An Evening with Martina Cole

For fans of Martina Cole

 

An exclusive evening with Martina Cole at the Phoenix Artist Club to celebrate the launch of her new book No Mercy

 

 

 

Tickets are going fast!

Ticket details can be found here.

Call for Papers - Detecting the Margins: New Perspectives on the Critical History of Detective Fiction

Detecting the Margins: New Perspectives on the Critical History of Detective Fiction

Since its emergence from the periodical press into the first mass-market novelistic craze, detective fiction has occupied a liminal position in the margins of aesthetic legitimacy—and critical study. Detection is a popular genre, a “literature of escape,” that nevertheless seems to make a claim to, and find purchase in, more rarefied aesthetic and intellectual precincts. Michael Holquist styles detection as a guilty pleasure of the reading classes: “The same people who spent their days with James Joyce were reading Agatha Christie at night.” This panel asks what that liminal position might show us about both the genre and the conditions—theoretical, professional, material—of its study. 

Because of this tenuous position, academic critics of detection often experience themselves as operating in a critical vacuum, obliged to defend their object of study—as a result, there are more beginnings than middles in the scholarship of the genre, and its two most frequent themes are 1) the generic origins and parameters of the detective genre, and 2) whether or not it counts as literature. But the critical history of detective fiction is far from sparse: beyond the (persistent) debate over its literary status, the genre has galvanized generalists (Barzun, Haycraft, Symons); attracted the attention of scholars working from materialist, historical, and cultural-studies approaches; supported major critical work (D.A. Miller’s The Novel and the Police, Mark McGurl’s The Novel Art); and fascinated theorists (Lacan, Hartman, Jameson, Boltanski, Moretti). It has also amassed a body of scholarly and parascholarly work from outside the campus gates, foregrounding institutional, methodological, and professional margins as both an obstacle to and an object of study. And as detection proliferates into new media, styles, hybrid forms, and diasporic territory, it shows no sign of going away. 

To move beyond the received sense of critical absence that hamstrings its study, then, the genre’s scholars must play detective: gather the clues, match story against story, synthesize a narrative that matches and contextualizes the facts. This panel solicits new understandings of the critical history of detective fiction. What are its consensuses and its controversies, its conceptions and misconceptions, its crucial terms, lacunae, and stakes? What can reconstructing its critical history make visible about the genre? What can that reconstruction, and the fact of its necessity, make visible about criticism, its institutional contexts, its methods and practices, and its margins? 

Sites of interest include but are not limited to:

Detection and empiricism

The pedagogy of popular culture

Detection, mass culture, and the Frankfurt School

Detection and the canon wars

Detection and deconstruction

Detection and modes of readership: close reading, symptomatic reading, distant reading, "just reading"

Genre and economies of academic prestige

Networks and methods of critique: lay criticism, fan criticism, professional criticism, and academic criticism

Detection and neoliberalism

Detection and the humanities crisis

Please submit abstracts through NeMLA's submission portal here by September 30: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18221

Four Finalists for the McIlvanney Prize Revealed

THE FOUR FINALISTS ARE REVEALED FOR
THE McILVANNEY PRIZE
SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019

Winner to be presented at the opening reception of Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival at the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling on Friday 20 September

A panel of judges including Alison Flood, James Crawford and Stuart Cosgrove today reveal the finalists for The McIlvanney Prize 2019.

They include the multi-talented Doug Johnstone who has a PhD in nuclear physics and moonlights as the manager and drummer for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, Manda Scott who studied veterinary surgery before turning to crime writing, a former McIlvanney winner Denise Mina and half a former winner in the form of Ambrose Parry – aka husband and wife writing team Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman.

The winner of the Scottish Crime Book of the Year will be awarded The McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney at the opening reception on Friday 20 September and will lead a torchlight procession - open to the public – with David Baldacci on their way down to his event. The award recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.

The judges explained why each book made the final four:

Breakers by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
A tightly written and compelling exploration of two sides of Edinburgh, touching on social topics rarely examined in crime fiction. A brilliant and moving portrait of family dynamics and loyalty as a young boy struggles to break out of his powerlessness.

