Writing about murder: an interview with P.D. James
Published:
September 2, 2005 |
Writing about murder: An interview with P.D. James
by D.C. Denison
Q: Do you think it’s necessary to study mysteries to write a good “thriller,” as they say in England?
A: No, I don’t think it is at all. I suppose that most people who write mysteries successfully do read quite a number of them, because we normally write the kind of book we enjoy reading. So most writers who write mysteries probably think as I do: I enjoy them, and I think I could write one, I think I could plot one. But as to being a real scholar of the mystery, you know, really knowing all about it on an intellectual level, no, I don’t think that’s necessary.
--Excerpt from the October 1985 issue of The Writer.
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