Thrillers, Crime Novels, and Neuroscience Psychology

“How much will it hurt tonight, and when will the itching drive me crazy?” I said. I was lying on my stomach, trying to stay very still, while my doctor stitched up my right shoulder blade. I have reached the age where my skin is occasionally described as “suspicious”.

“It shouldn’t hurt,” my doctor said. “It might itch in a week.”

“Have you ever had stitches?” I said, soaking up every sensation, committing them to memory because they may come in handy for a story. Writers are an odd bunch, aren’t we?

“No, I never have,” she said.

That night, it felt like invisible little knives jabbing my shoulder at an irregular rhythm. Of course, it hurt! I had two layers of stitches, deep and superficial. Even as the prickly and throbbing pain under my skin drove me nuts, I thought it was funny how badly my doctor had misled me. She hadn’t lied to me. She was a conscientious doctor. She just didn’t know what it felt like.

Should doctors have to have stitches before they give them? Of course not; that’s cruel. Should doctors have to undergo surgery or take drugs before they perform or prescribe? No, that would be monstrous. (It wouldn’t even necessarily be valuable because the same drug has different effects on a genetically-varied population.)

But these questions dig deeper into the differing perspectives of reality and how they can affect psychiatric diagnosis and prescription. Psychotropic drugs are both overprescribed and underprescribed. They have saved lives and ruined lives. They are still prescribed mostly as one-size-fits-all, but should they be? The brain is complex, and variation rules.

Crime novels and thrillers are especially heavy on neuroscience psychology. The genre is rife with diagnosis and drugs (legal and illegal), serial killers and psychopaths, and relatable, stable people who are simply pushed too far. 

We all have the potential for violence within us; it’s a defense mechanism for survival. Neurologist Robert Burton explains that, even after 30 years of searching for patterns, psychiatrists and psychologists cannot predict who will commit murder, which is unsettling, but also a great relief. Screening populations for violence sounds like a frightening dystopian novel. (Sadly, it’s not. Police use of AI and facial recognition is all over the news.)

Psychiatric issues are at the gooey center of so many novels in the genre: Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane), The Girl on The Train (Paula Hawkins), Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn), American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis), The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides), and The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith). Internal struggles with PTSD, drug addiction, depression, anxiety, obsession, and psychopathy drive plots and characters.

Those of us who don’t have psychiatric issues still have differing perceptions of reality and psychological quirks. Some of us buy into conspiracies. Others are awake in the middle of the night, worried sick over inconsequential things. Some are dependent on their evening glass of wine or get pissy if they don’t exercise. Many of us replay conversations over and over, thinking, I’m so stupid, I’m so stupid.

Some of us embrace our psychological quirks; others don’t. That’s another nuance of the topic. What are we comfortable exposing about ourselves, and what do we feel compelled to keep secret?

In She Lies Close, Grace Wright is the secretive type. She has anxiety and insomnia, she takes meds for ADHD, and her meds exacerbate her insomnia, which leads to other troubling behaviors. She is worried about losing custody of her kids, so she keeps a lot of secrets.

In this dark psychological thriller, recently divorced Grace Wright moves her two small children into a new house, hoping to start a new life, longing to reset her crippling insomnia, but finds out she’s moved in next door to the only suspect in the kidnapping of five-year-old Ava Boone. Grace becomes obsessed with her menacing neighbor and the family of the missing little girl, and then a body turns up...

She Lies Close has already gathered strong early praise, with New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica declaring it as "an explosive, darkly comedic psychological thriller with one of the most memorable protagonists I’ve read" and USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan describing it as a “masterclass in voice, a psychological tour de force, and one of the most original stories I've ever read.”

She Lies Close is by Sharon Doering (Published by Titan Books)

Five-year-old Ava Boone has been missing for six months. There have been no leads, no arrests, no witnesses. The only suspect was quiet, middle-aged Leland Ernest. And Grace Wright has just bought the house next door. Recently divorced, Grace uprooted her two small children to start again and hopes the move will reset her crippling insomnia. But now she understands bargain-price for her beautiful new house. With whispered neighborhood gossip and increasingly sleepless nights, Grace develops a fierce obsession with Leland and the safety of her children. Could she really be living next door to a child-kidnapper? A murderer? With reality and dream blurring more each day, Grace desperately pursues the truth - following Ava's family, demanding answers from the police - and then a body is discovered...

