The Genesis of Kiss Me, Kill Me

I first discovered the work of James Carol last year with The Killing Game, as together with my fellow readers at the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2017 Judging committee, noted at the time -

“Cunningly structured Hollywood hostage drama that boldly explores the overlaps in fame and news-making between the spheres of media and terrorism. Carol’s world is peopled with troublingly realistic characters and disturbs in its portrayal of moral ambiguity. The cinematic pace never slows; totally absorbing.”

It became one of the six  thriller novels that found itself on the 2017 CWA Steel Dagger Shortlist.

So we were delighted when James Carol agreed to tell us a little about his follow-up, and how an idea can germinate within a writer.

“Where do you get your ideas” is a question writers get asked more than any other. The simple answer is that I don’t know where mine come from. Or rather, I don’t want to know. The fact that they appear at all is enough. I’m concerned that if I over-analyse things then the alchemy will stop happening. Ideas tend to pop into my head while I’m going about my day-to-day life. Some stray thought catches my imagination, collides with another thought, and before you know it I’ve got something that could maybe be a novel.

 

KISS ME KILL ME actually started life as a very different book. My agent was shopping around for a publisher for THE KILLING GAME, my first standalone, and needed an idea for a follow-up. I can’t remember what I was doing when the idea presented itself. Maybe I was in the bath; maybe I was out for a walk. The idea itself was an intriguing one: what if a woman woke up one day to discover her husband was a hitman, and that he was out to kill her. My agent needed a full outline to show to publishers. No problem, I said.

But it was a problem. A big one. Because that was how the story remained for years, just an outline. The way I write is to get an idea and run with it. What keeps me going through the long months of a first draft is that I’m curious to know how the story will finish. The problem here was that I knew how this one was going to end.

From time to time I’d revisit the outline, but I couldn’t bring myself to write the book because that spark wasn’t there. Then one day I was thinking about it and for some reason I started wondering if the wife might be pregnant. That was all it took to get me excited again. This one stray thought fired my imagination and took the story in a brand new direction. More importantly, though, I now had no idea where it was going to end. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Once the basic idea has been established the next stage is to choose a setting. Back in the nineties my parents lived in a small town just outside Portland, Oregon. The fact I’d been there was a bonus. I prefer to write about places I’ve visited since it enables you to get that extra layer of reality. Portland has a laidback arty feel that I thought would work really well. It’s also a very dynamic city and I wanted that energy in the book. Getting the right setting is crucial because it influences the whole vibe of the story.

While I’m working on the location I’m also thinking about the main characters. These tend to develop from the situation. With writing the trick is to create a reality that the reader can buy into. That’s the spell I’m trying to cast. With KISS ME KILL ME, you have a marriage that looks perfect on the outside but isn’t. Dan, the husband, is charming but ruthless, two attributes often associated with CEOs. That’s why he ended up running his own company. Zoe needed to be the opposite of that, so she is an aspiring writer, the artistic, creative Ying to his single-minded, driven Yang.

The story starts with Zoe at rock bottom and seeing no way out. When she discovers she’s pregnant she realises she has to do something because this isn’t just about her anymore. I love it when characters take on a life of their own and start doing unexpected things. Zoe in particular ended up being way more resourceful than I thought she would be. Put it this way, you’ll think you know where this story is going but chances are you’ll be wrong.

A lot of my research tends to be done on the fly and this is where the Internet is a godsend. With the first draft I just want to get the words down as quickly as possible; I don’t want the distraction of spending ages on research as this would disturb the flow of the story. The majority of my queries can be answered with a quick Google search, and then I can get back to the business of writing.

Inevitably though there will be something that needs to be researched in more depth. Amongst other things KISS ME KILL ME gave me an excuse to look more deeply into the Dark Web. This is basically an alternative version of the Internet that exists beneath the one that we all know and love. This is where you can go to buy the sort of things that you don’t find on Amazon. Drugs, weapons … a murder.

Every book is a learning experience and KISS ME KILL ME was no exception. It’s not just the characters who end up going into uncharted waters, I do too. Sometimes it feels like I’m just along for the ride, and I wouldn’t have it any other way because it’s usually one hell of a ride.

KISS ME KILL ME by J.S Carol is published by Bonnier Zaffre on 31^st May

For More Information: http://www.james-carol.com  

How To Get Away With Murder…...

One of the really cool things about being a writer is that you have an almost unlimited license to unleash your inner psychopath. There’s something intensely satisfying about sitting down at the keyboard and coming up with an interesting way to send a character on their way to the hereafter. Of course, there’s the added bonus that you’re not going to find yourself doing a twenty-year stretch for your troubles.