A Treachery of Spiesby Manda Scott (Bantam Press)
A powerful, complex and remarkable espionage thriller: a present-day murder links back to Resistance France. An intricately plotted novel which keeps the reader guessing right to the end.

Convictionby Denise Mina (Harvill Secker)
A highly original and timely rollercoaster of a read, a caper which takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from central Glasgow to the Highlands, France and Italy. The novel fizzes with energy and brims over with a love of storytelling.

The Way of All Fleshby Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
Intensely and brilliantly researched piece of writing, casting back to 19th century Edinburgh when the art of surgery was just emerging at the same time as body snatchers were at large on the streets. Vivid, original, compelling, playful.

This year’s judges are Alison Flood, books reporter for The Guardianand a former news reporter for The Bookseller; James Crawford, chair of Publishing Scotland and presenter of BBC series, Scotland from the Sky and Stuart Cosgrove, writer and broadcaster who was formerly a senior executive at Channel 4.

Previous winners are Liam McIlvanney with The Quaker in 2018, Denise Mina with The Long Drop in 2017, Chris Brookmyre with Black Widow in 2016, Craig Russell with The Ghosts of Altona in 2015, Peter May with Entry Island in 2014, Malcolm Mackay with How A Gunman Says Goodbye in 2013 and Charles Cumming with A Foreign Country in 2012. The 2019 winner will be kept under wraps until the ceremony itself.

Five authors are also shortlisted for the inaugural Bloody Scotland Debut Scottish Crime Book of the Year:

All the Hidden Truths by Claire Askew (Hodder)
From the Shadows by G R Halliday (Vintage)
Black Camp 21 by Bill Jones (Polygon)
In the Silence by M R Mackenzie (Bloodhound)
The Peat Dead by Allan Martin (Thunderpoint)
The winner will be revealed on the opening night of the Festival.
 

If you would like to talk to any of the finalists, the judges or the Director of Bloody Scotland Bob McDevitt please contact fiona@brownleedonald.com 07767 431846.

Holidays from Hell: 5 Crime Novels that Will Make You Want to Stay Home

Vacations are a chance to relax, unwind and re-set, but in the thriller genre, things don’t ever go as planned. In my novel, The Retreat, a former child star, her best friends and soon-to-be sister-in-law travel to upstate New York to attend a wellness retreat. While they start the weekend seeking inner peace and relaxation, they soon find themselves wondering if they’ll survive it. 

Here are five must-read crime novels about getaways that go dangerously awry and will make you want to cancel your next vacation. 

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Lo Blacklock is a journalist at a travel magazine. The novel opens with Lo being the victim of a home invasion. When, following the attack she gets the opportunity to take an assignment on a luxury cruise with only a handful of other wealthy travellers, she jumps at the chance. Soon after the cruise sets sail, Lo witnesses a murder on board, yet all the guests are accounted for and no body is found. Now Lo must not only try to solve the crime but also convince others that a crime even occurred. This is a well-paced, satisfying thriller that made me glad I can’t afford luxury cruises.  

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Like my own book, Nine Perfect Strangers is set on a wellness retreat. Each person is there to lose weight, deal with past trauma and generally undergo a spiritual transformation. The proprietress of the retreat, Masha, was once an over-stressed, over-worked corporate devotee until she suffered a heart attack. Now her mission to help others achieve their ‘best’ selves, but there’s a dark side to her cool, Zen-like surface much to the detriment of her guests. 

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

While on their luxurious honeymoon in Bora Bora, Erin and Mark discover something in the water during a scuba diving excursion. Suddenly, the newlyweds must make a decision: do they keep their secret or turn it over to the police? Their decision will trigger a shocking chain of events. 

They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall 

Miriam Macy receives a surprise invitation to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico. Along with six other strangers, she finds herself in a mansion in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles of forest and open water. Cell service is spotty. Soon strange things start happening and one by one, the strangers are killed off, leaving the survivors to wonder who’s responsible and who’s next. 

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

A group of thirty-something friends from Oxford gather to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students. For this vacation, they chose an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands. Soon after their arrival, a blizzard hits and seals the lodge off from the outside world. The roads become impassable and claustrophobia quickly sets in. When New Year’s Day rolls around, one of the guests turns up dead. Tensions rise, past resentments and grudges surface. Which of the friends is the killer?

