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| photo: Jack Jewers | |
As a newspaper reporter, Christi Daugherty began covering murders when she was 21 years old. She worked as a journalist for years before writing the Night School series of thrillers for young adults under the name CJ Daugherty. The Echo Killing was her first adult novel. A Beautiful Corpse (Minotaur, March 12, 2019) is the second book in the Harper McClain mystery series.
On your nightstand now:
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Whenever I'm writing a first draft I won't read books in the crime genre, so this is my chance to experiment. Schwab writes elegant, complex fantasy novels that take me out of my own world for a little while, and make the impossible real.
Favorite book when you were a child:
When I was about seven years old, I read The Witch's Buttons by Ruth Chew until it was worn thin. I think Chew was the first writer I truly fell in love with. She wrote thrillers for small children and she was a genius at it. She saw magic everywhere and she made you believe.
Your top five authors:
F. Scott Fitzgerald--I read all his books in one year when I was 19. I was devastated when I found out he was already dead and we could never meet because, by then, I was in love with him and Zelda, and I suppose I never fully recovered. He is one of the reasons I became a writer and an expat. His writing is remarkable and distinctive, his voice absolutely.
Graham Greene--There is something dangerously exotic about his books. There's a louche intelligence to the characters that's both attractive and threatening. I want to live in one of his books, hanging out with spies in Vietnam or solving crimes in Cuba. He introduced me to the British crime novel--which is a land of its own.
Liza Cody--I would never have written The Echo Killing if I hadn't first read her Anna Lee series. The detailed portrayal of a woman working in a man's world still rings true. She makes hard writing look easy, and that is something I always try to do.
Tana French--I've read every Tana French book and her writing is always an absolute delight. I would happily sacrifice a distant relative if it meant I could write that beautifully. She brings modern Dublin, with all its money and flaws, to life in a way few crime books manage. I look forward to each new release like a child anticipates Christmas.
Douglas Coupland--I discovered Coupland in the 1990s when a friend shoved a copy of Generation X into my hands. Reading that book was like seeing my own imagination in written form. I often think about his characters setting fire to cars with bumper stickers reading, "We're spending our grandchildren's inheritance," and I still think they shouldn't be prosecuted for that crime.
Book you've faked reading:
Wolf Hall. I'm perfectly willing to admit it was over my head.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Out of everything I've read in the last few years, no book has stayed with me quite like this one. I think about that ending at least once a week. I study her character building with open envy. There is no book I recommend more often.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. But then, here's the thing--I fell in love with the book inside. It's now one of my all-time favorite novels. It tells the tale of a mysterious, roving circus that travels in secrecy, appearing without warning, and opening only at night. The story is magical, elaborate and incredibly beautiful.
Book you hid from your parents:
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Need I say more?
Book that changed your life:
All the President's Men by Bob Woodward. I read it when I was a freshman in college. Within a year I'd changed my major to journalism. In many ways my entire adult life hinges on me reading that book at 18. I'm not sure I ever would have become a writer if I hadn't.
Favorite line from a book:
"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." --F. Scott Fitzgerald
Five books you'll never part with:
All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland: The lovable, broken family at the heart of this story reminds me of J.D. Salinger's Glass family. They are intelligent, irascible, difficult, funny and charming. I want them to be my family.
The Likeness by Tana French: This book about a female detective covering a murder case in which the victim looks exactly like her is dark and absorbing. The suspects are arts students living in a rambling old house south of Dublin. Like the detective, the reader gradually falls in love with them, but one of them is a killer.
True Grit by Charles Portis: As far as I'm concerned, this is the greatest young adult novel ever written. I first read it when I was 12, and saw the original John Wayne film around that time. It's a western in which the main character is a hyper-intelligent, grieving 14-year-old girl willing to risk everything to avenge her father's murder. In a world in which young women are rarely cast as heroes, this book shines.
Dupe by Liza Cody: I found a first-edition of Dupe in a used bookshop in England about a year before I sat down to try to write my first novel. I read it in a day. It had been a while since I'd fallen so hard in love with a novel. As a trainee detective at a private investigation firm, Anna Lee is determined to prove herself, but the case is dangerous and complex, and the men she works with constantly undermine her.
The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald: In this posthumously published, nonfiction book, Fitzgerald writes about his own mental and physical breakdown--the loss of Zelda, the crumbling of his career and his descent into alcoholism and depression. The writing is sharp and painfully funny, filled with eternal truths like, "In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day." He was as much a philosopher as an author of fiction.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I distinctly remember finishing this book for the first time, and then going right back to the beginning to read it all again. In many ways, this is a perfect crime novel, and a perfect young adult novel. Basically, a perfect novel.