The Quiet Man was a lot of fun to write. The basic idea was simple: what if a killer used his victims’ husbands as a murder weapon? That “what if” turned into a scenario where the killer tied the wives to a kitchen chair, then attached a bomb to their chest that would be triggered when the husband opened the door.

That’s where the real fun began.

To start with, how do you restrain your victim? Rope is one solution, but that can get fiddly. You need to tie knots, and your victim might not be as cooperative as you’d like; it’s a recipe for disaster. No, duct tape is much more practical, and efficient. Just tear off a strip and slap it on. It’s great for gagging your victim, too … unless, of course, you want them to make a noise.

Okay, now you’ve secured your victim, how are you going to blow them up? Stealing explosives from a mine is one option … but that’s going to be risky. Building a fertiliser bomb is out as well … buying large quantities of ammonium nitrate is a sure way to get the police knocking on your door. Because, the thing is, you don’t want to get caught, which means that you don’t want to draw attention.

And then you see a Fire Brigade YouTube video highlighting the dangers of using fireworks. In order to leave the viewer with a lasting visual impression they strap a firework to a dummy then blow it up. It’s perfect, a heaven-sent moment of serendipity. Is anybody going to give you a second look if you walk into a store and buy a box of fireworks? No, they are not.

Next you need to work out a way to make the bomb go bang. Stealing detonators from a mine is out for the reasons outlined above. Thankfully, there’s a much simpler solution, one that involves a nine volt battery, a box of matches and a Christmas tree light-bulb. And the beauty with this solution is that all of these items are easy to get hold of.

Finally, you need to engineer a way for the husband to trigger the bomb. The simple solution: rig a reed switch to the door. These are used in alarm systems. The burglar opens a door or window, the reed switch and the alarm goes off. In this case, the door opens, the circuit closes and the bomb goes boom.

Fun and games … and no one gets hurt, and no one ends up in prison.

That said, you need to be careful where you let your inner psychopath out to play. Writers live in two worlds. There’s the world inside their head, and the real world. And separating the two is a hazy grey dreamy stretch of No Man’s Land. My advice is that you let your inner psychopath loose there at your own peril.

My wife still tells the story of the time I met her on the stairs. I ever-so-gently placed my hands on her face and tilted her head to the side. Then I slid my finger across her carotid artery like it was knife. She was expecting a tender moment; I just wanted to check my angles and verify whether or not I could actually see a pulse. Like I said earlier, writers have an almost unlimited license to unleash our inner psychopaths.

The key words there is ‘almost’. You have been warned.

The Quiet Man by James Carol is published in May by Faber & Faber (£7.99)

More information about James Carol can be found on his website.  Also follow him on Twitter @JamesCarolBooks

Books to Look Forward to From Faber & Faber

January 2017

 

Her Every Fear is by Peter Swanson. Following a brutal attack by her ex-boyfriend, Kate Priddy makes an uncharacteristically bold decision after her cousin, Corbin Dell, suggests a temporary apartment swap - and she moves from London to Boston. But soon after her arrival Kate makes a shocking discovery: Corbin's next-door neighbour, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police begin asking questions about Corbin's relationship with Audrey, and his neighbours come forward with their own suspicions, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination playing out her every fear, Kate can barely trust herself. so how can she trust any of the strangers she's just met? 

February 2017

My name is Ruby. I live with Barbara and Mick. They're not my real parents, but they tell me what to do, and what to say. I'm supposed to say that the bruises on my arms and the black eye came from falling down the stairs. But there are things I won't say. I won't tell them I'm going to hunt for my real parents. I don't say a word about Shadow, who sits on the stairs, or the Wasp Lady I saw on the way to bed. I did tell Mick that I saw the woman in the buttercup dress, hanging upside down from her seat belt deep in the forest at the back of our house. I told him I saw death crawl out of her. He said he'd give me a medal for lying. I wasn't lying. I'm a hunter for lost souls and I'm going to be with my real family. And I'm not going to let Mick stop me.  The Doll Funeral is by Kate Hamer.

