Five Questions Interview

I have Dorte to thank for these questions. I noticed an interview on her blog: DJs krimiblog, and volunteered for her to send me 5 questions to answer. If you check the questions she answered, you'll see that hers were different.

1) Who is your favourite book character? - Why?

This is such a hard question. I had many candidates. Reg Wexford from Ruth Rendell - Dorte wrote about him recently on her blog. Kurt Wallander whom I wrote about yesterday. Jack Frost from R. D. Wingfield's Frost series. Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg from Fred Vargas. Vera Stanhope created by Ann Cleeves, Marjorie Fleming from Aline Templeton, or maybe Sri Paiboun from Colin Cotterill's Laotian detective series.
I finally tossed up between Carole Seddon of Simon Brett's Fethering series, and that traditionally built lady Mma Ramotswe from Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana series.

And the latter won my final vote: as I wrote in another posting
There is something about reading these stories that is rather like meeting up with old friends. But don’t underestimate McCall Smith as a writer. The characters are gently but so graphically drawn, with touches of humour, and situations you can imagine witnessing. And in #8 McCall Smith makes use of an urban legend that I’m sure you’ll recognise. There’s no sex, no violence, rarely any blood and gore in these novels. And yet there is murder, mystery and crime, just enough to challenge the reader’s little grey cells.
[P.S. Click on the image to get to the article it comes from]

2) As an avid reader of crime fiction, which three Australian crime fiction writers would you recommend to readers who are not familiar with Australian literature?

Once again, a hard question. Only 3 you say?
Well, in your bookshop or library, look for these wonderful authors: Michael Robotham, PD Martin, and Leah Giarratano, who were all among my top reads last year. Want some more? Have a look at my Australian made post.

3) If you were restricted to read crime fiction from one country, which one would you choose? - why?

Not fair Dorte! How can I choose? So many countries have so much on offer. Perhaps I should be patriotic and choose Australia. I was brought up reading English and Scottish literature so if you'd asked me a couple of years ago then I would have said I read mainly British police procedurals, but I also consume American, Canadian, French, Scandinavian authors. So my answer - I'll take whatever crime fiction I can have.

4) What does having a blog give you?

I love several things about blogging - the chance to explore my ideas, a place to post my book reviews, the opportunity to begin conversations with lots of other people. Because for me that is what a blog is - the beginning of a conversation.

5) Some people do not regard crime fiction as 'real' literature. How would you defend the genre?

The people who don't regard crime fiction as literature haven't read particularly widely in the genre in my opinion. Oh yes, they've dabbled in a few authors, but they haven't read the ones I've read. It takes a while for some books to become recognised as "literature" but I used to wonder when I was doing an English major why popular authors like Agatha Christie were never studied even though they made their living writing. And we studied books that sold very little.

You have only to look at some of my top ranking books last year, to be able to see some really worth thinking about as literature.

Here are my top rating books for 2008
5.0, SHATTER, Michael Robotham
5.0, NEMESIS, Jo Nesbo
5.0, FAN MAIL, PD Martin
5.0, DIRTY WEEKEND, Gabrielle Lord
5.0, A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, R.J. Ellory
5.0, A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill
5.0, BENEATH THE BLEEDING, Val McDermid
4.9, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR, Fred Vargas
4.9, THE PRIVATE PATIENT, P.D. James
4.8, VOODOO DOLL, Leah Giarratano
4.8, WHERE WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?, Kate Atkinson
4.8, THE LORDS' DAY, Michael Dobbs
4.8, WATER LIKE A STONE, Deborah Crombie
4.8, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Stieg Larsson
4.8, NOT DEAD ENOUGH, Peter James
4.8, CARELESS IN RED, Elizabeth George
4.8, OVERKILL, Vanda Symon

If you want more, check out Smik's Reviews .

So thank you Dorte for your questions.
And dear reader, if you would like me to pose 5 questions for you, just leave a comment on this post, and I will oblige.