Iain Ryan is an Australian writer who lives in Melbourne. He is the author of two previous novels, Four Days (2015) and The Student (2017), both shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award.
Today, Iain Ryan is on the blog to answer a few questions about his brand new crime novel, The Spiral. Read on …
Iain Ryan (Photo by Shannyn Higgins Photography).
Tell us about your book, The Spiral!
IR: The Spiral is a crime/noir novel. The story centres on a researcher called Erma Bridges. After Erma is attacked by a work colleague, she tries to determine the motive behind the violence, thus entering a vast and weird conspiracy.
What do you love about writing mystery thrillers?
IR: I like the structure of them. Left unguided by genre, my work spirals out into complete nonsense. Also, I love reading crime novels and writing them is just an obsessive type of reading.
Do you ever feel the pressure to produce something bigger and better with each new novel, or do you find the pressure motivating?
IR: The pressure comes from trying to live up to the work that inspired me, a lot of which is deeply idiosyncratic and odd. None of my heroes had an easy time of it.
How do you come up with fresh and original plot twists?
IR: I find that if I start with a weird idea and try to bring it back to genre and story convention, the rest of it takes care of itself. If you go right out there, getting back is going to involve twists and turns.
How did you come to be a writer?
IR: Ten years of deliberate practise. It sounds horrible but it was fun, for the most part.
Who are some of our favourite contemporary thriller writers?
IR: Alan Parks, Don Winslow and Gillian Flynn.
What was the last book you read and loved?
IR: I’m the last person on earth to discover Tana French’s debut In The Woods. I loved it and now I’m making my way through the rest of her catalogue.
What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?
IR: Stay hydrated.
What do you hope readers discover in The Spiral?
IR: A reason to tell their friends to buy it.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
IR: I have a couple of book projects on the go. There’s a straight historical crime novel set on the Gold Coast in the1980s. That’s nearly done. I also have a book called Sweet Oblivion that’s about halfway along. That one is more like The Spiral, except even stranger. It’s about a true crime podcaster looking into a group homicide in Byron Bay.
Thanks Iain!
—The Spiral by Iain Ryan (Echo Publishing) is out now.
The Spiral
The utterly original and brilliantly compelling new thriller by twice Ned Kelly Award shortlisted Iain Ryan.
Enter the spiral. Find the truth. Erma Bridges' life is far from perfect, but entirely ordinary. So when she is shot twice in a targeted attack by a colleague, her quiet existence is shattered in an instant. With her would-be murderer dead, no one can give Erma the answers she needs to move on from her trauma. Why her? Why now? So begins Erma's quest for the truth - and a dangerous, spiralling journey into the heart of darkness...
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