Ursula P Archer on Five

Today’s guest blog is by Ursula Archer.  Ursula P. Archer was born in Vienna in 1968, and worked as an editor at a publishing house.  After the success of her first young adult novel, she now dedicates much of her time to writing fiction.  She lives with her family in Vienna.  Five is her first thriller for adults.

As English people, we Austrians and especially Viennese like me have the reputation of being polite (true, if you consider only the surface), therefore it's not really easy for me to sit down and write flattering stuff about my own book, “Like it's brilliant, go and read it”.  Things like that are much easier if you get asked directly in an interview, for example.  But hey, you know what?  I've been a journalist for more than a decade, so interviewing myself should be a piece of cake.  And I like cake.

So, Ursula. Your novel “Five” is soon going to be out in the UK – how do you feel about that?

Totally over the moon. It's like hitting the jackpot.  As far as I know only 2% of the books on the English market are translations.  Being part of that small group is fantastic.

Could you give us a short synopsis of what the story is about?

Sure.  A murdered woman is found on a meadow near Salzburg.  On her soles there are tattooed coordinates that mark the location of a hideout where a horrible surprise is waiting: a hand, shrink-wrapped in plastic foil, and a riddle.  Beatrice Kaspary and Florin Wenninger, agents at Salzburg's criminal investigation department, have to engage in a gruesome type of geocaching, the modern kind of scavenger hunt with GPS.  Every solved puzzle leads to another cut off body part.

Have you tried geocaching yourself?

Absolutely.  It's great fun and I definitely recommend it.  By the way, I check all the coordinates that you find in the books personally.  I have been there, with my then eleven years old son who loved looking for places that qualified for hiding dead people's remains.

Your main character, Beatrice, seems to be quite a troubled person.  She is a single mum, her boss hates her, and her ex terrorises her with late night calls.  Why did you make life so difficult for her?

Don't forget that she also has a traumatising experience in her past.  Well, when Beatrice and I first met (in my imagination) she was in a terrible hurry.  She was nervous, busy, and a little harsh to me, because I added another task to her life.  So I tried to figure out why she acted like she did.  Sometimes when I develop my characters it works like this.  I catch a glimpse, I get a first impression, and then I work my way up from there.  I think Beatrice is in a place that a lot of women know very well.  She struggles to meet all the expectations, to fulfil her obligations but she never feels like she succeeds in it.  Bad conscience is her permanent companion.

Crime novels are booming.  In your opinion, what distinguishes a good book of this genre from a mediocre one?

I think the central mystery and the way it is “wrapped” are the crucial factors.  As a reader I love

thrillers that invite me to make my own guesses and give me a tiny chance to be right – but only if I really, really pay attention.  I love mysteries that challenge me.  If, in addition to that, the characters of the novel feel true-to-life and relatable, I'm happy.

And you think that “Five” provides all that?

I hope so.  To be absolutely honest, I think so.  It's brilliant, go, and read it.

Five -

Every corpse is a clue.  A woman is found murdered in a field. Tattooed on her feet is a strange combination of numbers and letters.  Detective Beatrice Kaspary quickly identifies these as map co-ordinates, which lead the police to a ‘treasure box’ containing several severed body parts – and a note from the killer with a series of cryptic clues to the identity of the next victim.  So begins a desperate scavenger hunt in which Beatrice herself becomes a pawn in the killer’s game of cat and mouse, as she risks all to uncover the murderer.

N47° 46.605 E013° 21.718. A dismembered hand
N47° 48.022 E013° 10.910 Two severed ears
N47° 26.195 E013° 12.523 A mutilated corpse

  

Five by Ursula P Archer was published by Vintage in paperback on 8 May 2014 at £6.99, eBook available

The Pleasures and Pitfalls of a Crime Series

Today’s guest blog is by Adam Creed.  He is the author of 5 books in the DI Staffe series.  He is now Head of Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and Project Leader of Free to Write.  Kill and Tell is the fifth book in the D.I Staffe series

Anyone who has written or read a series of crime novels will know that the format comes loaded with both pleasures and pitfalls.  By the time I wrote Kill and Tell, I had been down the road three times with the second, third and fourth in the Staffe series of novels.

With a series, the author has to keep the long storylines of the main characters moving smoothly otherwise those familiar with the earlier books may switch off.  There will also be long plotlines that can’t become overburdened with undue exposition.  I can’t abide sentences such as, ‘DS Pulford, the ambitious and university-educated young sergeant who has something of a history with the attractive, orphaned WPC Chancellor, reached for his truncheon...’

As writers, we have to convey such information in an oblique way so the characters’ back-stories become apparent in a seamless fashion, woven into the action of the main plot.  The reader who is new to the series will be intrigued but hopefully not flummoxed by what has gone on before.  It’s a precarious line to tread but I always try to err on the side of pace and economy.  Readers can be trusted to fill in the gaps.

