A Life in Books with Graham Smith.

 

 

 

This evening I am joined by author Graham Smith whose new crime thriller Watching the Bodies is released today.  Graham has written a guest piece on his book that you can read below.

 

Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I’m a mid-forties joiner who has run a hotel and wedding venue for the last 16 years. I’m married with one son and I have less hair and more belly than I am comfortable with.

 

What was you favourite book from childhood?

I loved so many of the Enid Blyton books it’d be impossible to choose a particular favourite.

 

What type of books did you read as a teenager?

I read the Hardy Boys before moving onto the “adventure” series by Willard Price. Then I moved onto thrillers by the likes of Clive Cussler and Alistair Maclean

 

What was your favourite book that you studied at school?

It would have to be The Hobbit as I loved it so much, I saved my pocket money to buy The Lord of the Rings

 

What is your favourite classic book?

To my shame I haven’t read any of the classics.

 

What would you consider to be one of the best books you have had over the last 5 years?

This is impossible for me to answer as I have read so many fantastic books over the last five years. If pushed I’d say it’s a dead heat between twenty or so.

 

What book to you think you should read but never get round to?

I am determined that I will one day read Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler

 

What do you consider to be your favourite book ?

My all time favourite is HMS Ulysses by Alistair Maclean as it combines plot, pace and character like no other book I’ve encountered.

 

 

Is there a book that you have started but been unable to finish?

There are many, but knowing what a labour of love it is to write a book and get it published I’d rather say that I picked up the wrong book for me, than say the book is rubbish.

 

If you were stranded on a desert Island which 2 books would you want to have with you?

I’d take the Bible and the Koran so I could spend my days trying to work out what all the fighting is about. I may even sneak a copy of the Torah with me for a third perspective.

 

Kindle or Book?

I don’t own a kindle although I have the app for my phone. I much prefer to read a physical copy but as an author, I don’t care what platform readers use or prefer, I just want people to read my stories.

 
When I started writing Watching the Bodies I knew I wanted to create a lasting series with a character who’d hopefully become iconic.

To do that I had to think long and hard about all kinds of things including, the lead character, the setting, the propensity for getting said character into trouble and the fact that I had to repeat the process for every new story.

I created Jake Boulder, a former Glaswegian who’d been taught how to fight by his grandfather, a former shipbuilder on the Clyde docks. Boulder works the door at a bar where even the music has to be twenty-one to get in.

Next I needed a setting, so I decided to start the series with Boulder in a small town where the police are all but useless. Doing this allowed me to get Boulder involved in a murder investigation which ends up with him on the trail of a serial killer.

The serial killer I have him after has a very unusual method of selecting his next victim and there are revelations in the story which give Boulder more to think about than just the case.

Naturally I gave Boulder a series of strengths and weaknesses to round him out as a character as well as a few traits which I’ll freely admit, I wish I shared with him.

The basis of this construction, has given me the foundation to complete the second book in the series and I’m roughly one week away from starting book three. While events and characters from previous books may reappear, I have kept them to a minimum so each book can be read as a standalone.

So, at the time of writing this post. I have the first novel coming out, the second with my editor and the third in my head. Book four is currently a mystery to me, but there is time enough for a plot to come to me during the writing of book three.