Every character that I create has something of me: Clare Mackintosh

Internationally acclaimed author

Clare Mckintosh

reveals the nuances of

crime

fiction writing in conversation with Dwaipayan Ghosh at the

Times LitFest

in Kolkata.

Q: Has it helped that you were a police officer? Have you ever used any of the real characters you have met in your characters?

Answer: I do not want to write about other people’s tragedies for entertainment. But as a police officer, it has helped me to meet people cutting across all classes. It has also helped me focus on telling a story. When a victim speaks to a police officer and states facts, it indeed has a hidden story. It is up to the officer to extract that story that would be a critical piece of evidence in court. As a former cop, I could add that extra bit of layer about police procedures which outsiders will find hard to write about as they do not have first hand experience.

Q: Most of your stories revolve around women who are going through an emotional upheaval. Is there any reason?

Answer: Every character that I create has something of me. Some of them are very close to me. Some others, I would like to revisit. But it is absolutely critical for me that I have something of me in the fiction that I write.

Q: Your characters are set in modern times. In several of your works, especially in I See You, you have pointed towards a police state where surveillance has turned evil?

Answer: While technology has its merits and is always welcome since it immensely helps the cops, we must acknowledge that there is a challenge. No technology should fall in the wrong hands. Though mine is an exaggeration, I sincerely hope we never have to see such a day.

Q: Have you been inspired by other Oxford crime writers? Especially since you were posted as a police officer there?

Answer: Norman Colin Dexter was one writer I had grown up with. But it was the police officer in me that played a bigger role in shaping me in what I am today. I always believe that it is the common people I must write about. There is a thin line that divides the good from the bad. And stories about ordinary men in extraordinary conditions is the story readers will – across generations – relate to.

Q. Are there any plans of going back on any of the novels you have written and answering some of the questions who have left unanswered?

Answer: I do like to leave certain questions to the readers. While I might try introducing a couple of characters in the future, I do not wish to go back to the novels. Life is not always neat and tidy so that you always want everything sorted at the end. I plan to concentrate on the future.