[Publishers Weekly said] 13 Steps Down ... all her trademark virtues: vivid characters, a plot addictive as crack and a sense of place unequaled in crime fiction. |
I have plenty of that. |
I really do literally put myself into a character's shoes. |
I think about death every day - what it would be like, why it would happen to me. It would be humiliating to be afraid. |
I think about what kind of a background he had, what sort of childhood he had, how he grew up, what he does for a living, the way he wants to live, |
I think to be driven to want to kill must be such a terrible burden. |
I think what would I do next if, as in his case, he goes to look at the place where a serial killer lived and indeed buried his victims and instead of finding this very squalid and sinister street he finds it's all gone and the whole place has been turned into a very pretty little enclave of small, pretty houses and gardens and trees and flowers and cobbled streets. |
I try, and I think I succeed, in making my readers feel sorry for my psychopaths, because I do. |
I've had two proposals since I've been a widow. I am a wonderful catch, you know. I have a lot of money. |
If I do, the whole thing falls apart. It fails. The illusion is in my head. |
London underground took me on a tour of all the hidden places, the disused shafts and staircases... that was very interesting. |
The knives of jealousy are honed on details |
The weather was still what people called glorious. He would rather it had been cold and gray, for this warmth and sunshine brought the neighbors out into their gardens. |
To be a classic, a novel should be original. |
unusual thing: a European thriller writer whose work holds up as literature. |