CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2023 – Interview with M. W. Craven
As we head towards the announcement of the winner of the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, we’ve been talking to some of the shortlisted authors and find out more about their thrilling novels. Next up we have M. W. Craven and The Botanist.
How does it feel to be on the shortlist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger?
Ian Fleming is an icon, a global brand, and the Bond books remain effortlessly timeless, while being relevant today. I read them when I was a child and I still read them as an adult. To be shortlisted for the Steel Dagger, an award synonymous with the great man, an award I won in 2002, is incredibly exciting. And humbling – the list of past winners reads like a who’s who of writing royalty . . .
How would you summarise The Botanist and what inspired you to tell this story?
Someone is sending poems and pressed flowers to the nation’s most reviled people, a warning they’re about to be murdered. And despite their precautions, the Botanist always breaches their defences. Washington Poe hates locked room mysteries but this time he has two to solve. Because not only is there a ruthless poisoner to deal with, his close friend, the pathologist Estelle Doyle, has been arrested for her father’s murder; and the evidence against her is iron-clad – she has gunshot residue on her hands and hers are the only footprints going into a house surrounded by fresh snow.
Locked room mysteries are a classic of the genre, and as a massive Sherlock Holmes fan (I mean who doesn’t like The Adventure of the Speckled Band . . .), I wanted to pay homage. I also wanted to challenge myself which was why I didn’t have a solution to Estelle Doyle’s problem before I put her into that very tight corner (The Estelle Doyle Problem sounds like it could have been written by ACD himself).
What is your writing process?
I am quite strict – Monday-Friday I write, and unless a deadline is looming, I don’t work weekends. I start around 10 a.m. and finish around 6 p.m, with an hour for lunch. I drink coffee by the gallon and listen to punk or heavy metal to keep me going.
My first draft is always very rough, a hodgepodge of ideas, themes, and sarcasm. I whittle it down to something semi-literate over the course of a few more drafts then send it to my agent and editor for their feedback.
What advice would you give to aspiring thriller writers?
Read a lot, and not just in the thriller genre; read Stephen King’s On Writing; remember your job is to entertain and the best way to do that is to get the pacing right; oh, and it doesn’t hurt to give your protagonist a cool car to drive – an Aston Martin DB5 springs to mind. Not sure why . . .
What is your favourite thriller and why?
The Poe book I’m currently writing is about a sniper terrorising the country, and although Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal was about a political assassination, I recently reread it, and it was as exciting as it had been the first time I read it. It’s the perfect thriller – the pace is superb, occasionally frantic, and it’s a genuine edge-of-your-seat read. Some of the details, particularly the killer methodically preparing for his attempt on the French President’s life, are mind-blowing.
