Your name: Isabelle Grey
Tell us about yourself: I started out as a journalist writing about the art world –perfect background for a crime writer! – and went on to be a non-fiction author, TV screenwriter and novelist.
Tell us about your latest book: ‘Good Girls Don’t Die’ follows the race between the police and the media to investigate the murder and disappearance of two university students who’d been out drinking.
When did you start writing? I first sent short stories to women’s magazines when I was 14. I still have the encouraging rejection letters.
Where do you write? At my desk in front of a big window in a corner of my living room.
Which other authors do you admire? John le Carre, Francis King, J.G. Ballard, Charles Lambert
Book you wished you’d written? The Great Gatsby
Greatest fictional criminal: Count Fosco in ‘The Woman in White’ by Wilkie Collins
Greatest crime or criminal from the real world: The truly great criminals get away with it, so we don’t know who they are!
Greatest fictional detective: Philip Marlowe
What scares you? Being conned
Are you ever disturbed by your own imagination? Yes, especially when I had to go straight from dark imaginings to the school gate.
3 crime books you would recommend to EVERYONE:
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Do you listen to music when you write? Not often, but when I do, it’s opera, which inspires me to raise the dramatic stakes.
Are you on social media? Twitter – @IsabelleGrey
How can fans connect with you? Twitter – @IsabelleGrey. My blog – www.isabellegrey.com