When a distressed young woman arrives at their station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to come back and 'claim her next', Detectives Carrigan and Miller are thrust into a terrifying new world of stalking and obsession. Taking them from a Bayswater hostel, where backpackers and foreign students share dorms and failing dreams, to the emerging threat of online intimidation, hacking, and control, The Intrusions explores disturbing contemporary themes with all the skill and dark psychology that Stav Sherez's work has been so acclaimed for. Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities re-surfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what these two women have been subjected to?  The Intrusions is by Stav Sherez

March 2017

On a normal Wednesday afternoon, Judge Scott Sampson is preparing to pick up his six-year-old twins for their weekly swim. His wife Alison texts him with a change of plan: she has to take them to the doctor instead. So Scott heads home early. But when Alison arrives back later, she is alone - no Sam, no Emma - and denies any knowledge of the text ...The phone then rings: an anonymous voice tells them that the Judge must do exactly what he is told in an upcoming drug case and, most importantly, they must 'say nothing'. So begins this powerful, tense breakout thriller about a close-knit young family plunged into unimaginable horror. As a twisting game of cat and mouse ensues, they know that one false move could lose them their children forever. Say Nothing is by Brad Parks.

April 2017

In New Orleans, Texas Ranger John Q is out of his jurisdiction, and possibly out of his depth. It seems everyone in Louisiana wants to send him home, and every time he asks questions there's trouble: from the pharmacist to the detective running scared to the pimp who turned to him as a last resort. Before John Q knows it, he looks the only link between a series of murders. So who could be trying to set him up, and why, and who can he turn to in a city where Southern tradition and family ties rule? Infused with the rhythms of its iconic setting, The Contract is by J M Gulvin.

May 2017

The Quiet Man is by James Carol.  In Vancouver, the wife of a millionaire is dead following an explosion in her own home.  Everyone thinks her husband is responsible, but former FBI profiler Jefferson Winter isn’t so sure.  He method is too perfect; the lack of mistakes, uncanny.  He’s seen a series of carefully orchestrated murders – once a year, on exactly the same day, a woman dies in a situation just like this one.  That date is fast approaching and Winter knows another victim has been selected.  Can he identify the quiet man before he strikes again?

June 2017

Find the boy. Bring him home. Keep him safe. Keira Lynch is a lawyer who's used to trouble, but she's only just landed in Albania, and already, she's neck deep. She thought money would help her find the boy, in an underworld where bribes are as common as bent cops, but his kidnappers want something else. They want the freedom of one of their gang members. A man Keira is about to help bring to trial back in the UK; a man who once put three bullets in her chest. Can she stay silent, and save the boy? Or will she have to play the game in a brutal world where anything can be bartered - trust, loyalty, even lives?  Walk in Silence is by John Gordon Sinclair.

James Carol in conversation with Faber editor Katherine Armstrong

Today finds Faber Editor Katherine Armstrong in conversation with author James Carol whose third book in the Jefferson Winter series has just been released.

Katherine Armstrong: Many readers might be surprised to learn that you're not actually American. What drew you to the US and why did you create a character from there? 

James Carol:           I guess my love affair with America started when I was a kid. Turn on the TV and there it was, this land of infinite possibilities. Yes, I was viewing it through Hollywood’s rose-tinted lens, but for a child stuck out in the middle of nowhere that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I could escape for a while.

From the word go Winter had to be American. He’s supposed to be the best profiler in the business, so it made sense that he worked at Quantico. Also, being American ties in neatly with the idea that his father is a serial killer. There are believed to be almost a hundred serial killers active in the US at any one time. When you factor that in, it becomes easier to believe that there’s a kid out there living a suburban life, completely unaware that his father is a murderer.

KA:     How did you go about creating the character of Jefferson Winter? He's super-intelligent but slightly arrogant, a loner who loves music, expensive whisky, coffee and cigarettes - how much of you is there in him, if any?!

JC:      The great thing about Winter is that it gives me the opportunity to live vicariously. I gave up smoking years ago, I’m pretty much teetotal, and my days of drinking a gallon of coffee a day are long gone. Yes I miss all those things, but getting Winter to do them for me is so much healthier!

Music is another matter. That’s still very much a part of my life. Winter uses music to balance out the dark aspects of his existence, and I can relate to that. Then there’s his belief that there’s a parallel universe where he’s playing keyboards at Madison Square Gardens. In my alternate reality I’m playing guitar at Wembley.

KA:     PREY explores the dark side of family life. The nature versus nurture debate of child-rearing. Is this a subject that you were particularly interested in, and if so, could you tell us why? 

JC:      My daughter is six, my son three, so this is a question that keeps me awake at nights.

For better or worse our families shape us, particularly during those early years. As a parent you have a responsibility to do the best for your kids. You’re never going to get it right all the time. The best you can hope for is that you get things right more often than you get it wrong.

