“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Rafe McGregor

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille.
What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Philip Marlowe.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Sherlock Holmes pastiche – a mixed bag if ever there was one.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Receiving the cheque for the advance on my first novel.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
THE MAGDALENE MARTYRS by Ken Bruen.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
I have to go for your own THE BIG O, Dec.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The worst thing is trying to find the balance between what I want to write and what I think has the best chance of being taken on by a publisher – sometimes these seem mutually exclusive. The best is probably the same as every other writer, the thought that people are reading my stories.
The pitch for your next book is …?
Twenty thousand war dead, the will of the wealthiest man in the Empire, the coronation of Edward VII, and a hero with post traumatic stress disorder … Murder and mayhem on the mean streets of 1902 Westminster.
Who are you reading right now?
MONEY SHOT by Christa Faust.
God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Write. While I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember, I’ve already spent too much of my life not writing.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Original, authentic, uncompromising.

Rafe McGregor’s THE ARCHITECT OF MURDER will be published by Robert Hale in February, 2009