We chat with author Fiona Barton about Talking To Strangers, which sees Detective Elise King’s investigation into a woman’s murder become derailed by a reporter who insists on doing her own investigation.
Hi, Fiona! When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
As a child, I lived in books. My parents read to me but I soon got the hang of it and burrowed into the worlds of fairy folk, adventurous gangs of kids and feisty girls. I’ve never really stopped…
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome was the first proper book I read for myself. It was on a long car journey to Italy when I was about seven. It pulled me into another world where I could not be reached by my parents. Even when we were crossing the Alps or on a road blocked by bleating sheep, I was still splashing about in a rowing boat in the 1920s. It was the start of everything
- The one that made you want to become an author: Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News? showed me the power and possibilities of a story told by many and gave me the confidence to try for myself. The opening is stunning – a jewel of a short story in its own right – and I turn to it when writer’s doubt weighs me down. It re-ignites something in me as a reader and an author and I owe Kate Atkinson a huge debt of gratitude.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier awakened a hunger for psychological thrillers when I was a teenager. I’d been a slave to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie for years, hunting the red herrings and guessing the murderers. But Rebecca did something else. I was in the head of the second Mrs de Winter from those iconic first lines; chilled and intrigued by the menacing undertow (and the scariest housekeeper ever created).
Talking To Strangers is the second installment in your Elise King series and it’s out August 27th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Three women hunt a killer.
What can readers expect?
The discovery of a woman’s body draws together three women; self-doubting murder detective, DI Elise King; pushy journalist, Kiki Nunn who is determined to get to the killer first; and grieving mother, Annie Curtis whose child was killed in the same woods. The investigation takes a deep dive into the dark side of online dating and exposes the town of Ebbing’s judgement on middle-aged women looking for The One among strangers.
Did anything inspire the storyline in Talking To Strangers?
It probably dates back to childhood… when my mother told me never to talk to strangers. She drummed it into me evoking the strangers of nightmares; the evil predators in dirty macs who tempted kids with sweeties or puppies before snatching and murdering them. But we all talk to strangers now, don’t we? Now that we live online. People become our friends or followers in the click of a button. Or the swipe of a finger.
Fast forward to a lunch with friends when one announced she had a date with a man she’d never met on Salisbury Plain, a vast wilderness used by the military for training. ‘He’s sent me the map co-ordinates,’ she said, buzzing with excitement. She just laughed when I told her he was clearly an axe murderer with a shovel in the boot of his car. And I realised for her – and many of the women happily dating online -meeting Mr Right was worth the risks.
As a writer, I loved that potential jeopardy, the room for deception, the danger people put themselves in to find their happy ending.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love Ronnie, my little sticky beak. She is all those feisty, funny older women who refuse to retire gracefully to a life of jam-making and babysitting.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing Talking To Strangers?
There are challenges every time I start a new book. You would think it would get easier – but it doesn’t!
What’s next for you?
Book Six is cooking in my head and I have started writing – and deleting.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I loved the darkness and hope in the brilliant Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and have finally discovered Mick Herron’s genius series about failed spies. Started with Slow Horses and am galloping through them, laughing out loud as I go.
I cannot wait to read Kate Atkinson’s new Jackson Brodie novel – Death At The Sign Of The Rook is out this month (August 2024)