The Retreat by Sherri Smith (Titan Books) Out Now

Katie Manning was a beloved child star until her mid-teens when her manager attacked and permanently scarred her face, effectively ending her career and sending her on a path of all-too-familiar post-Hollywood self-destruction. Now twenty-seven, Katie wants a better answer to those click bait "Where Are They Now?" articles that float around online. An answer she hopes to find when her brother's too-good-to-be-true fiancée invites her to a wellness retreat upstate. Together with Katie's two best friends-one struggling with crippling debt and family obligations, one running away from a failed job and relationship-Katie will try to find the inner peace promised at the tranquil retreat. But finding oneself just might drudge up more memories than Katie is prepared to deal with. Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons. Each has her secrets to hide. And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing.

2019 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction

Megan Abbott and Sarah St. Vincent are the recipients of the 2019 Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction. The prizes will be presented October 10, 2019, at Louisiana Humanities Center, 938 Lafayette St., in New Orleans. This event is open to the public.

The prizes honours two women writers. Winners receive both a financial award of $2,500 and a trip to New Orleans to accept their prize.

The Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work honours an established woman writer who has created a significant body of work in crime fiction. The winner is nominated and selected by a jury of WNBA-NO members.

The Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel honours a woman writer with a first-time published novel in adult crime fiction. The winner is selected from the submissions by a three-judge panel.

The Pinckley Prizes partner with the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans, of which Diana Pinckley was a founding member.  More information about the Pinckley Prize can be found here and information about the winners here.

2019 Davitt Awards winners

Sisters in Crime Australia announced the winners of the 2019 Davitt Awards, named for Ellen Davitt (1812-1879), Australia’s first crime novelist, who wrote Australia's first mystery novel, Force and Fraud (1865).

Best Adult Crime Novel:
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan (HarperCollins Australia)
Best Young Adult Crime Novel:
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein (Walker Books)
Best Children’s Crime Novel:
Wakestone Hall by Judith Rossell (ABC Books)
Best Non-fiction Crime Book:
The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper (Penguin Random House)
Best Debut Novel:
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee (Allen & Unwin)
Readers’ Choice:
The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Bestselling crime authors Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee launch new podcast, Red Hot Chilli Writers

A new podcast is being launched by bestselling crime authors Vaseem Khan (the Baby Ganesh Agency series) and Abir Mukherjee (the Wyndham and Banerjee novels) alongside four other British Asian writers: Ayisha Malik, Amit Dhand, Imran Mahmood and Alex Khan, with cameo appearances by Abir’s mum.

 

The Red Hot Chilli Writers will discuss books and writing, as well as the creative arts, pop culture, risqué humour and Big Fat Asian weddings. The podcast will feature big name interviews, alongside offering advice, on-air therapy and lashing of cultural anarchy: they dare to explore the parts that other podcasts cannot react.

Red Hot Chilli Writers will be available fortnightly via all podcast subscription platforms.

An introductory clip of the podcast can be heard here on SPOTIFY, iTunes and Spreaker

A video welcome from the hosts can be seen on the podcast website: https://www.redhotchilliwriters.com/

Vaseem Khan said: “This podcast is about building a cultural bridge between different communities within the creative industries, from readers and artists to publishers and agents.”

Abir Mukherjee added: “Our aim is to have fun, be informative and create dialogue around topical issues. Diversity is a big deal in the arts right now, but who says we can’t tackle it with humour?”

Vaseem Khan’s most recent publication is Bad Day at the Vulture Club (Hodder and Stoughton, £16.99)

Abir Mukherjee’s most recent publication is Smoke and Ashes (Vintage, £8.99)

For further information, or to enquire about guest booking, please contact Steven Cooper at Hodder: steven.cooper@hodder.co.uk / 0203 122 7016

CWA announce shortlist for Best Crime Publisher

Shortlist Announced for New CWA Dagger Best Crime & Mystery Publisher

The shortlist has been announced for the inaugural CWA Dagger for the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year. The award is the first new Dagger category created in over a decade.

