The latest subject for the 10 questions is John Connor, author of the acclaimed Karen Sharpe police procedurals set in the West Yorkshire area. His latest book, Falling, reviewed here recently, has just been published. And very good it is too.
The review prompted an exchange of ideas between myself and John about how crime fiction like their lead characters: angular, awkward and tough-to-love like Karen Sharpe or KInsey Millhone girl-next-door-likable. I'll write that up next week. There will also be my guest blog for the Love of Reading online book fair, subject yet to be determined.
In the meantime, thank you to John for taking the time to respond:
Favourite author: No single one. J M Coetzee, Mika Waltari,
Ford Maddox Ford,
Favourite book: As above; Disgrace, The Dark Angel, Parades End,
Farewell My Lovely, The Maltese Falcon (for the Flitcraft chapter), The Thought
Gang (Tibor Fischer) and others
Favourite
character: Sharrow, from Against A Dark Background by Iain M Banks, or
Becky Sharpe, of course (Vanity Fair)
Best book read in 2007:
Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner
Best crime city: Chandler’s
LA. In real life Bradford is pretty good for crime – I ran a team of lawyers
prosecuting crime in Bradford and Leeds for a
while, and it seemed as richly destructive as any city of greater note or size.
All of West Yorkshire enjoys a unique landscape of mixed urban development
(sometimes quite prestigious, as with Leeds) and post-industrial decay, laced now with terrible racial tensions - the whole set in the most magnificent rural beauty. Rural beauty and inncer city blight are often right alongside each other. It's a fantastic area to set any kind of novel in. And I'm not from Yorkshire, so I'm not just doing the usual Yorkshireman's plug...
Best film adaptation: No idea
Book that gave you the thriller bug:
El Invierno en Lisboa and Beltenebros. Both by Antonio Munoz Molina
Author to watch: Jan Costin
Wagner, for crime. Ice Moon is a really very impressive book. Breaks enough
rules to stand out from the pack. Beautiful bathos at the ‘climax’, for
example.
What you snack on while writing: Saucisson
sec, cheese, selery salt, Palm beer (whilst over here, in Belgium). Probably packets of crisps in the UK.
Who would play you in a film of your life: No idea