Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...What crime novel would you like to have written?
The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald. A compelling trip through family secrets, present and past, the mystery of your own identity.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
John Mortimer’s Rumpole books. A writer who found his groove.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Doing a line of pure iambic pentameter to round off An Irish Solution.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
Of those I’ve read, possibly The Book of Evidence by John Banville.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
The Statement by Brian Moore. Nothing Irish about it, thanks be to God.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: the impossibility of finding enough time, if you work in an endless job like mine (university teaching). Best: Setting out to say something, failing to say it, then finding you’ve said something better. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
Fleeing his creditors? Certainly not. Because he never noticed that “John Banville” writes crime stories? Hardly. Influenced by A.A. Fair (now known to be Erle Stanley Gardner)? Perish the thought. Market segmentation? Unthinkable. The example of Salvatore Lombino (a.k.a. Ed McBain & Evan Hunter)? Don’t be vulgar. Perhaps inspired by François-Marie Arouet? Yes, I think that sounds much better. But who am I to carp? I'm somewhat pseudonymous myself.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Prolix. Awful prolix.
Cormac Millar is the author of An Irish Solution and The Grounds
Moore's magnificent The Statement was, actually, made into a movie starring Michael Caine in 2003. Thank God no one knows about it because it is truly awful. Michael Caine is generally class, but this one rates right down there with Jaws: The Revenge and that pile of crap he made with Steven Segal.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340376/
Much better (and fitting, for a site about Irish crime) is Caine's equally-unknown The Actors. That Dublin-set flick is as funny as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, has a great cast, and features all sorts of crooks going about their mischief.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307919/
PS How could Brian Moore fit so much that is so lasting into such short novels? A brillant man!