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers are regarded by the publishing world as the foremost British awards in crime writing, established in 1955.

Shortlist 2019

Faber & Faber

Harper Fiction (HarperCollins)

HQ (HarperCollins)

No Exit Press (Oldcastle Books)

Orenda Books

Pushkin Vertigo (Pushkin)

Raven (Bloomsbury)

Maxim Jakubowski, Honorary Vice-Chair of the CWA, said: “We’re delighted with the high quality nominees for this new Dagger, a category we felt was overdue in our award portfolio. Publishers play a vital role in driving the biggest selling genre and shaping our cultural landscape. The publicists, editors, designers and hard-working teams that support new and existing authors deserve this recognition.”

The shortlisted publishers and imprints were nominated by a representative group of leading book reviewers, booksellers, festival organisers, bloggers, literary agents and journalists.

The nominee criteria was the display of excellence and diversity in publishing. Factors taken into account include developing new authors and marketing and promoting crime fiction.

The winner will be announced at the prestigious Dagger Awards Dinner on October 24 at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City (formerly known as Grange City) on Cooper’s Row, London.

For ticket details and to book a place, https://thecwa.co.uk/the-daggers/cwa-dagger-awards-gala-dinner-2019 or contact admin@thecwa.co.uk Discounts are available for tables of 10 or 12.

Linwood Barclay’s Elevator Pitch comes to your floor

Released on 5^th September from the HQ Imprint of HarperCollins in the UK and Ireland; and on September 17^th from the William Morrow imprint of HarperCollins in the US and Canada, it’s time to mark your diaries.

I read extensively, and am most enthused by work that makes me think, to ponder, as well exposure to well-written narrative, especially those that are a tad different from the pack, a tad weird. Elevator Pitch is one such thriller, weird and different.

I’ve been a long-term reader of the work of Linwood Barclay, but little prepared me for his latest thriller, Elevator Pitch, as it provoked thought as it entertained me.

This new work by Linwood Barclay is his most audacious, blending character to a high-tech, high-concept premise inducing vertigo in the reader. Following from the claustrophobia of his last novel, A Noise Downstairs; Barclay broadens his vista moving from a suburban backdrop to the big city.

New York becomes gripped by what appears as a tragedy, a freak accident - but soon becomes something worse, something perplexing to a city that relies on height to function. An elevator (aka ‘Lift’) in Lansing Tower malfunctions taking with it a wannabe (and desperate) screenwriter trying to pitch his script to an executive of Cromwell Entertainment. It contains two others. The elevator ascends to the top of the skyscraper and then descends into free-fall. The horrific deaths of the four occupants trapped in that elevator eponymously gives this thriller its signature, and curiously, a theme of sorts.

Elevator Pitch is one of the most exciting thrillers I’ve read this year. Its intriguing and thought-provoking premise was matched by the startling denouement, ensuring it was well-worth the ride.  Despite its heft, and narrative complexity, it is a very fast read.

It’s a book that made me pause when those lift-doors closed. I pondered if it would have been better for my health if I had taken the stairwell.

Read the full review from Shots Magazine HERE

So, with a few burning questions, Linwood agreed to a short interview with this extraordinary book released shortly -

Ali: So, the most pressing question first, where did you get the premise for Elevator Pitch?

Linwood: I wish I could say the idea came to me when I was trapped in an elevator. Truth is, I heard an item on the Toronto news that the city did not have enough elevator inspectors. There hadn’t been a tragedy, but they wanted to be sure they were on guard for one. And the idea, of someone who kills by sabotaging elevators, was suddenly just THERE.

Ali: Do you have a preference between the small town / suburban backdrop of your previous work such as A Noise Downstairs to the broader vista of a Techno-Thriller such as Trust your Eyes?

Linwood: I’m okay with either, but if I’m going to set a book in a big city, I have to have a sense of it. And I’ve spent a lot of time in New York, so I felt comfortable setting it there. This book HAD to be set there. As for small towns, you don’t have to worry so much about geographical details. You can invent them. You can invent the whole town.

Ali: And tell us as a writer how you manage a large cast of characters, making them distinct and vivid for the reader?

