A CRIMINALLY GOOD READ

BESTSELLING AUTHOR DAVID FENNELL TELLS CRIME MONTHLY WHAT INFLUENCES HIS WRITING

What was the inspiration behind your new novel?

There’s a scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds where Mitch’s mother Lydia visits her friend Dan. Entering his home, she’s surprised to find broken crockery and glass littered across the kitchen. The camera follows Lydia as she tentatively makes her way through the house looking for Dan. Entering his bedroom, she discovers his eyeless corpse lying on the floor. Hitchcock frames Dan’s face in two twitching close-ups that add a dizzying horror to what Lydia, and we, see. The terror of that scene has never left me and was a feeling I wanted to reimagine with See No Evil.

What attracts you most about writing crime?

In the real world, we are arguably desensitised to crimes we read about in newspapers or see on the news. One of the appeals of writing crime fiction is that it can deal with difficult subjects and provide a deeper empathy with the victims that we may not always feel in real life. Also, the entire process of creating a mystery story with twists and turns is a lot of fun to do.

How do you come up with your ideas?

I can get ideas from anywhere: a news article, a photo, a documentary, a movie. They’re often an amalgamation of many sources. Keeping track of twists and turns usually involves some sort of scrawled list with Post-it Notes, or connecting lines and doodles inside a notebook. Quite old-school.

How much, if anything, of what you write is based on real life?

My books touch on real-life events and locations, however, I don’t base my killers’ modus operandi on anything that has actually happened in the real world.

Have you got a favourite author?

I don’t have a favourite, but there are many I adore. It’s quite an eclectic mix. I love Stephen King, John Irving, Clive Barker, Hanya Yanagihara, Khaled Hosseini, Sarah Waters, Gillian Flynn and more.

How easy do you find writing?

I don’t find writing easy. It’s hard graft, with hours of isolation filled with self-doubt and despair. Sorry to paint a grim picture!

What would your advice be for aspiring writers?

Despite what I just said, I love what I do, and you will, too. Work hard and be ruthless with your writing time. Write every day if you can, even if it is for 30 minutes; keep going and always finish what you’ve started.

What do you love most about your job?

I really enjoy editing, which I know many other writers despise. More than that, I love finishing the final edits, handing them to my publisher and taking a breather. I also enjoy engaging with readers and appreciate the support they have shown for my books. It makes the graft worthwhile.

‘WRITING IS HARD GRAFT, BUT I LOVE WHAT I DO’