Chris Curran, author of MINDSIGHT, chats to Killer Reads…
What drew you to the world of crime?
I’ve always loved stories and story is what counts in crime novels. They deal with the big questions: life and death, good and evil – and who isn’t interested in those things? I’m also fascinated by people and it’s when people are up against extreme situations that they are most fully themselves.
What author (besides yourself) do you think that everyone should read?
For a voracious reader like me that’s an impossible question. So I’ll cheat and mention the writer I always recommend to friends who are also fans of crime. I’ve loved every book by Cathi Unsworth and in my opinion her novel, Weirdo, should have won every prize going.
Tell us about your new book
Mindsight begins on the day Clare is released from prison. On a dark road five years ago her life changed forever when she crashed her car whilst under the influence of drugs, killing her father, her husband and her son. She can’t remember the accident and everyone tells her she should put the past behind her and try to rebuild some kind of life. But she doesn’t want to carry on living unless she can be reconciled with her surviving son. And he demands to know the whole truth of what happened on that terrible night.
Is there a lot of research that goes in to your books?
I start with the story and then research what’s necessary to make it convincing. For Mindsight I read as much as I could about the experience of prison for women, which was both enthralling and very moving.
Do you think you could pull off the ‘perfect murder’?
Definitely not. I suspect more murders go undetected than any of us would like to think, but that most of them are actually unpremeditated moments of madness. It would be horrible to have to live with that kind of guilt, so it would hardly count as perfect. Patricia Highsmith’s idea, in Strangers on a Train, of swapping your murder with someone totally unconnected to yourself or the victim, has always struck me as the most likely way to get away with it.
What’s your poison?
My friends and family would say I have a serious problem with Earl Grey tea and our house is at panic stations if we ever seem likely to run out.
To keep up with the latest from Chris, be sure to follow her on twitter @Christi_Curran.
