Archive for the ‘Author Interviews’ Category

Today I have been joined by Richard Jay Parker, author of the crime novel, Stop Me.  But before I ask him some questions I will be reviewing this fantastic novel.

Publisher – Allison and Busby
Publication Date – 11th January 2010
Paperback – 336 pages
Genre – Crime

Source – Received from the publisher for review

Book Information - Forward this email to ten friends.  Each of those friends must forward it to ten friends.  Maybe one of those friends of friends of friends will be one of my friends.  If this email ends up in my inbox within a week, I won’t slit the bitch’s throat.
Can you afford not to send this onto ten friends?
Vacation Killer Leo Sharpe’s life is shattered when his wife Laura suddenly disappears.  His desperate need to find her turns to obsession when he becomes convinced she’s the latest victim of The Vacation Killer who has claimed eleven lives already – is Laura going to be the twelfth?  The MO is the same every time – a woman disappears and within hours inboxes around the world receive a threatening email.  A few days later, grim evidence of the victim’s death is delivered to the police.  But in Laura’s case, nothing is sent.  Has the killer spared her life?  Why?  And for how long?  For Leo, the clock is ticking – he needs to do everything in his power to stop the killer before it’s too late.

Review – I think that what really struck me about this book is the realism with which it has been written.  Leo Sharpe is just an ordinary man who is being consumed with grief over his missing wife.  For the first part of the book he is waiting for news from the police about Laura and he has become dependant on temazepam to help him sleep and to help block the pain and grief that he feels.  This part of the book is written so well that you can almost feel the numbness caused by the drugs, but at the same time it is also possible to see the pain hiding just beneath the surface.  I really felt for Leo and I became emotionally invested in his story right from the first page.
Fifteen months after Laura’s disappearance, the police are losing hope of ever finding her and the momentum of the case has slowed considerably.  It is at this point that Leo receives a call from a doctor who claims that he knows where Laura is being held captive.  The day that they are supposed to meet up the doctor is murdered, and this is the catalyst that Leo needs in order to take matters into his own hands.
He goes across to America to meet up with John Bookwalter; a man who confessed to the crimes of the Vacation Killer but was not charged due to a lack of evidence.  John has since set up a website where he still claims to have committed the murders, and this is how Leo first gets in contact with him.  Once he is in America, Leo meets John, who claims to have Laura hidden somewhere.  John will let Leo see Laura if he agrees to a few conditions.  However, Leo has never really believed that John is the real Vacation Killer so he starts his own investigation.  It is at this point that Leo’s character really comes into his own.  He has stopped taking the temazepam and he puts himself into some pretty dangerous situations in order to find out what has happened to Laura.  He does all of this even though he is scared and this makes him an incredibly likeable and believable character.
I really enjoyed reading Stop Me.  It was well-written and kept my attention right from the beginning.  I found myself being surprised several times by the way that the events unfolded and I was completely shocked at the ending – I just would not have predicted it at all!  It was, at times, quite a chilling read.  The style of writing made me feel as though I was really there and it was such a realistic storyline that I had no doubt it could really happen.  The other aspect that made it chilling was the chain emails that were sent by the Vacation Killer.  I can’t really explain it but I have always hated chain letters/texts/emails because of the irrational fear I feel when I do not pass them on (I never pass them on as I don’t want to pass along the bad feelings that I get when I receive one!).  So the fact that the consequences of the emails are so dire in this novel really struck a chord with me.  The anonymity of the Internet would make this kind of action completely possible and this again added to the realism of the story.
I would definitely recommend this book to any fans of the crime/mystery genre.  It was a gripping and enjoyable read that I found difficult to put down.

And now it is my pleasure to introduce Richard Jay Parker, who will be answering a few of my questions…

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born in South Wales but worked in TV so moved to London for fourteen years before relocating to Salisbury in 2006.  I still love returning to London to see friends and attend meetings but I’m happy to be a commuter now.  I love books and movies with a dark, twisted or sexy edge.

When did you start your writing career and did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

The writing bug bit early.  Have been writing full time since I was about eighteen (comedy scripts).  I worked as a TV script writer, script editor and producer for about fifteen years but started penning novels when I felt I’d gone as far as I could go with that form of writing.  I left my TV agent and managed to get a literary agent with my first book.  It was a hard sell though.  So hard that it was never published.  I did get invited to my first literary party though and found myself mentioned in Publishing News as ’soon-to-be-published Richard Jay Parker’.  Ten years later, STOP ME was published.

How did you come up with the ideas for your novel, Stop Me?

I get a lot of SPAM email that threatens me with loss of health or happiness if I don’t forward it.  I wondered what would happen if I received one that threatened somebody’s life if I didn’t send it on.  It was one of about four concepts that I had for books.  I ended up using all of them in STOP ME.

Can you tell us a bit about your writing process – do you plan a storyline at the start or do you just start writing and see where the mood takes you?

