At an event with Paul Thomas – the NZ crime (and sports) writer – I was interested to hear his thoughts on how he first came to write crime fiction. Having read a lot of crime novels, Thomas felt he understood the mechanics and structure of this genre. As a writer, it involved setting up a mystery and then solving it, so it’s a matter of taking the next step until you finish writing.
Thomas considers the genre to have universal appeal and that it is a self-contained process – a crime will be solved. Crime fiction has an enduring appeal, even though it can be formulaic. The trick, I guess, is to take that ‘formula’ and make it fresh.
And, like many crime authors, he was a big Agatha Christie fan as a kid. I loved Christie novels myself, gobbling them up. I wonder if kids still find them such good reading, or whether they might now seem too old-fashioned …
