Literary Spotlight: Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves is a British crime writer and was the first author to win the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet.

Q: Your writing style has been likened to that of Agatha Christie. What is your reaction and was she an influence?

A: Obviously it’s an honor to be likened to Christie – she’s given enormous pleasure to so many readers – but I think most female British crime writers get compared to her because she’s so iconic here. I did read her when I was young and loved the page-turning quality of the stories and those wonderful surprise endings. I certainly write within that tradition. But today we’re looking for more than a puzzle, I think, and crime fiction takes itself more seriously. We’re exploring violence, grief, big subjects, even if we’re doing it in an entertaining way. I’m interested in looking at ordinary people and what drives them to commit murder. I don’t create monsters. Perhaps that comes from my background as a probation officer. I worked with killers and most seemed pathetic and inadequate little men.

Q: You’ve said you like writing about isolated enclosed communities. Can you explain how your characters grow out of place?

A: I enjoy writing about enclosed communities partly because of the Christie influence again. It’s a classic detective story device: the boat floating up the Nile, the train stuck in the snow. I enjoy observing the rules of the genre, even playing with them. But it must be true that people are influenced by the kind of community in which they were raised – even if only by reacting against it. Someone who grew up in Shetland – where RAVEN BLACK and WHITE NIGHTS are set – has a very different view of the world from someone who was a child in the inner city. The relationship between people and the natural word is more immediate. Weather matters. You always know which way the wind’s blowing, if you’re a crofter or a fisherman. On a very basic level, it determines which door you’ll use to get into your house!

Q: How can writers enhance the settings in their stories?

A: Setting has to be an integral part of the book. If I come across a couple of pages of descriptive prose in a book, I tend to skip it. But if setting is part of the plot – take Tony Hillerman’s books for example – and characters grow naturally from it, then the reader has an experience that’s almost like travel. Fiction can help us understand another community’s culture and preoccupations. That’s why I enjoy translated European crime fiction so much. The books are terrific – as scary and quirky and interesting as anything written in English – but I also feel as if I’ve visited another country without having to pay for a plane.

Q: How does writing about what you know make for a stronger book? Can you give an example?

A: It’s certainly easier to write about what you know. If you have a firm picture of a place or process in your head, then it’s easier to write about it in a way that makes it real for the reader. You can select the small details that bring a scene to life. To do that just from imagination is much harder work! Sometimes though you have to move away from your comfort zone. RED BONES, the third Shetland book has a background in archaeology. I know nothing about it, and I had to make sure I spoke to several archaeologists as I was writing. It’s not so much about getting facts right, though that’s important too, it’s getting the flavor of what it’s like to work on a dig, the way people talk about their passion. You can’t get that from a book.

Q: I’ve read that you said writing is a bit like acting. Can you elaborate why?

A: We both have to see the world through our character’s eyes. That’s it, I think. One great actor once said that she could only understand a character, bring her life, once she’d chosen what shoes she would wear. Standing in those shoes, she saw things in a different way. Of course, writers have to stand

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.