Books That Changed Me: Barry Maitland
Barry Maitland is a former professor of architecture at Newcastle University and an award-winning crime writer. He has published The Belltree Trilogy, a stand-alone novel, Bright Air, set in Australia, and 12 novels in the Brock and Kolla police procedural series, the latest of which, The Promised Land, is published by Allen & Unwin.
BLEAK HOUSE
Charles Dickens
One of the great murder mysteries of all time, Dickens' novel begins with an unforgettable description of a London enveloped in fog, nowhere denser and more toxic than in the High Court of Chancery. The story unfolds with an astonishing cast of eccentric and colourful characters, leading to the murder of the sinister lawyer Mr Tulkinghorn. The case is investigated by Inspector Bucket, one of the first detectives in fiction and based upon the real-life policeman Charles F. Field, with whom Dickens explored the city at night, gathering material and characters for his books. The combination of atmospheric setting, memorable characters and cunning plotting was an inspiration for me.
INDEMNITY ONLY
Sara Paretsky
Crime fiction moves forward in sudden breakthroughs as well as steady evolution, and Sara Paretsky's first V.I. Warshawski novel marked such a jump when it appeared in 1982. After several false starts at writing a detective novel, Paretsky realised she was aping the Raymond Chandler tough-guy tradition, and instead turned to creating a plausible female detective for our time, against a backdrop of gritty Chicago. In this she paved the way for other fictional women detectives including my own DI Kathy Kolla.
THE SECRET HISTORY
Donna Tartt
For perfect narrative voice and pace, Donna Tartt's first novel, about a group of six American college students who turn almost casually to murder, is hard to beat. As told by one of the group, the elegant prose creates a compellingly claustrophobic atmosphere, laced with suspense, farce and psychological insight.
SEA OF POPPIES
Amitav Ghosh
This is the first book of Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy, centred on that great organised drug cartel, the British East India Company and its Opium Wars. Like Dickens, Ghosh marshals an exotic cast of intriguing characters – Indians, Chinese and Europeans – each with their own back story and distinctive vocabulary and mode of speech. It is a model of tremendous research thoroughly absorbed into an epic tale.