Behind the Book with Val McDermid

THE MERMAIDS SINGING

The first novel to feature psychological profiler Tony Hill and police detective Carol Jordan was not meant to be that. By which I mean it was meant to be a standalone. But by the time I got to the end, I knew there was so much more I could do with these characters and so many more stories they could tell. This book is probably unique in my output in that the whole story popped into my head more or less fully formed, complete with twists and turns. I was driving at the time and I was so shocked I had to pull over and write down the key elements. I was totally convinced I would lose it otherwise. It was so different from anything I’d ever done before, but its success gave me confidence that whatever story I wanted to tell, I’d be able to find a voice for it.

THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD

The second Tony & Carol book had its genesis in the US. I was researching a non-fiction book on women private eyes (A SUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN, Poisoned Pen Press) and one of the PIs i interviewed had been involved in investigating the first paedophile allegations against Michael Jackson. She was convinced of his guilt. And while I was in the US, the OJ Simpson trial began, amid a sea of publicity. It seemed to me that celebrity had become the new shield against having to pay the price for your crimes. And I began to wonder if it would be possible to nail a TV star for serial murder...

THE LAST TEMPTATION

It was my birthday. I was in Cologne, in Germany, and I had an afternoon off. I went for a little cruise on the Rhine and became engrossed in the river traffic – those huge Rhine barges which were clearly family homes as well as commercial shipping enterprises. I knew from sailing that life on the water is often a closed world and this seemed to me to offer a great occupation for a serial killer – always on the move, nobody knows where you are but you’ve got your car on board so you can move around on the land just as easily... The last piece of the jigsaw was when a German film maker told me about the appalling medical experiments that the Nazis had carried out against German children. 

 

THE TORMENT OF OTHERS

It’s hard to say much about the back story to this book without giving away crucial plot points. Except that one of the things I explicitly wanted to do with this book was to show how a woman can find a way forward in her life and her career after the worst of experiences. That we don’t always have to be defined by our victimhood. 

 

BENEATH THE BLEEDING

Two plots wrapped round each other, both touching on the beautiful game... This is the book where I blow up a soccer stadium. At the time, Gordon Brown was Prime Minister. Gordon and I support the same football club, Raith Rovers. That summer, the club had been under siege from the security services, making sure Gordon would be safe when he came to watch a game. And one of the secret service guys came up to the General Manager, waving my book under his nose. ‘This book is about blowing up a football stadium,’ he said, sounding very cross. ‘And you’re telling me this is the woman who sits next to the Prime Minister in the Director’s Box?’ Oops.

 

FEVER OF THE BONE

I try to stay abreast of what one might pretentiously call the zeitgeist. So I’d had an idea for a Tony & Carol story (which I can’t tell you because it would give away the plot) and it occurred to me that the perfect way for the killer to stalk victims was via the kind of social networking site that was becoming so popular. I invented a site called RigMarole, then my inventive UK publishers created it for real when the book came out. All fun and games...

 

THE RETRIBUTION

The latest Tony & Carol book, out in the UK in September, features the return of arch-villain Jacko Vance, who first appeared in THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD. Yup, Jacko’s back. And this time it’s personal. Anybody who thought the last book seemed to promise the prospect of happiness will have to revise that position...

And be sure to check out the contest for a free book over on Friday Read facebook page  Click the giveaway button on the left side.

End of February Advertising Sale!

We're about to layout the next issue of Crimespree for Mar/April and I decided to have a 1 day sale on advertising.

Got something you want to spread the word about?

for 1 day only Half Price on ads in Crimespree

http://crimespreemag.com/advertise.html

 I'll need to have confirmation on the ad by 7:00 PM on Wednesday February 22nd in order for the discount to be applied.

Drop a line to Jon@crimespreemag.com if you are interested

Black Friday and the srewing of retail employees

Black Friday is the a horrible day, the day after Thanksgiving when Americans go crazy and shop like the Apocalypse is coming. Shoppers on this day are traditionally cheap and rude, I know, I worked a number of them and I've watched people shop on this day. Shoppers in large stores seem to be getting ruder as it is already, on this day they lose their minds. Just look at these assholes in the picture.


