I can't seem to stop with the Denise Mina (thanks Td and Beth for recommending her!). This was another ebook I got from eReader and read on my Treo. Jamie just finished reading Garnethill on his Treo—he went so far as to say that he prefers it to "real" books!I came a little late to both Denise Mina and Val McDermid, but started reading them both around the same time and soon noticed a lot of similarities. So, I googled "denise mina and val mcdermid" and—what do ya know—hit the motherload: Denise Mina interviewing Val McDermid (from Feb. 2002—told you I was behind).
A couple of my favorite bits from the interview (but you should really go read the whole thing yourself):
She has a new book out, "The Last Temptation," a tense and disgusting thriller about a serial killer who targets psychologists. The book touches on the heroin trade, the Abanian Mafia, people trafficking and the future of pan-European policing. I had a nightmare the night I finished it and tell Val about it.Mina calls it "tense and disgusting"? Ooooh, I can't wait!
Perceptions of crime fiction have fundamentally changed in the past twenty years, largely because of the work of writers like McDermid and Rankin. The new wave of British writing came as a result of the influence of American urban noir. From the cosy, Christie-esque puzzle thrillers set in country houses British, and particularly Scottish, crime fiction has moved the genre into new disturbing areas. The early lesbian and feminist works of writers like Wilson, Paretsky and Mary Wings have made the form uniquely attractive to writers who feel themselves alienated from mainstream writing. McDermid says that straight literature, "Became so self-reverential in the eighties and nineties that it all but disappeared up its own arse. The success of crime fiction shows that there is a place for narrative. Readers want to read it and writers want to write it."I've already started another Denise Mina (Slip of the Knife) and now I can't wait to get more Val McDermid.
No comments:
Post a Comment