Oh my goodness, words cannot express my excitement and delight to be part of the blog tour for one of my favourite authors. I am such a massive fan of Karin Slaughter and ALWAYS have her books on pre-order so I can drop everything when they are released. Many of you will also have had me bending your ear going on and on about her books. If you have read her Will Trent series or Grant County series you will know just why I love her work so much. If you haven't then you need to rectify that!!! She also writes great standalone novels, such as The Good Daughter which is released tomorrow (Thursday 13 July).
Anyway, enough of my waffle and fan-girling!! Let me pass you over to Karin who has so kindly taken part in a Q&A answering some questions we all want to know about!
Don't forget, you can purchase a copy of The Good Daughter from Amazon by simply clicking here. Let me know if you are a fan of her work, who your favourite characters are, and anything else as I love chatting about her work!
Q&A with Karin Slaughter
The Good Daughter includes some very violent passages. Do you think readers are more shocked when a female writer includes extreme violence in her books? Why do you think that is?
This was absolutely the case when I started out, but I’m not sure it’s true anymore. I’ll never forget the story Mo Hayder told me about her first US tour with her first novel: she was on an airplane over the Atlantic, heading toward her first US tour, when a review came out blasting her for the violence in her book. By the time she landed, her tour had been cancelled because of it. I don’t think that would happen today. It’s much more acceptable for women to write about violence in a believable, realistic way.
When my first book (Blindsighted) was published in the US, it was me, Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell, basically, who were doing this kind of writing. That’s not to take away from Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky—both amazingly talented women in their own right—but as far as what was considered “hard-core” (or, in the vernacular “manly”) writing, we three were it. I can’t really complain about it because I think it got us a lot of attention, but it was absolutely considered shocking for us to be interested in forensics and violence and all the things that are commonplace in the genre today. Weirdly, it was more acceptable in the UK and Europe, I think because y’all have had a long line of women writing about nasty things. Or maybe it’s because you don’t have that same Puritanical streak that many Americans still clung to at the time.
Have you read anything recently you would recommend?
I really enjoyed Denise Mina’s the Long Drop. I had no idea it was based on an actual case (I don’t read flap copy!) but halfway through, I thought, “hmmm…I bet this really happened.” Denise excels at something that is incredibly hard to do: she writes the way people talk. Add to that her amazing story-telling ability and you’ll understand why she’s one of my favorite writers of all time.
If you were stuck on a desert island, which book would you take with you?
The Complete Harry Potter Collection. I’ve always told myself I’ll read all of them when I retire, but I think a desert island is just as good as a retirement home. Ha, probably better because you don’t have to talk to cranky old people like yourself.
What is the best advice you’ve been given as an author?
Two things from two different authors. Tess Gerritsen told me when I go on tour, to always pack more underwear than I need, and she was absolutely right. Harlan Coben told me that the problems you have when you are successful are much better than the problems you have when you are not. Also correct.
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