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A kick ass female Detective Inspector and exploring darkness inspired a successful series of crime thrillers for M. J. Arlidge, author of the DI Helen Grace series.
M. J. Arlidge, successful novelist, screenwriter, and producer, allowed Monsta Reader the opportunity to ask some questions recently - with the new Helen Grace thriller, Cat and Mouse, due for publication on 9 June 2022, I thought it might be a good time to look back to where it all started. In 2014, readers were introduced to DI Helen Grace in the first thrilling novel of the series, Eeny Meeny, and I was curious as to how it all started and where Helen Grace came from . . .
Monsta Reader: Crime fiction has given us many iconic fictional detectives. Were you inspired by any of them in your creation of Detective Inspector Helen Grace? Or did she come from somewhere else entirely?
M. J. Arlidge: The key thing for me when creating Helen was not to make her boring. Like many others, I always love the bad guys and girls, but sometimes find fictional heroes and heroines too straight, too nutritional. I wanted my protagonist to be different and I enjoy writing female characters more than men, so it was no accident that my hero was a woman. I also knew I wanted to avoid the clichés of failing marriages, drink problems etc., so I decided to opt for pain as my hero's emotional crutch. I was reading a lot of Stieg Larsson at the time and think I was influenced by him too. The unconventional, kick ass spirit of Lisbeth Salander is very present in Helen Grace.
MR: For how long was DI Helen Grace a part of your life before readers met her in her first novel, Eeny Meeny, in 2014?
MJA: Not that long actually. I knew I had a concept I liked - a serial killer abducting people in pairs and forcing one to kill the other in order to gain their freedom - so then it was a question of populating this wicked world with interesting characters. That said, I started writing her in 2012 and she wasn't unleashed on the world until 2014, so I had her to myself for a couple of years!
MR: Did you always intend for Eeny Meeny to be the first in a series of novels? Did you suspect it would be as successful as it was?
MJA: When I first sat down with Penguin, I pitched them the first seven Helen Grace novels! I was showing off, I guess, but I was also showing that I wanted Helen to be a long running character. I was fortunate that my debut Eeny Meeny did really well, launching the series round the world. I have Richard and Judy to thank for picking it for their book club and getting the word out there.
MR: In DI Helen Grace's world, there is a lot of darkness. In the people that she is tasked with hunting down, but in her own life, and amongst her team too, there are demons being fought. Is it a struggle tackling such dark themes? How do you unwind from them?
MJA: No, it's not a struggle at all. I actively enjoy going into the dark corner of human experiences and finding out what makes people tick. My own life is completely different - safe, happy, chilled - so it's not hard to extract myself. Sometimes my research is dark and upsetting, so then it's great to be able to step away from it and spend time with family, or play tennis or, of course, read a good book!
MR: How do you think you would fare in that world? Hunting down killers?
MJA: I think I would be pretty bad, as I come from a family of cowards. I suspect I would probably hide in the cupboard until it was all over and hope to be the last man standing.
Thank you to Matthew Arlidge for taking the time to answer these questions. You can find Matthew on Instagram and Twitter, and new Helen Grace thriller, Cat and Mouse, is due for release on 9 June 2022.
You can purchase Eeny Meeny by M. J. Arlidge here.
You can pre-order Cat and Mouse by M. J. Arlidge here.
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