>>PREVIEW
MARK BILLINGHAM
Thursday, October 12
Vertigo Playhouse (Tower Centre)
Saturday, October 14
Vertigo Studio (Tower Centre)
Not so familiar with the terms bollocks, DCI, DS, sixth-formers or brogues? Well, maybe it’s time to expand your vocabulary while enjoying a book by London-based author Mark Billingham who makes no bones about the importance of his stories’ settings.
"You’ve got to write about the streets you walk down. I really believe that," says Billingham, "You’ve got to write for your home market. I’m a British crime writer and if critics want to say ‘well it’s a bit British,’ I just say, ‘well duh.’"
That sentiment is apparent in his latest book, Buried (Little, Brown, 352 pp.), the sixth in the Detective Tom Thorne series that began in 2001 with Sleepyhead. The attraction of the Thorne novels has as much to do with the great stories as it does with the author’s writing style, that is a combination of strong U.K. elements and an Americanized sense of pacing and leanness.
On this melding of two very distinctive styles, Billingham explains, "I was trying to write books that were very British and obviously set here – London is very much a character in the books – but that had a much more American feel. I was trying to write something that wasn’t heavy. I think the best American crime writers write with wonderful economy. James Lee Burke says he’s got a book finished when nothing rattles."
So how exactly does a writer get a book to this point? Obviously there’s months of planning, meticulously mapping out plot points, developing ingenious character arcs that will fit precisely into the story when it is completed. Or, one could also follow Billingham’s lead on how to create a truly entertaining piece of fiction.
"I’m what writers like to call a ‘drive by night’ kind of writer," he says. "You can just see as far as the end of your headlights, you know where you’re going but you can’t quite see what’s up ahead. You end up taking all manner of wrong turns but eventually, if you stick at it, you’ll get there."
He definitely has got there with this latest entry, that finds a worn down, troubled Thorne investigating a simple kidnapping case that becomes much more as the chapters pile up and find themselves twisting through all manner of connections and revelations. And even though it’s the characters that really make the book enjoyable, the story idea for this and previous books grasps the reader with the reality of topics that could show up on any given day in the headlines.
"Crime fiction is uniquely placed to look at a lot of social issues today (and) I think that crime fiction can do that almost better than anything else," says Billingham. "It’s not like I set out to go ‘this is my homeless book’ and ‘that’s my drug abuse book.’ I think your first duty is to tell a good story, and if you can do one or two other things along the way, then all is well and good. But the bottom line is to entertain the reader with a good story."
With this sixth book out and the seventh Thorne manuscript recently delivered, Billingham has made sure that his readers are thoroughly entertained and as every creative artist is driven to do, he’s looking to keep it that way. At this point, that means travelling down a different road and exploring the world of a stand-alone, non-Thorne novel.
"I’m very excited but also very apprehensive, because I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. I think that when you hear that little voice in your head saying ‘it’s time to do something different,’ you ignore that at your own peril." He adds, "writers who write series-based crime fiction and keep them fresh, do it by taking some time away, stepping back from it and kind of re-energizing themselves. They come back to the series and they’re fired up and often the books that follow are the better for it."
So fans of this comedian turned crime novelist can look forward to a bit of the old and a glimpse of something new, as he endeavours to meet his own personal goal of continuing to keep his audience entertained no matter where the journey takes them. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.