Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Minette Walters is one of the world's bestselling crime writers and has sold over twenty-five million copies of her books worldwide. She has won the CWA John Creasey Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and two CWA Gold Daggers. The Swift and the Harrier is her third historical novel. She lives in Dorset with her husband.
Minette Walters's website
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Where did your interest in crime come from?
Two things really. Reading Grimm's Fairy Tales as a child.
It's all about baddies getting their come-uppance and wicked stepmothers being
rolled down the hill. Then there was the James Hanratty A6 murder case in the
1950s. (involving a man hanged for a murder that many thought he didn't commit).
To hang someone with the level of doubt that existed in that case, it was so
dreadful. He was one of the last people to be hanged in Britain. I was only
about nine or 10-years-old then. But I was absolutely fascinated.
Why did you pick a psychological thriller as your
first book?
I have always been fascinated by the challenge that crime fiction
represents to an author. I wanted to know if I could carry an intricate plot for
100,000 words, and keep readers guessing, while I was portraying characters
under considerable tension.
Why don't you have a
series character?
I'm always asked why I chose not to create a series character like
Poirot or Rebus, but I was never interested in creating a series character
because I wanted to be free to tackle whatever I wanted, when I wanted, without
being shackled to a particular person or place.
Of the books you ...
Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her four bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became the BBC television series ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Breaker
Try:
Started Early, Took My Dog
by Kate Atkinson
Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Swift and the Harrier
Try:
Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks
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