Steve Mosby is the author of six previous novels including
The 50/50 Killer, Still Bleeding and Black Flowers, which has been short-listed
for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel Of The Year, after already picking
up a CWA Dagger.
Prior to the release of his latest title, Dark Room, he took
some time for a chat.
Tell us a bit about
Dark Room.
It’s about a detective called Hicks, who has a somewhat
matter-of-fact attitude to crime. He doesn’t believe in evil, and relies
heavily on logic and statistics to solve murders. To him, they always happen
for banal, ordinary reasons: lust and jealousy; anger; greed; etc – so he
categorises them as bedroom crimes, or bar room crimes, or boardroom crimes,
and so on. But then he has to deal with a murderer who flies against all that, who
appears to be killing a lot of people entirely at random, and Hicks has to try
to break the pattern.
It’s my attempt at a fairly straightforward police
procedural. After Black Flowers, which has a really elaborate structure, I wanted
to do something that moved forward in a more traditional way.
All of your previous
novels have been stand-alone tales. Is this the case with Dark Room?
Yes, it is. The original plan was to take Hicks into the
next book as well, but it didn’t work out that way. The world laughs at my
plans.
Black Flowers has
been up for (and won) awards recently. How do you enjoy receiving recognition
like this and what’s it like competing against other authors?
Well, it’s lovely to be nominated for stuff, and it’s lovely
to win too, but I don’t think you can take that kind of stuff too seriously.
It’s really good to get a nod, and cool to see my name appearing on shortlists
that have such amazing authors on them. Flattering company, to say the least.
I don’t really see myself or my books in competition,
exactly. I’m a fan as well as an author, and it’s good to see someone rewarded
and getting recognition for writing a brilliant book, even if that someone
isn’t me.
Your early novels had
a sci-fi element. What made you move away from that into more traditional crime
writing?
To be honest, it was an accident. It just turned out that
the third book I had in mind – The 50/50 Killer – had no SF elements in it at
all. And that’s the way it’s continued since. The thing about crime is that
it’s a really broad genre, and I find that whatever idea I start to get
interested in, I can work it into a crime narrative. I’ve kept some horror
elements, though, and I do like to experiment with structure, which I suppose
is a vaguely SF-ish trait. And when I do short stories (which isn’t often),
they don’t tend to be straightforward crime either, so there are still outlets
if I get an urge to weird things out a bit.
Still Bleeding is a
very dark tale of murder and suicide and it’s just about my personal favourite
of yours. Do you have a favourite yourself?
I’m pretty fond of Still Bleeding, in terms of what the book
does. I was pleased with the ways the separate stories resolved: the endings I
could give the characters. So I do like that one too.
Hard to pick an overall favourite though. The 50/50 Killer
opened doors for me, and feels like a book where I began to figure out what I
was doing, so I’ll always have affection for it. And Black Flowers turned out
well, I think, given how inaccessible it could potentially have been. Least
favourite is easy: The Cutting Crew. That’s probably the only one I’d go back
and change. There are a couple of scenes I’d tone down, and a few themes I’d
try to tie together better. But you do the best you can. That’s all you can do.
I remember reading
about a possible film version of The 50/50 Killer. Any news on that or any
other potential film adaptations?
All still up in the air a bit. There have been a few
options, but the way it works is that you just sign things off and only believe
it’ll ever happen when you’re watching it with your own eyes. Cry For Help came
to nothing. 50/50 is still ongoing in France, and the last I heard they were
hoping to start filming this winter. I really hope that happens; I’d be really
intrigued to see how they handle it. Black Flowers is in development too, but it’s
early doors on that. So essentially, nothing concrete to report.
Good luck with the
awards and with Dark Room.
Dark Room by Steve Mosby is published by Orion and will be
available from 19
th July 2012. For more information visit the
author’s website at
www.theleftroom.co.uk