Linwood: Honestly, I don’t really think about that. I create the people I need and give them the background I think suits them.

Ali: Did you plot Elevator Pitch in detail or had you just the premise and the conclusion, and worked on that high-wire?

Linwood: I had a lot of it worked out in my head before I began, who did it and why. But I was a hundred pages or so into the book when I figured out how the book had to end – a big climactic scene at the top of a new Manhattan skyscraper.

Ali: And the short chapters?

Linwood: I have a short attention span. But seriously, I think short chapters keep a story moving, and allow you to jump from scene to scene more easily. 

Ali: I find that in your work, all the cast have flaws of some sort, some more than others. What is it about the fallibility of the human condition that interests you?

Linwood: We’re all messed up, aren’t we? Who among us is perfect? It’s our flaws that make us interesting, that make us tick, that often determine how we will react in a situation. We’re an amalgam of bad habits, grudges and insecurities. And yet, often lovable. 

Ali: I marvel at how easy you make your books appear, so tell me what are you like as a person when trapped in your imagination and pecking away at the keyboard?

Linwood: It’s a job. Having worked in newspapers for 30 years, there’s no other way for me to approach it. I get up in the morning and go to work. The goal is to get 2,000 words done. Some days I don’t quite make that, other days I get well past it. And then the whistle blows around three in the afternoon when my wife, Neetha, calls up to the study, saying, “It’s vodka o’clock.”

Ali: I can see the film of Elevator Pitch in my mind, so has there been interest in this novel by Film / TV? And please tell us about the other film projects that involve your work?

Linwood: Fingers crossed Elevator Pitch attracts some interest. The Accident has been made into a very good six-part series in France, and I wrote the screenplay for Never Saw it Coming, from my book, which was made into a movie in Canada and is available on a Canadian streaming service. I hope it gets shown one of these days in the UK. My Promise Falls trilogy – Broken Promise, Far From True, The Twenty-Three – is in development with eOne and a Canadian network for a series. I’m involved, and have just written the pilot. Again, fingers crossed.

Ali: I enjoyed your Alfred Hitchcock moment in the book trailer, so tell us about how that came about?

Linwood: HarperCollins UK wanted to do a short promotional film using the News Building elevators when I was in London last November. They got some shots of me waiting for an elevator, boarding it. Unlike Hitchcock, though, I got to say something. It was fun.

Ali: I know that one of your passions is the building of model railways, so tell us a little about where this interest sprang from?

Linwood: My father made me a very basic model railway when I was around five or six, and the interest has always stayed with me. We moved this past year and I had to tear down a layout that filled a room that was 14 by 14 feet. But there is a room in the new house, slightly larger, and construction of a new empire is well underway. I find, when you are inventing an entire world in your head all day, it’s nice to create one with your hands in the evening, or weekend.

Ali: So how are the team at your new UK home, HarperCollins treating you?

Linwood: Wonderfully. They put me up at the Shard. What more could you want?

Ali: You scared me when you (and Kate Mills your publisher) spotted me in London walking to an unrelated book launch, could you tell me what you were doing on the flying visit to London?

Linwood: That was a wild trip. Flew out of Toronto Monday night, landed in Dublin Tuesday, then off to London for Wednesday and Thursday, then home Friday. It was a whirlwind tour to build the buzz for Elevator Pitch. I felt like I was on one, going up and down and up and down, the doors never opening.

Ali: Are you touring and signing copies of Elevator Pitch in Europe, America and Canada this year and are details available on your website yet?

Linwood: All my tour details are posted on the website, with regular reminders on Twitter and Facebook.

Ali: And finally, what are you working on? Are you returning to the darkness that is concealed within suburbia, or the dangers of the Big City?

Linwood: I thought I knew what I was doing next, even had a book written. But I got a new idea that’s so terrific – not that the other one isn’t – that I may get an extension on my deadline and do it first. Not breathing a word about it.

Ali: Thank you for your time.

Linwood: And yours too.

Shots Magazine would like to thank Joe Thomas of Harper Collins HQ for organising this feature interview.

