I am delighted to have Abbie
Frost here for today’s Friday Fiction Feature to talk about The Guesthouse.
The Guesthouse has
been described as dark, claustrophobic and full of suspense.
Readers often ask how authors come up with their
plots. For me it can be anything. Sometimes an idea simply pops into my head, usually
along with the question – what if? Or I may hear of an incident and
wonder how I might deal with such an experience.
Like many crime writers I’m addicted to true crime
books and documentaries, so the germ of a plot might be suggested by one of these.
Or it may be something I’ve read or heard about that has nothing to do with
crime, but includes a character or setting that could be central to a story. Then I’m into what if territory again.
The Guesthouse had a rather more unusual genesis. I was incredibly lucky earlier this year to
be asked to lecture on the golden age of English crime fiction aboard the Queen
Mary 2 as she sailed across the Atlantic. In addition to being a wonderful
experience in itself this also meant that, while preparing my talks, I had to
reread many of my favourite mysteries from the time.
I was talking (make that boasting) about the trip to
my editor, and telling him how much I was enjoying the country house or closed
circle mysteries that were so popular then, when he suggested I try a modern
take on this kind of classic whodunnit.
Agatha Christie is the most famous of the golden age
authors and her books are often referred to as cosy crime. However, even in the
Poirot and Marple stories where the puzzle element appears to dominate, there
is often an extremely sinister undercurrent.
And you only have to read novels
like The Crooked House or my favourite Christie, Endless Night, to
enter very dark territory indeed. Christie. even taps into themes of the
supernatural and black magic, in The Pale Horse for instance. As a lover of gothic fiction this is something
that particularly appeals to me.
Although I soon became excited by my editor’s idea,
I wanted to give the classic format a contemporary slant: to place the story
firmly in the twenty first century. So, the guesthouse of the title may be a
remote mansion, but the characters are not the privileged folk at the centre of
most golden age mysteries. Instead they are a mix of ordinary people who have
used an online site to book a short holiday. It turns out of course that neither they, nor
the house are exactly what they seem.
Abbie Frost is a pseudonym.
Twittter @FrostyAbbie
Website https://chriscurranauthor.com/
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