I always like to know where I’m heading.  With STOP ME I had the twist ending established and knew what the trajectory of my character would be.  When I was writing it though the fun was leading him down a series of dark sideroads along the way.

What are you working on at the moment? Have you got any other novels in the pipeline?

Am currently working on two thriller projects for my agent which I hope to have completed in the next couple of months.  I’m also writing scripts for some horror shorts – two of which have already been shot.

What other authors do you like to read and who has been you biggest inspiration?

I’ve got very varied tastes in books and rarely feel the need to read an author’s compete works.  In terms of thrillers, I loved FALLING ANGEL by William Hjortsbeg.  It’s a satanic noir novel that Alan Parker made into the movie ANGEL HEART.

Thank you very much Richard for taking the time to answer my questions!

If you would like more information about Richard, you can find it at his website / facebook / twitter / YouTube / myspace.

Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming romance author, Cynthia Roberts, along for an interview.  Her historical indian romance novel, Wind Warrior, is being released today and you can see my review of it here.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Can you tell us a bit about your new book, Wind Warrior?

Today I have the honour of interviewing author Martin Stratford, whose debut novel, Double Jeopardy, was relaeased in February of this year (you can see my review of his book here).

Hi Martin, thank you very much for agreeing to take part in this interview.
So, to start with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I worked in Local Government in London  for 37 years, for 25 of them in education.  I have always enjoyed reading, particularly detective stories, and always wanted to try my hand at writing one.  Not so much because I thought I could do it better, but just to see if I could do it at all.  I retired in 2006.  My wife and I had always wanted to live by the sea and we often holidayed in the Bournemouth area so we decided to move down here at the same time. After a few months distracted by issues related to the move, I started writing Double Jeopardy in January 2007.  It took about six months to write (the easy bit) and considerably longer to find a publisher to accept it (the much harder part).

For anybody who hasn’t read Double Jeopardy, can you tell us about the main characters Julie Cooper and Alec Tanner?

Julie Cooper is a Detective Sergeant in the Metropolitan police who has spent over a year undercover and then prosecuting a major London drugs baron.  After he has been convicted, Julie takes a month’s leave and goes to stay with her aunt (her only remaining close relative) in Havenchester, a city on the North West coast of England.  Whilst out one evening, Julie and her aunt are shot.  The aunt is killed but Julie survives.  Convinced that the drug baron has arranaged the attack, Julie is determined to track down the people that he hired.  Because she doesn’t know the crimal underbelly of Havenchester that well, she hires Alec Tanner, a locally based private detective, to help her.  Between them, they investigate the shooting, finding themselves in increasing danger as their personal lives become intertwined.

How did you come up with your ideas for Double Jeopardy?

I wanted to write a detective story/thriller that, although set in modern times, had some of the atmosphere of a golden age detective story of the 1920/30s.  I also wanted to bring in some “cynical private eye” type of humour. Mixing an offical detective with a private detective seemed to meet these criteria.  Once I’d got the idea for the revenge aspect of the plot and got the main charatcers in my head, the storyline seemed to develop and flow wihtout too much trouble.

When writing, do you plan the storyline or do you just write and see where the mood takes you?

Before I started Double Jeopardy, whilst I was still working at a ‘proper job’, I wrote a few short stories about my main charatcers.  That helped me to develop and get a feel for the charatcers and their relationships and also to develop the ficticious city of Havenchester.  Double Jeopardy evolved out of the longest of those short stories, with a considerably expanded storyline and an additonal major sub plot.  I basically typed out chapter 1, chapter 2 etc and cut and pasted bits of the short story into the appropriate chapters.  Then I went back and filled in the gaps. Thank goodness for computers, I always say.  With subsequent books, I have used a bit of both methods in your question, sometimes working out the skeleton of the whole plot first and sometimes coming up with a starting point and seeing where it takes me (or, rather, takes the characters).

What are you working on at the moment and will there be any more novels with Cooper and Tanner?

I have written three more novels featuring Cooper and Tanner and some of the other charatcers from Double Jeopardy (I wasn’t idle whilst I was receiving my rejection letters).  I have just finished the latest of these.  My publisher has accepted a second book in the series, subject to some minor changes and the sales of Double Jeopardy.  So, fingers crossed, yes, they will return.

What other authors do you like to read and who has been your biggest inspiration?

I like many detective story writers and some thrillers but I do like humour in the stories as well.  My five favourite authors are Peter O’Donnell, P G Wodehouse, Ed McBain, Terry Pratchett and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  A rather ecIectic mix, perhaps, but for me the common link is the brilliant quality of the writing and the wonderful charatcters.  I also like the private eye stories of Raymond Chandler and Robert B Parker, Richard Stark’s Parker novels, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels and most Golden Age detective story writers (Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Carr etc).

So, thank you again Martin for your time and I wish you all the luck in your writing career.  And to all my readers, do try to get your hands on a copy of Double Jeopardy – it is a very enjoyable read!