credit Justine Stoddart
- Your latest novel All the Rage is the fourth in the DI Adam Fawley series, tell me a little about it and how the series came to be?
The series started with Close to Home, which is a story about a missing child. The heart of that story came to me in the form of the final twist. I remember Sophie Hannah once saying that you always know if you’ve got a good twist if you can get it down to four words (look at Murder on the Orient Express – ‘They all did it’). Close to Home was a four-word twist – and no, I’m not going to tell you what it is! I then ‘worked backwards’, as it were, and developed the plot that led up to that final moment. That included creating the police team who investigate the case. So that, in essence, was the birth of Adam Fawley! I had no idea, of course, that the book would even get published, never mind become a series, but I’ve been very lucky that the characters I came up with for the first book have turned out to be so interesting. I’m learning things about them now that I never knew at the start!
As for All the Rage, this new story starts with the discovery of a young girl in a distressed state on an Oxford road. She’s clearly been assaulted, but refuses to press charges. But why? And then another girl goes missing…
- When did you first realise that you wanted to be a writer and how did you pursue your dream?
I used to write all the time when I was a little girl – I think every writer starts out that way. I always had a passionate love of reading too, and ended up studying English at Oxford (that was a dream-come-true as well). After that I spent a long time working in completely unrelated jobs like finance and PR, but I eventually found myself working as a freelance copywriter, which gave me some time to start writing creatively again. And the rest, as they say, is history.
- Where do you get your information and ideas from?
I watch a lot of true crime on TV (my husband teases me endlessly about it!). I find real-life crime particularly fascinating, not just because of what people do, but why they do it. It’s the motivation for crime that intrigues me most. But that’s just one source – I pick things up all over the place, like a magpie. My brain is a bit like a great big melting pot, where I throw all sorts of bits and pieces: something I see in the paper, a person’s face glimpsed in the street, something remembered from a dream, something overheard in a coffee shop. And eventually, if I’m patient, some of those scraps start to cluster together and a story starts to emerge.
- What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
See above! I also reads a lot (more crime!), I enjoy theatre and music and art, and I adore travelling. We just got back from Iceland, which was out of this world.
- Out of all the books you have written, which one is your favourite and why?
I have a fondness for Close to Home, because it started this whole rollercoaster ride, and because it was a Richard & Judy book. I think No Way Out probably contains some of my best writing, and my husband’s favourite is In the Dark. So I love them all in different ways – I guess it’s the same with children!
- What advice would you give to a new or aspiring writer?
Three things: practice, practice, practice! You also need a lot of determination in this game, and a thick skin, because there’ll always be someone who doesn’t like what you write (go and have a look at one-star Amazon reviews for the great classic novelists like Austen or Dickens for proof – it’s absolutely hilarious!).
credit Justine Stoddart
- How do you develop your plots, characters and settings?
One of the advantages of writing a series is that I have my police team already in place, so each time I sit down to start a new Fawley book it’s like meeting up with old friends. The same goes for my setting, Oxford. Everyone knows this city, and everyone can picture it, and that gives me the freedom to take readers to parts of the city which are darker and edgier. As for the characters in each separate story, like my plots, they come from all over the place – things I’ve seen or read, my own imagination, even bits of my own past, all mixed up together and reinvented as something new.
- Who is your favourite author?
I have many! I’ve loved Tolkien since I was a child, I still read English classic fiction, and I admire many of the great crime novelists writing today – Ian Rankin, Shari Lapena, Fiona Barton, Peter James, Nicci French…
- What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Those I just mentioned, and many others, both on page and screen. Joan Smith for her Loretta Lawson novels; Agatha Christie for her twists, Jed Mercurio for his mastery of pace, Ruth Rendell for her dark imagination. The list goes on.
- If you could tell your younger self anything, what would it be?
Be more confident. I so envy the self-assurance young people have now. I’ve never had that.
- What would you choose for your mascot/spirit animal?
A cat, no question. I have two (as readers of my newsletter and social media feeds will know!).
- If you could invite any 3 people alive or dead, real or fictional, to a dinner party who would you invite?
Bryan Ferry (yeah, yeah, I know).
The Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was not only a genius but apparently the greatest talker of his generation (no danger of awkward silences there, then!).
And Joan Collins, because I know she’d make me laugh.
All the Rage by Cara Hunter is available in all good bookshops and Amazon, in kindle, audio and paperback.