Read the full review from Shots Magazine HERE of Elevator Pitch out 5^th September 2019 [UK / Ireland] in HBK

Read the full review of A Noise Downstairs HERE out currently in PB

More information about Linwood Barclay’s promotional tour for Elevator Pitch is available from www.linwoodbarclay.com

Hanna Jameson’s “The Last” in Spain

In another exclusive interview, John Parker, our Spanish reviewer and editor reports back from the Celsius 232 film and literary event hosted in Avilés, where he found himself chatting to Hanna Jameson who makes her first visit to Celsius 232. John’s previous interviews from the 2019 festival are archived with links to his interviews with John Connolly and Sarah Pinborough.

Shots Editors Mike Stotter and Ali Karim, with their friend and colleague Jon Coates, the renowned bibliophile and journalist found themselves at the launch of The Last, at Theakston’s crime-writing festival 2018, where the publishers made a mock up, reflecting Jameson’s apocalyptic theme, from the book; which we recorded below

For those with an avid interest in apocalyptic thriller fiction, The Last is an extraordinary work, and as thought-provoking as Deon Meyer’s recent THE FEVER.

For background Hanna Jameson is the author of four novels. The fourth entitled The Last, an apocalyptic thriller, was the hot book from Frankfurt’s Book Fair in 2017.

Since its paperback release it has spent several weeks in the seat marked Numero Uno in Waterstones paperback fiction charts, and here’s the author talking about The Last.

The Last is a dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks. 

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?

So over to our reporter in Spain

John Parker: Hello, here we are in Avilés at Celsius 232 with Hanna Jameson. Welcome, and when did you get here?

Hanna Jameson: Thank you. I flew in last night, just in time for dinner, basically.

John: But no jetlag?

Hanna: Well, no. I didn’t come from that far; basically, from London.

John: London makes me think of your previous work, the London Underground series. There were 3 books if I recall, Something You Are, Girl 7 and Road Kill. They were quite successful, I believe.

Hanna: They did all right, yes

John: But now you have come onto something that is even bigger than those because there is a lot of talk about The Last. There have been comparisons with J.G. Ballard, David Peace, Graham Greene… nice company to be in.

Hannah: Yeah, I feel ok about the Ballard comparison because he’s, like, my hero.

John: Is he really?

Hanna: Definitely. As far as I am concerned, he’s the god of dystopian fiction.

Editor’s note: As a fan of Ballard, and curious about Alien Megastructures, I came across an extraordinary audio adaptation of his short story “Report on an Unidentified Space Station” from Knifepoint Horror. It can be accessed from this link HERE or read online HERE – apology for the interruption.

John: Hey, David Peace as well. I’m a fan of David Peace. Have you read any of his stuff? Did that influence you?

Hanna: Well, the Red Riding Trilogy was a huge influence on my first three books, mostly because it was the first time I had read violence written in such a poetic way and it had a real effect on how I wrote. I mean, even my sentence structure was very influenced by David Peace.

Editor’s Note: apology for another interruption, but this archived interview with David Peace may be of interest, it’s HERE

John: And the Graham Greene connection?

Hanna: Graham Greene? I’m extremely flattered but I don’t know that my writing resembles his, but I quote him a few times in my work, I think. I definitely quoted him in The Last.

John: And I hear you are a big fan of Quentin Tarantino and his way of looking at death and things on the screen is an influence on your writing. Is that true?

Hanna: Definitely. Well, I’m really influenced by film and TV in general. I think Tarantino was a much bigger influence on my first three novels because you’ve got that kind of almost comedic level of ultra-violence which I really enjoyed. And then I think… I don’t know… in terms of film and TV I think TV shows like The Leftovers and Twin Peaks were a huge influence on The Last.

John: Is there any other author I haven’t mentioned that may have been an influence on you in the past? Do you like detective fiction apart from the Agatha Christie type of thing?

Hanna: …………..laughing………..Do you know I’ve never actually read any Agatha Christie. I think the comparison is probably accurate as far as themes go but I’ve never actually read any of her work so my influences are probably more Martina Cole, because I think most crime fiction is like, well…it revolves around the whodunit and I think with regards to The Last, I wanted to write a dystopian novel but then old habits die hard and a murder mystery was kind of the perfect way to explore themes of justice and holding on to ideas of right and wrong even though the structures binding our society together are completely gone.

