Author Interview: Caro Land

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Caroline England back to the blog although under her alter ego Caro Land. Welcome Caroline.

You usually write psychological thrillers under your Caroline England name, but you have recently turned your hand to writing a legal drama under the pen name Caro Land. Tell me more!
I’m still writing my psychological thrillers and I’m very excited that the UK standard paperback of Betray Her will be out on the 16th July. However, they say to write what you know and I’ve done precisely this with my Caro Land legal dramas…

Convictions (published by Bloodhound Books in January) introduced my solicitor protagonist, Natalie Bach. Though a feisty legal eagle on the outside, Nat is vulnerable, real, relatable and, I hope, engaging. Though there are legal cases, crime, darkness and intrigue, there’s humour, love and friendship too.

The follow-up, Confessions, was published just last week. We follow more of Nat’s challenges and dilemmas both personally and professionally. Her cases range from mercy killing to cowboy builders, from revenge porn to murder... 

So, how is ‘Caro Land’ writing what she knows?
Like Nat I worked as a solicitor in Manchester. As a trainee, I specialised in criminal law, later moving on to divorce, then professional Indemnity work, where I represented professionals accused of making mistakes.

My career has very much influenced my writing. In all three areas I saw people at their lowest ebb, emotionally stressed and raw, having to bare their souls and admit to their darkest deeds, sometimes keeping secrets and telling lies like the characters I write about!

In Confessions, Nat is seconded to criminal law firm Savage Solicitors, so I was able to draw on my duty solicitor days, sitting in on police interviews, visiting inmates in Strangeway’s Prison and frequenting local magistrates courts. Like my characters, some of the ‘criminals’ were bad people, but others were just people who had lost their way.

Blogiversary Giveaway: Win debut novels from Elisabeth Carpenter & Caroline England

Eagle eyed visitors of the blog may have already noticed that I have previously featured both Elisabeth Carpenter and Caroline England on the blog as part of their blog tours, if you missed their posts you can read them here.  As well as doing the debut spotlight features I was also sent paperback copies of their books, 99 Red Balloons and Beneath the Skin, to review but as I already had ecopies of both I decided to offer these as a giveaway prize.  The original intention had been to review both books alongside this giveaway but sadly I haven't had a chance to read yet so the reviews will follow at a later date.

Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.

What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?

Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…

Debut Spotlight: Caroline England

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on Caroline England and her debut novel Beneath the Skin which was published last week.

Born a Yorkshire lass, Caroline studied Law at Manchester University and stayed over the border. Caroline practised family and professional indemnity law. She became a partner in a firm of Solicitors and instigated her jottings when she deserted the law to bring up her three lovely daughters.

In addition to the publication of her short story collection,Watching Horsepats Feed the Roses, by ACHUKAbooks in 2012, Caroline has had short stories and poems published in a wide variety of literary magazines and anthologies. She was shortlisted for the Impress Prize 2015, in the Pulp Idol 2016 finals and long listed for the UK Novel Writing Competition 2017.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Hi Shaz, I’m a former divorce and professional indemnity lawyer who lives in South Manchester. I came over the border from Sheffield to study law at the University of Manchester and stayed. I have three gorgeous daughters and three greedy cats but only one husband!

I suppose I had always thought it a romantic notion to write a novel, but never thought I’d actually do it. Though I had always made up stories in my head before sleep, I finally put pen to paper about ten years ago. I wrote very basic drafts of three or four novels, then decided short stories and poems were a lot less effort! Many of them were published in literary magazines and anthologies. A few years later, I came back to Beneath the Skin. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for Beneath the Skin, what would it be? 
Four couples with interlocking histories; eight individuals, all with secrets that are ready to explode. Beginning and ending the novel is Antonia whose self-harming is only one thing she tries to hide. There’s more to the beautiful and placid Antonia than she’s telling anyone.

Beneath the Skin is a story about complex relationships and deeply hidden secrets, where did the inspiration come from? 
The characters first starred in a short story I wrote called The Dinner Circle, but I’m not sure where the inspiration came from other than my fascination with the things you describe - people, relationships, human frailty and deeply hidden secrets! Perhaps I should have been a psychologist - I’m always looking and listening to people, wondering what’s really going on inside…

If you had to describe Antonia in 3 words, what would they be?  
It depends whether you're talking on the outside or within! Perfect, repressed and fearful.