedy is genius.
Fargo. I’ve loved the movie for years and really enjoyed the recent TV remake, too. The combination of top class characterization and performance, brilliant direction, action from both criminal and law enforcement points of view, elements of a classic detective murder mystery and darkest possible comedy is genius.
... TV DRAMAS
True Detective (Series 1). It’s ultra-classy. The setting, cinematography and soundtrack are pitch perfect, but what gripped me most was the relationship between the two detectives that played out both past and present. It’s a complex, difficult and fascinating relationship that occasionally feels as brutal as the crime itself.
True Detective (Series 1). It’s ultra-classy. The setting, cinematography and soundtrack are pitch perfect, but what gripped me most was the relationship between the two detectives that played out both past and present. It’s a complex, difficult and fascinating relationship that occasionally feels as brutal as the crime itself.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
It’s not strictly a crime series, but when Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, first kills in House of Cards it’s shocking. Frank Underwood is one of the most cold-blooded, ambitious, calculating and, on the surface, surprising killers I’ve ever come across. That he holds such power and will stop at nothing to maintain or increase it provokes a very visceral fear in me.
It’s not strictly a crime series, but when Kevin Spacey’s character, Frank Underwood, first kills in House of Cards it’s shocking. Frank Underwood is one of the most cold-blooded, ambitious, calculating and, on the surface, surprising killers I’ve ever come across. That he holds such power and will stop at nothing to maintain or increase it provokes a very visceral fear in me.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s
detective, Matthäi, is a favourite. Matthäi appears in his novel The Pledge which is tellingly subtitled Requiem for the Detective Novel. Matthäi
is an exceptional detective but the story of his investigation into the murders
of young girls in The Pledge is a
tough one. Dürrenmatt felt that crime fiction was too often neat and tidy in
offering up a resolution to a case so long as the detective followed a series
of logical steps, a bit like doing a mathematical equation.
Spoiler alert! In The Pledge, Dürrenmatt sets out to provide an alternative type of
crime novel. After we follow Matthäi through the years and witness his
increasingly desperate attempts to resolve the investigation, the ending of the
book reveals it was a freak automobile accident that prevented him from
catching the killer. A twist of fate ensured that he never had a chance. Dürrenmatt’s
depiction of Matthäi is a brilliant character study of a man whose
determination, brilliance, gut instinct and dedication to solving this crime ultimately
prove futile and self-destructive. The story is unflinching, very human and
gritty with reality.
... MURDER WEAPONS
Spoiler alert! In Roald Dahl’s short story Lamb to the Slaughter, the victim is killed by his wife who delivers a blow to his head with a frozen leg of lamb. Later the same day, she cooks the lamb and serves it to the detectives investigating the case. They are friends of her husband. As he chews his meat and they discuss the murder weapon, one of the detectives says, ‘It’s probably right under our very noses.’ In the room next door, the killer overhears. She giggles. It’s extremely creepy and a brilliant idea.
Spoiler alert! In Roald Dahl’s short story Lamb to the Slaughter, the victim is killed by his wife who delivers a blow to his head with a frozen leg of lamb. Later the same day, she cooks the lamb and serves it to the detectives investigating the case. They are friends of her husband. As he chews his meat and they discuss the murder weapon, one of the detectives says, ‘It’s probably right under our very noses.’ In the room next door, the killer overhears. She giggles. It’s extremely creepy and a brilliant idea.
... DEATH SCENES
The murder scene that’s at the core of His Bloody Project by Graeme McCrae Burnett is horrific. It’s visited and revisited a few times by different characters throughout the book who testify as to what they saw or heard, and ultimately by the murderer himself in a first person account of the scene that’s unbearably desperate and brutal.
The murder scene that’s at the core of His Bloody Project by Graeme McCrae Burnett is horrific. It’s visited and revisited a few times by different characters throughout the book who testify as to what they saw or heard, and ultimately by the murderer himself in a first person account of the scene that’s unbearably desperate and brutal.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
It’s not strictly a blog or a website, but I’m addicted to true crime podcasts so I’d like to pick one of my favourites: Australian True Crime. Presented by journalists/authors Emily Webb and Meschel Lauri the podcast claims to: ‘Go beyond the news cycle to find out how people become killers, how people become victims, and what happens next,’ and it delivers. I can’t get enough of it.
It’s not strictly a blog or a website, but I’m addicted to true crime podcasts so I’d like to pick one of my favourites: Australian True Crime. Presented by journalists/authors Emily Webb and Meschel Lauri the podcast claims to: ‘Go beyond the news cycle to find out how people become killers, how people become victims, and what happens next,’ and it delivers. I can’t get enough of it.
... WRITING TIPS
Pay attention to all the different elements in a novel. Writing fiction is a craft that needs honing, but remember that only one question really matters whenever you make a creative decision or write a paragraph: ‘Will the reader want to keep on turning pages?’ As an obsessive reader myself, I believe it’s the single most important thing a book can deliver, no matter what the genre.
Pay attention to all the different elements in a novel. Writing fiction is a craft that needs honing, but remember that only one question really matters whenever you make a creative decision or write a paragraph: ‘Will the reader want to keep on turning pages?’ As an obsessive reader myself, I believe it’s the single most important thing a book can deliver, no matter what the genre.
... WRITING SNACKS
Lindt pistachio dark chocolate. A square (or two, usually leading to four) when my energy dips low. Rationed (in theory) to one bar per week (never happens).
About GILLY MACMILLAN
Gilly Macmillan is the New
York Times bestselling author of What
She Knew (previously published as Burnt
Paper Sky) and The Perfect Girl.
Her third novel, Odd Child Out, will
be published in October 2017. Gilly is Edgar Award nominated and an International
Thriller Writers award finalist. She’s published in over twenty languages. Her
books have appeared on the New York Times,
Globe & Mail and Der Spiegel bestseller lists.
Gilly lives in Bristol, UK with her husband,
three children and two dogs and writes full time. She’s currently working on
her fourth novel.
Find Gilly Macmillan on her website, FB page and on Twitter - @GillyMacmillan
About Odd Child Out
Publisher's description
How well do you know the people you love...?
Best friends Noah Sadler and Abdi Mahad have always been
inseparable. But when Noah is found floating unconscious in Bristol's Feeder
Canal, Abdi can't--or won't--tell anyone what happened.
Just back from a mandatory leave following his last case,
Detective Jim Clemo is now assigned to look into this unfortunate accident. But
tragedy strikes and what looked like the simple case of a prank gone wrong soon
ignites into a public battle. Noah is British. Abdi is a Somali refugee. And
social tensions have been rising rapidly in Bristol. Against this background of
fear and fury two families fight for their sons and for the truth. Neither of
them know how far they will have to go, what demons they will have to face,
what pain they will have to suffer.
Because the truth hurts.
Odd Child Out is being published by Sphere on 3 October 2017.
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