The latest news about our gripping crime fiction, thrillers and mysteries, detective books, crime stories and page-turning books.
Do you think of yourself as a Polish Stieg Larsson?
I’d like to think that in a few years people will say: Larsson? Is that the Swede who was popular before Miłoszewski’s day?
What’s one piece of advice you would give to any aspiring writers?
My fundamental advice is: if you want to be a writer you must be a good reader first. You must enjoy reading - it doesn’t matter what. You don’t have to read the classics, or poetry, or authors whose names start with an S. There are no obligatory texts but you must like reading: crime fiction, romantic novels, children’s books, sports blogs, pornographic stories on websites or funeral notices in newspapers. Of all that exists in the world of writing, something should interest you.
If you had to isolate yourself with one other writer, who would it be and why?
J.G. Ballard. We have much to talk about... He was right on everything
If you had to isolate yourself with one other writer, who would it be and why?
Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. I need to laugh.
Do you have any local stories of kindness or good deeds that you can share?
Our stores ran out of cleaning supplies by March 20. Our neighbors used their last ration of vodka to make their own disinfectant and gave us a bottle of the stuff. It’s bright yellow and works like a dream.
When the authorities in Paris, where I live with my French husband and three children, first mentioned the lockdown, I naively thought that here was an opportunity to finally tackle Proust or re-read Tolstoy, because I'd have the time for that sort of reading now, right? Wrong. Not only my days are busier than ever, starting a thousand-page novel somehow seemed to imply that the lockdown would go on... forever? So I've read the autobiography of John Le Carre, The Pigeon Tunnel, instead. I am in awe of Le Carre's writing, and in a sense, my favourite author has kept me company in these troubled times, offering new perspectives and lessons from his extraordinary life.
If you had to isolate yourself with one other writer, who would it be and why?
There is a famous saying by Arthur Koestler, that “To want to meet an author because you like his books is as ridiculous as wanting to meet the goose because you like paté de foie gras.” But since you are asking, I would hope we would have a great time with Robert B. Parker, because his crime novels were by far the wittiest, most entertaining books while tackling about very serious things at the same time.
Carofiglio Interview April 2020
Is there a local dish or comfort food that you are eating more regularly at the moment, to get you through these turbulent times?
It’s commonplace, sorry, but I really like spaghetti. I am learning new recipes and above all, I am creating new ones myself. Of course they are secret.
Q&A with Teresa Solana April 2020
- How are these surreal days influencing your normal writing process?
I am writing a new novel and it is very difficult for me to concentrate. I'm constantly reading the news, checking Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp... I am also very concerned for my family and friends living in Catalonia, and especially for my mother, who is 84 years old.
BEN PASTOR
Q&A April 2020 
How are these surreal days influencing your normal writing process?
Interesting question. For the first two-three weeks, like most everyone else, I was glued to the Web and the TV, trying to understand what was going on in the world, especially as my daughter lives across the ocean in Vermont. Little by little, I realized there’s a risk in becoming obsessed with the latest news, many of which are incidentally unreliable. So I went back to writing. In The Gypsy Synagogue, my protagonist Martin Bora finds himself under siege in Stalingrad with the Sixth German Army.
The WSJ said: "‘Baghdad Central,” the impossible-to-stop-watching six-part series on Hulu, is a Middle Eastern western in the “High Noon” tradition, though that hardly does it justice..."
Trailer: https://hulu.app.box.
"Just finished this. Fine follow-up to @anitanairauthor's first Inspector Gowda book. Harrowing but compassionate tale of modern India." Ian Rankin
"I love Inspector Gowda. He is a brilliant creation, loveable, flawed, smart and doggedly determined. A truly good man in a bad world." Peter James, author of Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead
