Today I’m really happy to welcome Corrie Jackson to the blog – she’s telling us about 5 things that are guaranteed to happen to a crime writer – brilliant! Following that a little review from me plus details on the blog tour currently running for Corrie, wherein you can find out much much more…
5 things that are guaranteed to happen when you’re a crime writer – Corrie Jackson
Research turns you into a freak
I was living in Los Angeles when I wrote Breaking Dead and feared the FBI would take one look at my internet search history and boot me out of the country. Crime research can be gory but the desire for accuracy soon trumps squeamishness. The next thing you know, you’re scrolling through images of strangulation marks and decomposing bodies over your morning tea. Plus, bonus fun: the expression on guests’ faces when they clock the shelf stuffed with books about how to kill people and get away with it.
You worry you’re next
I rarely run through the woods by my house without wondering where I’ll be murdered. I’ve decided the war memorial provides the most striking backdrop, the pond behind the oak trees gives the best cover, but the sandpits are isolated enough that no one would hear me scream. It’s all very well Michael Connelly saying: ‘Write about what you never want to know’. But once you know, how do you forget? That said, fear makes me run faster so my fitness levels are on the up.
You kill people you don’t like (and some you do)
Who doesn’t fantasise about making their whining colleague disappear? (Wait, just me?) In fiction, you can do as you please. It’s even cathartic (that’s what I tell myself, anyway). But murdering irritants is easy. Killing off a character you’ve grown to love is a whole different ballgame. Especially when it comes out of the blue. I’ve just killed a character in my second book that I never intended to kill. But the moment I wrote it, I knew it was right (sob)/
Your speed-dial rocks
My contacts book contains six forensic experts, two former Detective Chief Inspectors and a gung-ho crime reporter who gives me goosebumps each time I speak to her. Writing crime fiction has thrown a stable of fascinating people my way. It’s no secret that my dream was to be a forensic pathologist, until I realised how bad I was at science (pay attention in class, kids). Now I get to live vicariously through my collection of experts. Hurrah!
You get to restore order
PD James says she loves writing crime fiction because, ‘[the puzzle] is solved by a human being. By human courage and human intelligence and human perseverance. In a sense, the detective story is a small celebration of reason and order in our very disorderly world’. Yes, yes, yes, PD! Real life is messy and unjust, but in fiction, you get to play God. In your world no one gets away with murder – and there’s something innately satisfying about that.
Thanks Corrie!
About the book:
Publication Date: Available Now from Bonnier/Twenty7
Source: Netgalley
Sophie Kent is hanging on by a thread. Her tenacity and talent have seen her rise through the ranks of a tough newspaper industry. But her brother’s suicide has thrown her career and personal life into chaos.
Whilst out on the job interviewing witnesses of a brutal child murder, Sophie befriends a beautiful but traumatised Russian model. When the girl’s mutilated body turns up in an upmarket hotel on the eve of London Fashion Week, Sophie knows she could have saved her. Eaten away by guilt, she throws herself headfirst into the edgy, fast-paced world of fashion with one goal in mind: to catch the killer. Only then can she piece her grief-stricken self back together. As she chips away at the industry’s glittery surface, she uncovers a toxic underworld rife with drugs, secrets, prostitution and blackmail.
First of all big thumbs up to Sophie Kent. Deliciously well drawn, intriguing, drags you along with her in her wake as she enters the murky world hiding under the seemingly glamorous fashion industry and she has an emotive and engaging back story. So right there with Breaking Dead you are already onto a winner…
Then on top of that you get a pacy, intelligent and bang on thriller, darkly observant and grimly realistic that has the added benefit of being a real page turner – I barely drew breath through this one, a rocking read first page to last. I probably inhaled some caffeine at some point but one afternoon and this was done. No messing. You won’t put it down unless someone forces you to do something useful. I’m not usually terribly useful anyway but any hope that my loved ones had that I might make some dinner or something soon faded when they took a look at me. “Mums got her reading face on” was the comment from my 8 year old.
I loved the layers Corrie Jackson put in, the little descriptive things that built such a gutsy picture, sometimes heart wrenching, walking the line between keeping it real and keeping it entertaining really well. This is one of those books you put down and go YAY another author to add to the must read list. Or in my case, Oh God really? whilst glaring at the randomly strewn book piles everywhere. Still, roll on book two. After all there is no such thing as too many (brilliant) books. As an aside Twenty7 seems to be finding an awful lot of them. Not had a bad read from them yet.
A big tick in ye olde recommendation box from me.
You can find out more here:
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To purchase “Breaking Dead” clickety click right HERE
Find out more: Follow the tour!
