An Interview with Chris Whitaker

And don’t forget to cast your vote to decide who will take home the UK and Ireland’s most coveted crime fiction writing award.

Tell us your story – when and how did you start writing fiction?

I was mugged and stabbed as a teenager, and though the physical injuries healed, it was the mental trauma I found harder to overcome. PTSD wasn’t a term I was familiar with, and asking for help has never been something I’m comfortable doing. It was after a long struggle that I found my way to a self-help book that looked at the practice of writing as therapy, though it would be another fifteen years until my debut novel was published.

We’ve heard of some unusual writing habits over the years, what would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

I write using three screens. I find I need all of that space in order to build the scene I’m writing. On the middle screen will be the manuscript, and on the left will be photographs of the scene I’m writing. All The Colours Of The Dark is set in Missouri so I might have photographs of a nature park in Missouri from 1975, and on the right hand screen will be all the details I’ll need to in order to help the reader visualise what I’m seeing. I’ll describe everything from the types of trees and wildflower growing, to the exact shade of leaves and clouds in the sky.

What’s the one line or paragraph you’re most proud of in your shortlisted book?

“You’re all I’ve got,” he said.

And she thought, I’m all you’ll need.

Let’s say you’re going rogue: which crime fiction villain would you most enjoy being (just for research, of course)?

Tom Ripley. I’d like to be able to switch lives for a while. Imagine seeing someone living this idyllic life and simply becoming them. You could experience so much. Having to kill that person is slightly problematic, but still.

Which writers have influenced your own writing the most?

I was working in the city and after a tumultuous time where I’d found myself in, and gotten myself out of, a million pound debt, I knew that I wasn’t happy. It was after reading John Hart’s missing child masterpiece, The Last Child, that I found out he’d quit a successful law career in order to follow his dreams and write a book. The next day I followed his lead, and was broke for a decade. Thank you, John.

You’re cast in a gritty crime drama. Are you the detective, suspect or the wildcard witness?

I’ve been arrested a few times so I’d probably have to be the suspect. I’d be innocent though. Probably.

What book would you always recommend to someone who “doesn’t usually read crime”?

I think sometimes people shy away from crime because they believe character and writing are sacrificed for plot, so I’d steer them towards Dennis Lehane, Attica Locke, Cormac McCarthy.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.