She Lies Close is available now in the UK and releases on November 10 in the US and Canada.

Q & A with Sam Lloyd author of The Memory Wood

Q:- What is the Memory Wood about?

Sam:- It’s about two incredibly gifted kids engaged in a life-or-death game of deception. Elissa, a thirteen-year-old chess prodigy, is competing at a world-ranking event when she’s snatched from the venue and sedated. She wakes in darkness, tethered to a metal post. When her abductor arrives, it’s clear he has no plans to release her. Elissa’s situation looks hopeless. Then, a chance event: twelve-year-old Elijah, playing in his local woods, stumbles across her underground cell. Elissa thinks she’s saved, and urges Elijah to get help. But Elijah thinks he’s found his first true friend, and knows that if he calls the police he’ll lose her. Elissa concludes that her survival depends on deceiving the boy into helping her. But he’s far, far sharper than he seems. As the stakes rise, their mind games grow increasingly twisted and sophisticated.

Q:- When did the idea for The Memory Wood formulate?

Sam:- It was actually the smashing together of two separate thoughts. Elijah had been holed up in my head for years, without a story to release him. Then, when my son turned eight, he reached the regional finals of a national chess tournament. One Saturday morning, I drove him to the venue. It was pretty chaotic – hundreds of people rushing about. Parents had to wait outside during the matches, and it struck me how easily a determined stranger might snatch away a kid. By the time we drove home, I had the bones of a story. 

Q:- Tell us a little bit about your two central characters – Elissa & Elijah.

Sam:- Elissa is scary-smart – a mentally strong teenager who refuses to play the victim. Reducing her circumstances to the abstraction of a chess game, she plans her moves several steps ahead of everyone else. Elijah is home-schooled, introverted and cripplingly lonely. He has no TV, no internet, little contact with the outside world.  By day, he roams the Memory Wood on the country estate where his parents work. He’s delighted to discover Elissa, even though he’s fairly certain how events will play out. 

Q:- Were these characters difficult to write?

Sam:- They became more difficult to write as the book progressed. I grew very attached to each character in different ways, and their later chapters are harrowing. Writing the last few pages was an emotional experience. 

Q:- Do you plan your novels out, or are you more of a pantser? Why?

Sam:- A reluctant pantser. I’d love to have a detailed road map, but there’s a point when I just lose patience and dive in. With the Memory Wood, I wrote the first page with little inkling of where it was going, or how it would end. And although Elijah had been knocking around inside my head for years, Elissa appeared on the page fully-formed, with very little forethought. Weird, how that happens. It’s why writing’s so bloody addictive.

Q:- How hard is it to write twists into books?

Sam:- It’s a tightrope over broken glass. The only thing worse than a twist that feels shoehorned is one so glaringly obvious you guess it from the blurb. While great twists knock you sideways and are a boatload of fun, they should always take second stage to the characters. As a reader, I’ll take a memorable cast over a shocking plot twist every day of the week. What I really want, of course, is both. 

Q:- What are you reading at the moment?

Sam:- Wuthering Heights, and loving every word of it, even though it’s lightyears away from what I usually read. My in-laws bought me cloth-bound editions of all the Brontë novels for Christmas. Last year, they got me a Joe Hill graphic novel and the Preacher series, so they like to mix it up.

Q:- Who are your favourite authors in the crime/thriller genre?

Long-time favourites: Thomas Harris, Gillian Flynn, Rosamund Lupton. Writers I’ve just discovered: Will Dean, Shari Lapena, Alex North. Books I’m most looking forward to in 2020: Three Hours, American Dirt, My Dark Vanessa.  

The Memory Wood is by Sam Lloyd is published by Transworld Publishers Limited.

Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It's the only home he's ever known.  Elissa has only just arrived. And she'll do everything she can to escape.  When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn't want Elissa to leave. Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn't the first girl he's found inside the Memory Wood.  As her abductor's behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood ...

