Novelists Denise Mina and Mark Billingham on gore, good versus evil and Agatha Christie

Novelists Denise Mina and Mark Billingham on gore, good versus evil and Agatha Christie

One a former bar maid, the other a stand-up comedian; British crime authors Denise Mina and Mark Billingham were in the city last week as part of the British Council's LitSutra Programme. Excerpts from a discussion:

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American, Indian or British audiences... who's the most open to crime fiction?
Denise: I've had good experiences with all. It's important not to characterise all readers on the basis of one or two noisy bloggers.u00a0
Mark: I agree. Everyone responds to a well-told story. That said, it seems that American readers are a little less open to an ending which does not tie up every loose end. The truth is though, that you can only write for your home audience and anything that happens to your books overseas is a pleasant bonus.u00a0

What's toughest to write: plot, characters or action?u00a0
Denise: Action! If I could, I would write a book where there is endless shooting and fighting, but it might be a little bit tiresome.
Mark: It's like any other job! Some days are fun and some days you feel as though you are wading through treacle. Finishing a novel is definitely a highlight. Someone once asked Dorothy Parker if she enjoyed writing. She said, "I enjoy having written". I know exactly what she meant.

Are we desensitised to gore?
Denise: I think we are desensitised. I think back on films I found shocking when I was young and laugh at them. I do think that often what seems to be gore is actually about other things, sometimes a metaphor, sometimes a dance. Real violence is undignified and silly.
Most men over forty can't kick higher than their own knees and if you've watched them trying to karate kick each other in real life, it's actually very funny.
Mark: I think you might be right. My books have become darker in tone, but there is less "on stage" violence. For me it has become about nudging the imagination of the reader into the shadows. The pictures that a reader can create in their mind are far more graphic than anything I can put on a page. It's easy to disgust a reader. It's far harder to make them care about a character and that's my major concern.

What do you think about Agatha Christie?
Denise: I like character driven novels but her plots were so good I'd steal them if I could. I don't like her characters though, they're very flat.
Mark: She was brilliant at what she did. She was not a writer overly concerned about character development, but she fashioned wonderful plots and invented many devices modern writers use today.u00a0

Good triumphing over evil isn't common in your books. Do you not believe in it?u00a0
Denise: The perception of evil is an unwillingness to empathise. If the milgram experiments tell us anything it's that we're all capable of anything.
Mark: I don't believe in the concept of evil. People can do things which we define as "evil" but I don't believe human beings are naturally evil any more than they are naturally good. The word has a religious connotation which makes me uncomfortable.

The detached author
Denise Mina gave up a grant for a PhD thesis to write her first novel Garnethill. She is known to write detachedly about abuse and violence. Her grouse: crime fiction authors being treated like the smokers outside of the literary building. "Our novels are not like a Booker Prize winner which no one, even they think it's bull***t, will admit," she says.u00a0

Her Top five works:
>>Garnethill
>>The Dead Hour
>>The Field of Blood
>>Exile
>>Sanctum

The laughs man
The creator of detective Tom Thorne, Mark Billingham was an actor and is still a stand-up comedian. He believes that crime fiction is quite like a stand-up act, the punchline is of all importance. His worst memory: being held hostage with a friend at a Manchester hotel room for three hours one night. Mark's novel Scaredy Cat is inspired by his experience.

His Top five works:
>>Lazy Bones
>>Sleepyhead
>>Lifeless
>>Buried
>>The Burning Girlu00a0u00a0