An Interview With Meg Gardiner Contd By Steve Rudd

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You were born and brought up in America, where all of your novels have thus far been set. You are currently living in London with your family. Have you ever harboured plans to set any stories in England? You bet. I set my novels in California because I love the place and because readers find it fascinating - sometimes as fascinating as a car wreck. But England is too great a setting to pass up, especially when I have the chance to write about an American getting swept up in drama on the streets of London. Not only does the heroine have to dig up vital information and keep ahead of the villains, but she gets overwhelmed by culture shock.

For me that's half the fun, and I hope it's the same for readers. If my books aren't entertaining, I'm not doing my job.

I've heard a rumour that your next novel is to be called Kill Chain. Have you finished writing this yet, or is the novel still in the early stages? Kill Chain is being hammered into shape and will be published later in 2006. Evan Delaney's father goes missing and she has only days to piece together a puzzle that will rescue him. The hunt brings her to London. The story is part chase, part puzzle - she's racing against time to save him, while digging through his past to unearth the reason he has disappeared. She discovers a life he had hidden, working for US intelligence, and has to prevent that from endangering her family.

Has there ever been a time when you've actually shocked yourself with any of the graphically violent scenes that you have conjured up for your novels? No. My goal is to grip readers and send them on an emotional ride that they don't dare abandon because they're desperate to know how it ends. To do that, I have to control the scene, and my own reactions. However, when writing Crosscut I acted out a scene where a character is drugged and must escape from a truck - and dragged myself out of my own car onto the driveway, only to find my next door neighbour gaping at me. I shocked her.

You are obviously renowned for being a hugely exciting writer of thrillers, but - your early travel writing aside - have you ever considered experimenting with another genre of writing altogether, such as sheer melodrama or sweeping romance for example? When I was first married I wrote lyrics for my husband's music - he's a guitarist and composer. But we decided that staying married was better than fighting about rhymes, and went our own ways creatively. At its best, crime fiction can include sheer drama, romance (obsessive romance, often), horror, comedy - it's a broad canvas. I love the genre because in crime fiction, the core issue is morality. Ultimately crime stories aren't merely about closing cases, but the fatal choices people make.

Which writers, whether past or present, do you most admire - and why? James Lee Burke, who writes with such elegiac power that I'm half in love with his Louisiana cop, Dave Robicheaux. Carl Hiaasen, for crucifying a mobile home salesman on a satellite dish and making me laugh out loud at it. Jane Austen, because. Dante, for leading readers from hell to behold the stars. Elmore Leonard. Nobody's cooler.

What advice, if any, would you give to fans of your work who might be interested in pursuing a career in thriller writing themselves? Create sympathetic characters and put them in jeopardy. That's advice crimewriter Leonard Tourney gave me, and it's stuck. Also, grow a thick skin. Learn how to take criticism and grow from it. You can always improve. Persevere. Have fun. This is a great job. Finally, has anybody in Hollywood approached you yet with a view to adapting any of your work into a movie?

Sounds like a brilliant idea. Call me, baby. Let's do lunch. www.meggardiner.com

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