Today I'm delighted to welcome
MARK HILL
for his Two O'Clock Boy blog tour
to share his BEST OF CRIME ...
to share his BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
I can’t
possibly choose a single author. It’s an impossibility. I tell you what, though,
I’m rereading a lot of Mark Billingham at the moment. My god, his Thorne novels
are good.
... FILMS/MOVIES
Look, if
you persist with these difficult questions, me and you are going to fall out.
There are just too many wonderful crimey films. I don’t think any movie
experience will top going to see that single week in 1990 when I went for the
first time to see Miller’s Crossing, The Grifters and Goodfellas. But I’ll go
for something a little bit different, which I watched again the other night. I’m
a big fan of The Prestige, the tricksy-turnsy story of two magicians whose lifelong
rivalry has murderous consequences. Part-thriller, part-sci-fi fable, it’s an
elaborate shaggy-dog story. Even more impressive is Christopher Priest’s source
novel.
... TV DRAMAS
In my
opinion, The Shield is as good as anything that’s been on television. It
starred Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey, a corrupt cop in LA. It was a show that
just seemed to accelerate across its seven seasons, cranking up the drama ever
higher. If you ask me – and I guess you are actually asking me - The Shield is something
of an underrated gem.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
That’ll
have to be George Harvey Bone, the protagonist in Patrick Hamilton’s wonderful
novel Hangover Square. Bone is a damaged man, a would-be murderer and barfly, who
frequents the pubs of Earl Court on the eve of the Second World War. Bone
becomes obsessed with a manipulative would-be actress Netta and contemplates
her murder. You pray for him to break out of the terrible spiral he finds
himself in and find some kind of redemption.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
I’ve always
had a soft spot for Charles Willeford’s down-at-heel detective Hoke Moseley. Moseley appeared in four detective novels
written before Willeford’s untimely death. You may remember the first book in
that sequence, Miami Blues, was made into a terrific movie starring Alec
Baldwin, with Fred Ward as Moseley. Encouraged to write more Moseley novels
after the success of the first, Willeford tired of his creation almost
instantly. His original follow-up, Grimhaven, featured Moseley murdering his
two teenage daughters. It was rejected by his editor as being, guess what - too
dark. I’d love to read it. Photocopies of the manuscript reportedly change hands
for lots of money among a shadowy group of collectors.
... MURDER WEAPONS
I’m not
really a fan of exotic poisons and toxins or elaborate deathtraps, but then I’m
a lazy so-and-so. It all seems rather a lot of work sourcing that odourless,
colourless fungi from somewhere down the Amazon and then having to
painstakingly mix it into someone’s sparkly eyeshadow. A vat of acid seems like
hard work to me. Who has time for that? Even a frozen leg of lamb means having
to find a parking space at Asda. Let’s keep it simple. Give me a cricket bat or
a gun. A fire poker. A piece of piping. Some steep stairs. A golf club. A steak
knife. A brick. Piano wire. A chisel, or a screwdriver. That’ll do.
... DEATH SCENES
Poor old
Paul Krendler in Hannibal springs to mind. Having the top of your skull opened
and your own brains fed to you can’t be a lot of fun.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
I’m a big
movie buff, and I also have a very short attention span. Which means that when
I’m right slap-bang in the middle of writing a scene – someone’s lifting a gun,
a guy’s begging for his life, it’s all getting very tense - I’ll suddenly have the urge to visit Dark Horizons or
Ain’t It Cool News or Den Of Geek to find out who’s greenlit a shared universe
series of movies where Bears Paddington and Barnaby race cars. I do this about
two hundred times a day, at least.
I also try to
check in with the Dry Stone Walling Association website on a regular basis.
Wait, I don’t know why I said that. I’ve never been to that website in my life.
... WRITING TIPS
Get it
finished.
... WRITING SNACKS
Oysters, suckling pig, foie gras, lobster, Beluga Cavier, Wagyu Beef, white truffles and Rich Tea biscuits.
About MARK HILL
Mark Hill
is a London-based full-time writer of novels and scripts. Formerly he was a
journalist and a producer at BBC Radio 2 across a range of major daytime shows
and projects. He has won two Sony Gold Awards.
Find Mark Hill on his website, FB page and on Twitter - @markhillwriter
About TWO O'CLOCK BOY
Publisher's description
TWO
CHILDHOOD FRIENDS... ONE BECAME A DETECTIVE... ONE BECAME A KILLER...
Thirty
years ago, the Longacre Children's Home stood on a London street where
once-grand Victorian homes lay derelict. There its children lived in terror of
Gordon Tallis, the home's manager.
Then Connor
Laird arrived: a frighteningly intense boy who quickly became Tallis' favourite
criminal helper. Soon after, destruction befell the Longacre, and the facts of
that night have lain buried . . . until today.
Now, a
mysterious figure, the Two O'Clock Boy, is killing all who grew up there, one
by one. DI Ray Drake will do whatever it take to stop the murders - but he will
go even further to cover up the truth.
Two O'Clock Boy was published by Sphere on 6 April 2017.
Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.
Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.
Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.
Follow the Blog Tour
