MATTHEW SPENCER
A Sydney ex-journalist writes a thriller set on his home turf
How does journalism compare with writing a crime novel?
They’re very different. I saw a lot in journalism – cops and courts – and it taught me a lot. How to be concise, how to meet a deadline, how to interview. I interviewed several police officers and forensic medical specialists for Black River. But journalism didn’t teach me to write fiction. You learn to write fiction by writing fiction, and by reading it. There is a lot of freedom in writing fiction. And you’re working for yourself.
Is Black River’s setting in a boarding school a familiar one for you?
Yes. My parents were teachers. We lived in permanent housing on the very large campus of a boarding school until I was 15.
Is there a book that made you love writing?
The non-fiction of Martin Amis – The War Against Cliché; The Rub of Time; his memoir Experience. He’s a good book critic. And he writes a lot about the craft of writing.
A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?
(Roald Dahl’s) Fantastic Mr Fox showed me reading was enjoyable.
The book you couldn’t finish?
There are lots. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen. The opening lines are my favourite in all fiction. But it’s a long character novel with no arc – the characters are all sad and boring and unlikeable.
What’s the best book you’ve read? Mmmm. Middlemarch by George Eliot?
A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?
Again, there are lots. I’d like to read the Slough House series of spy thrillers by Mick Herron.
Your favourite place to read? My orange armchair. Or in bed.
What book do you re-read?
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It’s the best thriller ever.
What’s on your bedside table?
Two debut crime novels from Aussie authors – WAKE by Shelley Burr; Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor. And Crossroads by the dreaded Franzen – I’m a third of the way in. I’m also reading Close Your Eyes by Michael Robotham – to see what I can steal.
What are you writing now?
A follow-on to Black River. It’s not a sequel. Hopefully it’s a series. It’s another police procedural, following NSW homicide Detective
Rose Riley.
Black River by Matthew Spencer, Allen&unwin, $33