John: The future for writers with adaptations of their novels is rosier than ever because of the sudden surge of platforms like Amazon, HBO and Netflix.

Hanna: Indeed, Absolutely.

John: Is there any possibility of your stuff being adapted for TV or similar?

Hanna: I couldn’t possibly say…

John: You can’t say. That’s good news. Or is it?  Well, regardless of whether you can tell me or not, do you see it as a great platform for you and your contemporaries?

Hanna: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And not just for adaptations, to be honest, even though adaptations Netflix recently did with Annihilation and Bird Box, I didn’t even know they were novels, they were adaptations. So I think in terms of bringing genre fiction to even bigger audiences than it currently is - well, they’re incredible. But then, TV has always been almost a bigger influence on my writing than authors have because I think so much of the best writing and the best characterisation and the best dialogue, it’s all in TV at the moment. So, I think The Last, it feels episodic, I think. It feels like a TV series.

John: interesting. I imagine you are a big fan of series like Killing Eve?

Hanna: Yes, I enjoyed Killing Eve, it’s pretty good.   

John: Which did you prefer? The first series or the second series? I preferred the first.

Hanna:………….Oh, that’s hard to say! It’s hard to say! Probably the second series because I think the sort of combination of horror, violence and comedy was better assessed and I think the writers really hit their stride with the characters whereas in the first one, though very good, it didn’t quite jibe with the tone, and there were certain things about the humour that didn’t quite land for me - but then everyone else loved it, so I think that’s just a matter of personal taste.

John: Fair enough!  What are you reading now? Are you reading anything you’ like to recommend to people reading Shots?

Hanna: I’m reading… I read a lot of non-fiction actually. I’ve only just got back into reading fiction and it was because I’m writing another novel at the moment so I need to get back into that mind-set of, like, prose, in general. Usually I’m reading History. I’m reading a non-fiction book at the moment called One Nation Under God by Kevin Cruse which is about how corporate America invented Christian America and it’s about how the radical right evangelical movement that elected Donald Trump was created back in the 1950s with President Eisenhower and the introduction of the words, “Under God” to “The Pledge of Allegiance” and all the religious phrasing on the currency and stuff; that was all introduced in the 1950s so that’s really interesting. And I’m also reading Stephen King at the moment, a novel called 11/22/63.   

John: I loved it!

Hanna:…….I’d never read it before. and I’m 4 chapters in.

John: Have you seen the TV series?    

Hanna: No, I haven’t. I don’t like to watch TV shows before the book.

John: I didn’t like it.

Hanna: Yeah, I’ve heard about it… but the book is incredible so far. I’m really enjoying it.

John: Ok, to finish up let me change tack as today is July 20^th, 2019 which means it’s 50 years since Man walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon 50 years ago. Do you believe we actually went to the moon, or do you think it’s a big conspiracy and that we’ve all been fooled for the last 50 years?

Hanna:……………..laughter….. Oh, I believe… thought i’m kind of an agnostic at heart, so I’m very much in the camp of “I believe we did it”, but if I found our one day that we didn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised.

John: Ok, good answer! Hanna, thank you very much for your time. I totally appreciate your being here. I hope you have enjoyed your time in Aviles, and that you like it so much you’ll come back next year.

Hanna: I really want to!

John: Thank you for your time.

Hanna: Thank you too.

More information on the work of Hanna Jameson is available from Twitter HERE and Penguin HERE and Simon and Schuster HERE

Shots Magazine pass thanks to Jorge Iván Argiz and the organisers of the 2019 Celsius 232 festival, and to Hannah Jameson.

And thanks to our Spanish representative, writer, reviewer and editor John Parker, who is a Graduate-qualified English/Spanish Teacher, owner and director of CHAT ENGLISH, an English Language Centre in Avilés on the north coast of Spain John is a voracious reader, and has loved horror fiction for many, many years. He also has a passion for propagating citrus fruit, and root vegetables.

Photos (c) 2018 - 2019 John Parker, Ali Karim, PenguinRandomHouse and Simon and Schuster