Problems occur when the balance tips too far towards the negative. That’s when people end up broken. Inside every monster you’re going to find a damaged child. Why do people do the things they do? How much is down to nature and how much is nurture?  Personally, I don’t believe it’s a black and white situation; it’s a continuum rather than a set of absolutes.  If there’s a theme that runs through the Winter books, then I guess that’s it.

KA:     There are a lot of female characters in your books. Do you find it difficult to write about women? How do you avoid stereotypes? 

JC:      When it comes to characters I run an equal opportunities policy. I don’t care if they’re male or female, I don’t care what colour they are or how old they are, I treat them all the same. I like to give my characters space to be themselves. Even with my antagonists I try not to be judgemental. The thing to bear in mind is that nobody is totally good or totally evil. We all fall in the grey area somewhere in-between. People are people. Some are good, some bad, but all are unique.

KA:     You often choose gruesome subjects for your books - lobotomising in BROKEN DOLLS; being burned alive in WATCH ME - yet you don't sensationalise what happens to the victims. How would you respond to the genres critics who suggest that the violence in crime novels is glorified? 

JC:      One thing that crime books do is provide a safe environment for readers to try and make sense of the senseless. The sad truth is that violent things happen in the world all the time. Every second of every day, people are suffering in unimaginable ways. However the one thing I know for certain is that whatever I dream up won’t compare to reality. Not even close.

I recently watched a documentary about the holocaust and it was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen. Bodies lying discarded on the ground like trash; bodies being picked up and dumped in pits the size of a football field; bodies frozen like statues; bodies decomposing. I had to keep reminding myself that this really happened. Ironically, if this had never happened and I’d used it as the subject of a story, it would be rejected as implausible; I’d be accused of sensationalism. But it did happen. This was as real as it’s ever going to get

So, do we turn away from the violence? Do we stick our heads in the sand and pretend that it doesn’t exist? If we do that will all the bad things in the world magically disappear? Unfortunately the answer is no. The only way that humanity can progress is by learning from the mistakes of the past, and the only way to do that is by examining and understanding what has gone before.

KA:     Which writers inspire you and why?

JC:      My top three writers are Stephen King , Lee Child and Jodi Picoult. At first glance this seems like an odd grouping. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find plenty of similarities. First and foremost all three are storytellers. They grab the reader by throat, drag them into whatever tale they’re telling, and don’t let go until the final full stop. Secondly, they create these amazing characters that come striding off the page, fully formed and as alive as you and me. Thirdly they really care about what they do. All three are incredibly gifted writers, but they don’t rest on their laurels. You get the sense that they want each book to be better than the last. Finally, they write books that entertain millions of people. To touch so many lives, even just for a short time, is an amazing  thing to be able to do.

KA:     What next for Jefferson Winter? 

JC:      Winter’s got another busy year coming up. PREY has just been released and I’m currently working on the second draft of 15 MINUTES (Jefferson Winter 4). This time Winter is in Berlin where he’s hunting a serial killer who terrorises his victims by bringing them face to face with their worst fears. This will be released in February 2016, but don’t worry there will be another instalment of the Jefferson Winter Chronicles between now and then … maybe even two.

 

PREY by James Carol is out now (Faber & Faber, £7.99)

Has Jefferson Winter finally met his match?

Six years ago a young married couple were found brutally stabbed to death in their home in Upstate New York. Local police arrested a suspect who later committed suicide. But what if the police got it wrong?  Ex-FBI profiler Jefferson Winter is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious female psychopath as she sets him a challenge: find out what really happened six years ago.  The clock is ticking and, as Winter is about to find out, the endgame is everything . . .

More information about James Carol can be found on his website.  You can also find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @JamesCarolBooks

Books to look forward to from Faber and Faber

In nineteenth-century Istanbul, a Polish prince has been kidnapped.  His assassination has been bungled and his captors have taken him to an unused farmhouse.  Little do they realize that their revolutionary cell has been penetrated by their enemies, who use the code name La Piuma (the Feather).  Yashim is convinced that the prince is alive.  But he has no idea where, or who La Piuma is - and has become dangerously distracted by falling in love.  As he draws closer to the prince's whereabouts and to the true identity of La Piuma, Yashim finds himself in the most treacherous situation of his career: Can he rescue the prince along with his romantic dreams?  The Baklava Club is by Jason Goodwin and is due to be published in June 2014.