Research behind Audibles thriller of the year: Silent Child

“Help me, I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for ten years. And I’m here. I’m free now!”

Those were the words spoken by Amanda Berry to the 911 operator after her escape from Ariel Castro’s Cleveland home. Amanda had been kidnapped by Castro on the day before her seventeenth birthday, and held captive by him for ten years. While finally escaping, she carried her six-year-old daughter as she crawled out of a hole kicked into the door of Castro’s house. Two more women were released from the house, leaving people all around the world wondering how Ariel Castro could treat fellow human beings like his own personal slaves.

But Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus are not the only victims of such a crime. Josef Fritzl kept his own daughter, Elisabeth, captive for 24 years, which resulted in the births of seven children. Natascha Kampusch spent 3096 days in captivity with her kidnapper Wolfgang Přiklopil until she escaped on the 23rd August 2006.

While I was researching the kidnapping cases above, I began to question everything I knew about humanity. It can be difficult to comprehend the cruelty of our own kind when reading about these crimes. Joseph Fritzl, Wolfgang Přiklopil, and Ariel Castro are truly the worst of us, and the dehumanisation of their victims is a chilling exploration into a complete lack of morality. The idea of being completely controlled by another person is a terrifying and claustrophobic thought that squarely hit many of my own worst fears.

But at the heart of it all is an incredible strength and instinct for survival. For an example of

the resilience of the human spirit, we need only think of Amanda Berry escaping through a hole in a door with her daughter in her arms, or Natascha Kampusch running through gardens to escape her kidnapper while he was distracted.

And the aftermath can bring out the good in people. Elisabeth Fritzl now lives in a two storey house in a quiet village, the location of which has never been revealed. Her new community rallies around her to ensure Elisabeth’s safety and anonymity. The villagers turn journalists away and are said to be fiercely protective of her. Now she lives in this close-knit community with her children, while Josef Fritzl is incarcerated in prison. Ironically, Přikopil and Castro both preferred suicide over captivity.

Survivors are people who refuse to be broken no matter what they are forced to endure. Survivors are the people now free to leave their mark on the world. It was the stories of these survivors that drew me to this crime, and their stories will stay with me long after my research ended.

Silent Child, written by Sarah A Denzil, narrated by Golden Globe winner and Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt has been chosen as Audible’s Thriller of the Year and is out now on audible.co.uk

Silent Child  by Sarah A Denzil

In the summer of 2006, Emma Price watched helplessly as her six-year-old son's red coat was fished out of the River Ouse. It was the tragic story of the year - a little boy, Aiden, wandered away from school during a terrible flood, fell into the river, and drowned.  His body was never recovered.  Ten years later, Emma has finally rediscovered the joy in life. She's married, pregnant, and in control again... ... until Aiden returns. Too traumatized to speak, he raises endless questions and answers none. Only his body tells the story of his decade-long disappearance. The historic broken bones and injuries cast a mere glimpse into the horrors Aiden has experienced. Aiden never drowned. Aiden was taken.  As Emma attempts to reconnect with her now teenage son, she must unmask the monster who took him away from her. But who, in their tiny village, could be capable of such a crime?  It's Aiden who has the answers, but he cannot tell the unspeakable.

Buy it from SHOTS A-Store.

Insights to The Good Girl

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Mary Kubica.

When I began writing The Good Girl, it was a very conscious decision.  There wasn’t an event or events that inspired me, nor does the novel draw on any dark element of my own childhood.  It’s quite the opposite, in fact.  People often seem perplexed that a novel as dark as The Good Girl would come from me – someone with a happy childhood, a rather uneventful existence – and yet this was half the fun of it: exploring a reality which was far from mine. 

I had the idea to write a novel about a kidnapping that was not exactly what it

seemed.  Where it came from, I can’t say for certain; I suppose I’m just someone with an active imagination as often goes hand in hand with a writing career.  The first time I sat down at the computer to begin The Good Girl (without notes or an outline, just myself and the computer and a few moments of peace and quiet while my daughter napped) this was all I had.  I very quickly decided to write the novel from the viewpoint of various narrators, as well as in a nonlinear structure to enhance the mystery – or mysteries – that surround the abduction of Mia. 

