Today we are delighted to be joined by bestselling author and TikTok sensation Cynthia Murphy to discuss her latest YA thriller Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls. This continues Murphy’s impressive track record of stellar, spooky reads that get under your skin as she looks at the world of art, history and legacy.
Hi Cynthia, thank you for joining us today. Please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your book Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls?
Hello! I’m a Young Adult author from Manchester, England, where I live with my lovely husband and our rescue dog, Loli. Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls is a bit of a love letter to art and to people who are so invested in true crime, and it centres around Fliss Keller, who finds a fabled lost portrait that may or may not be cursed…and then the murders begin.
Where did the idea for this book originate from?
I was researching Victorians (which I often do because some of their traditions were so wonderfully morbid) and I came across a particularly gruesome pastime where they liked to use bits of Egyptian mummies for various detestable reasons! But one terrible hobby included grinding them down to use in a paint named ‘Mummy Brown’, which became popular. My first thought was, well, all those paintings will be haunted, won’t they? Then I wondered what would happen if someone did use human remains in a painting, why they would do that and what it might look like. And Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls was born!
As usual, this was such a tightly plotted YA thriller with great twists and turns. What was your process in creating this like and how did you keep track of the different plot strands?
Thank you! I try to plot my big twists and have an idea of where to plant the red herrings, but the truth is those usually come along in the second draft. This book was unusual as I had a completely different idea at first and had to rewrite the start to adapt to the way it ends now, but it’s been one of my favourites to write.
I love how your books tread that line between the supernatural and our world so carefully. How do you find this balance and what influences these aspects?
I just adore anything supernatural and love to have a hint of it in the stories I write. It’s always nice to leave suggestions of something spooky in the text and let the reader pick up on them if that’s their thing, but also be able to dismiss them if not. I’ve actually started a ‘Weird Art History’ series on my social media, as I found so many brilliant stories when I was doing the research for this book that I wanted to share them! I think that hint at the supernatural works especially well here, as the paintings are so creepy and ominous – if I saw them in a gallery, my imagination would definitely get carried away!
How do you think your background in Art History and Archaeology informs your writing, particularly for this art-focused book?
It always manages to sneak in, even if I don’t plan it. There are so many nods to real artefacts in my books, either that I’ve studied or seen in real-life, from John Dee’s scrying mirror in Win Lose Kill Die and Keep Your Friends Close to the Victorian mourning jewellery in Last One To Die. This book was so fun to write, though, because I got to take lots of inspiration from surrealist and often macabre portraits (particularly a series by Francis Bacon) and then invent my own versions with their own histories. I hope that I managed to do it convincingly!
What is one message or lingering thought that you’d like readers to take away from this book?
The ongoing debate on whether we should enjoy good art by bad people. I’m not sure I know the answer, but it’s always something I’m open to discuss!
If you could wipe your memory of the big twist and read a book for the first time again, which book would you pick?
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. What a masterpiece.
What songs or music would serve as your ideal soundtrack for Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls?
I actually had a playlist to put on when I needed to get in the mood to write, and my favourites were Taste by Sabrina Carpenter, That’s So True by Gracie Abrams, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me by Talor Swift, Bad Idea Right? By Olivia Rodrigo, My Kink is Karma by Chappell Roan and Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish. Every one of those songs has a slightly twisted relationship with the book!
What books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I have really loved Drop Dead Famous by JC Pearson, Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield and Foes & Cons by Georgia Bowers. I’m also very excited for the final Naturals book by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Velvet Knife by Maureen Johnson and Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo.
If possible, please can you share a little about what you are currently working on or any upcoming projects you have?
I can’t! I do have something coming and it’s a little different, but might be my favourite book so far, so watch this space!
Finally if you could only use five words to describe Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls, what would they be?
Dark, macabre, investigative, thrilling and eerie.
