An Interview with David Goodman

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

I’ve been writing stories since I was eight or nine years old, but I first started writing longer work when I was in my late teens, mostly ghost stories and science fiction. In my early twenties I finished my first full-length novel and tried, somewhat haphazardly, to find an agent, but this was 2005, when there was a lot less good advice around. Then I wrote another seven or eight novels, but didn’t really know how to edit them. In 2019 I decided it was time to figure that out and I started seriously pursuing publication and teaching myself editing, as well as finding my writing communities. I signed with my agent Harry Illingworth in 2021, and started selling short fiction at the same time. So it was pretty much a twenty year ‘overnight success’.

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

There is a point, about three quarters of the way through the book, where things begin to escalate dramatically. I remember vividly writing the line that kicks off this part of the book and having a quiet giggle to myself about where things were going to go next – “The engines kicked in and the boat carved a tight turn in the water, spraying them all with foam and sea salt. Then they were out, smacking across wave tops, into the darkness.”

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

It’s got to be Moriarity, the original all-knowing supervillain. Having a network of spies and a grudge against a famous consulting detective feels like it would be a lot of fun, for a while at least.

Which writers have influenced your own writing the most?

It’s about equally split between my twin loves of science fiction and espionage. I love Le Carré, Mick Herron, Graham Greene and, more recently, I.S. Berry and David McCloskey. When it comes to SF and fantasy, I’m a huge Iain M. Banks fan, and I love Stark Holborn’s recent novels.

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

I reckon I’d be the sweaty-palmed suspect swept up in the investigation, who very clearly seems to be the murderer, but is ultimately cleared despite panicking and blurting out all sorts of apparently incriminating things.

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

I suspect this will be a common answer, but I recently interviewed Chris Whitaker for the paperback tour of ‘All The Colours Of The Dark’ and it really lived up to the hype. It’s an intense, immersive and utterly compelling book.

What inspired you to take the leap and write your first novel — was there a moment that sparked it?

I’ve had the core idea of ‘A Reluctant Spy’ in my big text file of ideas for years – what if intelligence agencies used real people’s lives as cover stories? It was sparked by an interview I read with Edward Snowden where he talked about the sheer amount of ‘digital dust’ people created in the modern world, traces and records in systems and data. He was talking about how hard it was to avoid creating that trace, but it immediately made me think about how hard it would be to fake it.

When we were talking to Headline about the book, I took the next logical step – what are the ways that this concept could go wrong?

What’s been the biggest surprise (or challenge) about publishing your debut book?

The biggest challenge is undoubtedly the waiting – for the book to come out, for reviews to come in, for sales figures to be counted up – you’re always a few weeks or months behind the curve. But the biggest surprise and delight has been the reaction – readers and reviewers who have been so incredibly supportive and let me know just how much they loved Jamie, Nicola and the world of the Legends Programme.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone writing their first crime novel, what would it be?

Don’t wait for inspiration to strike – writing doesn’t come from ideas (even though it seems like it should). It’s the other way around. The more you write, even if you don’t think your ideas are good enough, the more your brain will give you new (and better) ideas to work with. Try lots of things, lots of stories and points of view and keep your fingers moving on the keyboard. You’ll get a lot further, faster and you’ll have more fun.