Another challenge is to take the reader to new places with each book, both in terms of the character development and the milieu that the book occupies.  Defamiliarising the world of the series is important for the writer as well as the reader and in the Staffe series; I try to operate on at least three fronts with each book.  Firstly, there is the main plot, the central crime around which the main action develops.  I also like to address a theme or social issue in each of the books and sometimes this can be a historical event such as the Battle of Cable Street in Kill and Tell or the Spanish Civil War in Death in the Sun; or it might be an exploration of a social issue, such as infertility and the right to life, in Pain of Death.  Thirdly, I aim to develop the character of at least one of the main characters in a significant way.  In Kill and Tell, DS Pulford is on remand for allegedly killing Staffe’s assailant from an earlier novel.  This directly affects Pulford, of course, but also has an impact on Staffe and Chancellor in terms of their approach to law enforcement and the notion of justice.

It is these wider reaches of the constituent novels within a series that produce rewards for both reader and writer that stand-alone novels might struggle to achieve in that they have less space within which to develop.  A series can drill deeply into the corner of the world where the action takes place, and the characters can be undressed more thoroughly, more slowly, in a way that mirrors life.

Of course, the difficulty for the writer is that not all books in the series are conceived at the outset.  Things change.  Our characters behave in unexpected ways according to the challenges we present to them.  The series can take unexpected turns, but that it a pleasure as well as a pitfall.  There are several things about Staffe that maybe I would have done differently in the first book, had I known what I know now.  But life’s not like that.

And as for Staffe and the direction he is going in?  From the outset, I had a clear view of where I wanted him to end up in the series and we are getting close to the end now.  Anyone who has read the books will know that he is driven to bring to justice the man who murdered his parents.  The events of Book 6 take him closer to facing up to Santi Extbatteria, the ETA terrorist who made and planted the bomb that killed them.  Will there be a book 7 and a book 8?  Certainly the former, but I have great admiration for Mankell and what he did with Wallender and I don’t think this is a series that will go and on.  I want the pleasures without the pitfalls, but that is easy to say, I guess, and we all know great crime writers who have found it impossible to break free from the deep joy a series of novels can offer.

More information about Adam Creed and his work can be found on his website.  You can also follow him on Twitter @damcreed and find him on Facebook. Also read the Shots' book review.

Kill and Tell  -

A reformed Sicilian criminal, Carmelo Trapani, has been kidnapped and his search for the aged Carmello leads Staffe all the way back to a terrible act at the Battle of Cable Street.  Meanwhile, Staffe's own loyal servant, DS Pulford, is in Pentonville awaiting trial for the murder of Jadus Golding, the very man who attempted to murder Staffe, leaving wounds from which Staffe is still recovering and it suits some in the hierarchy to see Pulford go down.  Can Staffe save Carmelo without leaving Pulford to the political vultures?  As he battles find the man who murdered his own assailant, pressures also mount from within and Staffe's heart falters - in every way.  His job is on the line and when he least expects it, his own past puts a gun to his head.

Kill and Tell by Adam Creed is out now in paperback, £7.99 (Faber & Faber)

Books to Look Forward to From Corvus and Atlantic Books

When private investigator Sandro Cellini is invited to attend a glamorous launch party for a luxury residence overlooking the glittering expanse of Florence, he has no idea what he's walking into.  Behind the ancient and luxurious facade of Palazzo San Giorgio, there lies a series of terrible secrets; an old torture chamber, hidden for centuries in the bowels of the building, and a much more recent malevolence.  The former head of security for this elite development has just died under suspicious circumstances and Sandro finds himself - quite literally - stepping into dead man's shoes.  He soon discovers that other unsavoury incidents have tainted the prestigious opening.  When one of the residents is found murdered in her room, events begin to spiral out of control.  Sandro must work to untangle the complex web of relationships that exists between residents and staff to unmask a deadly killer.   The Killing Room is by Christobel Kent and is due to be published in July 2014.

Masters of Rome is by Robert Fabbri and is due to be published in August 2014.  Britannia, 45 AD:

Vespasian's brother, Sabinus, is captured by druids.  The druids want to offer a potent sacrifice to their gods - not just one Roman Legate, but two. They know that Vespasian will come after his brother and they plan to sacrifice the siblings on mid-summer's day.  But to whom will they be making this sacrifice?  What were the gods of this land before the Celts came?  Only the druids still hold the secret and it is one of pure malevolence.  Vespasian must strive to save his brother whilst completing the conquest of the south-west of the haunted isle, before he is drawn inexorably back to Rome and the heart of Imperial politics.  Claudius' three freedmen remain at the locus of power.  As Messalina's time as Empress comes to a bloody end, the three freedmen each back a different mistress.  But which woman will be victorious?  And at what price for Vespasian?"

Less than six months after taking office, the Norwegian Prime Minister is found dead.  She has been shot in the head.  But was it a politically motivated assassination or personal revenge?  The death shakes the country to its core.  The hunt for her killer is complicated, intense, and gruelling.  Hanne Wilhelmsen must contain the scandal before a private tragedy becomes a public outrage, in what will become the most sensitive case of her career...  This is a story of lies, intrigue, and politics.  The Lion's Mouth questions who holds the power in Norway, and how far they will go to use it.  The Lion’s Mouth is by Anne Holt and is due to be published in November 2014.

When a group of minor celebrities are thrown a lifeline – a new reality television programme set in a notoriously haunted house – they snap the opportunity up.  But as they explore the shadowy old building, uncanny things start to happen.  While the camera rolls, their orchestrated fear turns into terror, as they realize not all of the happenings in the house are for effect…  Night after Night is by Phil Rickman and is due to be published in October 2014.