Cal Moriarty also writes for film and theatre, and previously worked as a private eye. Like S.J. Watson and Rachel Joyce before her, she attended both the Writing A Novel and Edit Your Novel courses on the Faber Academy in 2012-13.Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel The Killing of Bobbi Lomax?
When a sleepy devout town is hit by a series of deadly bombings an extraordinary mystery is unravelled.
I should also add that it’s a retro crime fiction novel set in the same era as True Detective.
Bobbi Lomax was the first to die, the bomb killed the prom queen on her own front lawn. Just moments later one of the nails from the city's second bomb forced its way into the brain of property investor Peter Gudsen, killing him almost instantly.
The third bomb didn't quite kill Clark Houseman. Hovering on the brink, the rare books dealer turns out to be Detectives Sinclair and Alvarez's best hope of finding out what linked these unlikely victims, and who wanted them dead and why. But can they find the bomber before he kills again?
What made you have the book begin with a bombing instead of a murder especially as the blurb mentions the book is set in the deep religious heartland of America where this may not be a common occurrence?
Much creative writing advice tells writers to ‘start the story with a bang’. Although, mostly, they don’t mean literally, I really wanted to start with a significant event that brought together the two main characters whose lives the narrative then follows.
In the States bombing is far more a regular occurrence than you’d think. Most City police forces have a bomb squad unlike the UK. In the 1970’s there were many bombings/terrorist attacks in the States. There’s fewer now, despite what the media might want us to believe. Although, that said, between 2001 and 2011 73% of terrorist attacks in the States involved bombings and/or explosives.