All Day and a Night  is by Alafair Burke and is due to be published in July 2014.  When psychotherapist Helen Brunswick is murdered in her Park Slope office, the entire city suspects her estranged husband - until the District Attorney's Office receives an anonymous letter.  The letter's author knows a detail that police have kept secret: the victim's bones were broken after she was killed, echoing a signature used twenty years earlier by Anthony Amaro, a serial killer serving a life sentence.  Now, Amaro is asking to be released from prison, arguing that he was wrongly convicted, and that the true killer is still on the loose.  Ellie Hatcher and her partner JJ Rogan are tapped as the 'fresh look' team to reassess the original investigation that led to Amaro's conviction.  The case pits them against both their fellow officers and a hard-charging celebrity defence lawyer with a young associate named Carrie Blank, who has a personal connection to the case.  As both the NYPD and Amaro's legal team search for certainty in years of conflicting evidence, their investigations take them back to Carrie's hometown, and to deadly secrets left behind.  In her first series book for Faber, the author returns to one of the most memorable characters in contemporary US crime writing, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher.

When Claire Cooper was eight years old her mother mysteriously vanished during Hop-tu-naa, the Manx Halloween.  At fourteen, Claire is still struggling to come to terms with her disappearance when she's befriended by a group of five teenagers who mark every Hop-tu-naa by performing dares.  But Claire's arrival begins to alter the group's dynamic until one year a prank goes terribly wrong, changing all their futures and tearing the friends apart.  Six years later, one of the friends is killed on Hop-tu-naa in an apparent accident.  But Claire, now a police officer, has her doubts.  Is a single footprint found near the body a deliberate taunt?  As another Hop-tu-naa dawns, bringing with it another death and another footprint, Claire becomes convinced that somebody is seeking vengeance.  But who?  And which of the friends might be next?  If she's to stop a killer and unlock the dark secrets of her past, Claire must confront her deepest fears, before it's too late.  Dark Tides is by Chris Ewan and is due to be published in October 2014.

The White Crocodile is fate.  Tess Hardy thought she had put Luke, her violent husband, firmly in her past.  Until he calls from Cambodia, where he is working as a mine-clearer, and there's something in his voice she hasn't heard before.  Fear.  Two weeks later, he's dead.  Was it really an accident, or was Luke murdered?  Against her better judgment, Tess is drawn to Cambodia, taking a job at the same humanitarian mine clearance charity Luke had been working for.  The White Crocodile is judgement.  What greets her is a country full of strange beliefs, where danger is all around.  Teenage mothers are disappearing from villages around the minefields, while others are being found mutilated and murdered, their babies abandoned.  The White Crocodile is death.  Tess hears whispers of the White Crocodile, a mythical beast that brings death to all who meet it.  Caught in a web of secrets and lies that stretches all the way from Cambodia to another murder in England, and a violent secret twenty years old, Tess must find out the truth, and quickly - because the crocodile is watching...  White Crocodile is by K T Medina and is due to be published in August 2014.

Smoke and Mirrors  is by James Carol and is due to be published in September 2014.  A Dead Lawyer, Eagle Creek, Louisiana.  Lawyer Sam Galloway is burned alive in an apparently motiveless attack.  The local sheriff's department calls in former FBI profiler Jefferson Winter to consult on the case.  A Serial Killer So far there's just one body, but there are going to be more.  A deadline has been set, the clock is ticking, and Winter has just thirteen and a half hours to track down the killer, before he strikes again.  A Dark Secret Winter knows all about secrets.  His father, one of America's most notorious serial killers, had everyone fooled for years.  Winter also knows that the problem with secrets is that they have a nasty habit of turning against you when you least expect it. 

Blood Whispers is by John Gordon Sinclair and is due to be published in June 2014.  'Truth

is, it's all lies.’  Teresa Gow is under arrest for a string of offences ranging from prostitution to attempted murder.  Lawyer Keira Lynch wants the charges dropped and her client taken into protective custody.  The CIA and a Serbian drug trafficker by the name of Fisnik Abazi, want Teresa dead.  Keira's cool head and laid-back approach has earned her the respect of most of the big-time players on the Glasgow crime scene.  She doesn't tell lies, she 'stylises the truth', and they trust her with their darkest secrets.  In a room full of murder suspects, Keira will finger the culprit every time.  They put her uncanny ability down to luck, but there's a more sinister explanation.  Keira has a dark secret of her own - when she was eight years old she killed a man.  It takes one to know one.  In a deadly game where nothing is what it seems and no one is who they say they are, Keira Lynch finds herself facing the biggest challenge of her life.  The question is not will she kill again, but when...