I love the holidays, and I love getting gifts. I also really love giving gifts and shopping for them. As a result I am one of those taking part in the annual shopping frenzy. But I do so during normal hours.


Over the last few years the stores are opening earlier and staying open later. The latest is now Thanksgiving night at midnight stores will open their doors to people rushing out to get bargains.
And to the people making these decisions I say shame on you. You are effectively destroying a family holiday for your employees. To be at work at midnight is outrageous. The people working these hours have to go to bed early and forgo the holiday normally spent with their family. And with times the way they are, who is going to make a stink about it and risk losing their job?


Among the stores opening at midnight are, Kohls Department store, Macy’s and Target among others. Employees will be getting out of bed at 10 or 11 pm Thanksgiving night to go to work and wait on people who line up at these stores. The corporations behind this justify it by saying that they open early because people show up to shop. You know what? If you wait until 7:00 am, they will wait until then to shop, greedy bastards.


And if you are one of the weirdos getting up early to shop at these places and perpetuating this problem, shame on you as well. People who work retail work hard and have to put up with a lot of crap. They deserve to have family holidays too. By being one of the people showing up when the doors open you are part of the problem.


My answer to this for 2011 is that I will not be partaking in this mistreatment of employees and I will be boycotting stores that open at ridiculous hours. I’ll shop local at locally owned stores that keep more human hours where the people deciding the hours are actually working the hours along side employees.

today in history

In the minute to minute world that owes much of the immediate release of information to Steve Jobs, it is right and just that the news is flooding all aspects of print, televised and social media. There was a magic to the man who believed in cohesive design with functionality. A genius who introduced the world to products that many of us cannot live without, I often wonder if from time to time he didn't see a down side as well. I could not live without my I-pod, but radio has become poorer for it. I covet an I-pad but to add the additional wi-fi charges to the desk top wi-fi, the two cell phones and the land line we continue to have, seems quite silly. Still, just two weeks ago I was at the apple store, looking at the Mac Air, the Apple TV, and the aforementioned I pad. The merchandise was flying off the shelves, the customer service was, as always, amazing. A son of counter culture who's death is stealing the news cycle from the happenings on Wall Street, a look at justice served with definite caste bias, and an upcoming election that may very well kill the middle class... the history of Pixar just doesn't seem quite as important to me. Even if the end of Toy Story Three made everyone cry. And yet in the end there's that first product, the Mac. How many brilliant books have been written with this machine. How many troglodytes have managed to find a way to just type it and keep going? Returning to parts of the free flow and tightening them up to say things that others should be reading?

I pity the folks so tied to their phones they text during concerts rather than watch them, I pity everyone under the age of twenty who talk to their friends perhaps once a week but text at them when they are in the same room. For in this age of instant communication, it seems we are losing the ability to communicate in meaningful ways.

So "Stay hungry, stay foolish" and make the world a better place. Steve Jobs was a one of a kind genius. Known to 1/2 the planet and yet a private person. Let's use the tools he's given us to make our dreams happen. Ruth

Bouchercon St. Louis

Bouchercon, that mad beast that cannot really be described to those who weren't there. Does one even try?

Quite simply, Bouchercon is a mystery lover's OZ minus the wicked witch. Four days of walking down paths you've never trod before and enjoying food,wine, coffee, dancing,singing, bowling and conversation with friends you may have never even met. If you had pulled back the curtain this year you'd have found Jon Jordan and a staff of volunteers who made every little thing work as seamlessly as possible.

























From our very first exploratory trip, the committee knew that St. Louis would be a great place to have a Bouchercon. It was up to us to lay the groundwork. We had no doubt that everyone would be able to make their own fun.






















That the Guest of Honors made everyone welcome was a given. There is not a better group of writers in our community.

Here's to Cleveland!!