I’ve often struggled to define the source of inspiration for The Good Girl, for I feel there should be some key event that triggered this novel, and yet for as hard as I’ve tried, I can pinpoint none.  The novel is set partially in my hometown, and as an avid reader of suspense novels, it was certainly my genre, but neither of these could be credited as a source of inspiration.

It took me awhile to realize that the inspiration didn’t come to me before I began writing or there at page one of the novel, but much later on, when I found myself so absorbed in the characters – mainly Mia and Colin – that I found myself thinking about them at all hours of the day and night, and I often found them visiting me in my dreams.  There are specific times I remember waking in the middle of the night, utterly concerned for Mia’s wellbeing, or grieving with Eve for her missing child.  I woke from sleep, on more than one occasion, with a scene – as clear as day – playing in my mind.

When I was most engrossed in writing the novel, I felt connected to the characters in The Good Girl like I hadn’t been with any characters I’d written up to that time or any characters I’ve written since.  I knew them intimately, what they would do and what they would say, and it’s clear to me now that all along it was my characters who were my muse, my source of inspiration.  Someone once suggested to me that it was Mia and Colin, Eve and Gabe who told their story to me rather than the other way around, and I firmly believe this is true.

To the characters in all future novels of mine, take note: you have a lot to live up to.      

More information about the author can be found on her website.  She can also be found on Facebook and you can follow her on Twitter @MaryKubica.

The End Comes First for Chris Ewan

Today’s guest blog is by Chis Ewan who is best known for his "Good Thief" series of travelling adventures featuring Charlie Howard, a thief and author of his own crime series.   His first novel The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, 2007 won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award. His first and second novels The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, The Good Thief's Guide to Paris were shortlisted for the Last Laugh Award for best comic crime fiction.  His first standalone thriller Safe House (2011) was shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.

Dead Line is the only novel I’ve written where the ending came to me first. Well, maybe that’s not absolutely true. First, I had the basic hook for a kidnap story with a twist, and about two days later I knew how the story would end. That’s highly unusual for me. Generally speaking, it takes me months of planning to get a sense of how and why a book might end in a particular way, and even then an ending often changes as I begin to unearth something unexpected from the rubble of a first draft.

But not here. Everything in Dead Line was built towards the ending I had in mind. It was a clean target.

And yet, I knew the ending I wanted to deliver might divide opinion. I knew it was a risk.

But then, isn’t every story a gamble? As readers, we take a chance every time we pick up a novel. Will our time be rewarded? Will the story entertain or enrich us? Will the ending satisfy? 

We’re told a great ending is important – and it is – but how many novels truly surprise or leave us reeling? And how often do we find ourselves still pondering an ending long after we’ve finished a book.

My hope is that readers might just feel that way about the ending of Dead Line. And of course, I can’t tell you what the ending is. There are no spoilers here. But I can tell you that to my mind, at least, the way the book ends feels absolutely true to the story I had to tell. I could have delivered other outcomes, for a host of other reasons, but none of them would have felt right to me – or, I hope, to you.

And now, since I started with the end, I guess I should end with the beginning, and finish up by telling you a little of what Dead Line is about. 

Dead Line is a kidnap thriller set in Marseilles. It’s the story of Daniel Trent, a professional hostage negotiator, and the dark secret that drives and compromises him.

As the book opens, Trent’s fiancée, Aimée, has gone missing without a trace, and Trent does everything he can to find her. He suspects that shady businessman Jérôme Moreau has something to do with her disappearance and he plans to abduct and interrogate him. But when Moreau is kidnapped, Tent must get him back quickly – and alive – before time runs out.

Does he succeed? Does he find Aimée? Well now, that’s what the ending is all about.

Chris Ewan and James Carol will be talking about thrillers at Waterstones Piccadilly on 24 April 2014.  Tickets are free but you need to reserve a place. please contact piccadilly@waterstones.com.

Dead Line by Chris Ewan is out in paperback on 3rd April, £7.99 (Faber & Faber)

You can find more information about Chris Ewan and his books on his website: http://www.chrisewan.com.  You can also follow him on Twitter @chrisewan, on Facebook and also his blog.

The video for Dead Line can be seen below -