What I love the most about blogging is discovering new authors, especially those overseas who I might otherwise not hear about. So I was delighted when Australian Samantha Wood, author of The Bay of Shadows. responded to my shout out for authors to take part in guest posts for this Crime Fiction month.
“Everybody dies in your books!” she continued.
“Not everybody,” I protested. “Just the bad guys.”
It did get me thinking about my piece for this blog, though. Especially Sharon’s question about why crime fiction/psychological thrillers are so popular. And what attracted me to write in this genre.
It certainly wasn’t a conscious decision, rather I think it was an essential element of the storyline, and one which unfolded organically. In The Bay of Shadows my main protagonist, Elena, is faced with a situation that can only be described as kill-or-be-killed and so decides to take whatever measures necessary to ensure her safety and that of her foster child, Daniel. When I started writing I didn’t know how the story was going to pan out so I let my characters lead the way – the end result was part romance, part thriller, part crime, which suited the plot and gave me a lot to work with. The other thing that really attracted me to this genre was the question, and the tagline of the novel: how far would you go for love? When people say “I would never do that,” I’m always intrigued by that answer. My first thought is: are you sure? Because we are all capable of amazing and terrible things given the right circumstances. As Elena says after a particularly violent encounter with her child’s father, “I’ll do whatever it takes.” And that is the message at the heart of the novel, that love makes us really powerful.
