Bookarmy author interview with Mark Mills - CWA Awards,

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Bookarmy author interview with Mark Mills - CWA Awards,

Mark Mills is no stranger to critical acclaim; his first novel, The Whaleboat House, won the 2004 Crime Writer's Association Award for Best Novel by a debut author. Now he has been nominated again for a CWA Award for his third novel, The Information Officer.

Bookarmy: You’re up for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for your novel The Information Officer. What’s the book about?

Mark Mills: It’s a murder mystery set during the Second World War on Malta at a time when the island looks set to fall to the Germans. As if things weren’t bad enough already for the beleaguered British garrison, it becomes clear that a killer is on the loose, picking off Maltese girls. The early evidence suggests that a British serviceman is behind the murders – a revelation that threatens to undermine the fragile relationship between the islanders and the military.

BA: You’ve already won a CWA award, for your first novel The Whaleboat House. How does it feel to be in the running again?

MM: The Savage Garden was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters in 2007, losing out to Ariana Franklin’s excellent Mistress of the Art of Death. I feel extremely honoured - and not a little mystified! - that all three books should have received a nod from the CWA. That kind of recognition from your peers certainly makes the whole thing worthwhile.

BA: All three of your novels are set in or shortly after World War II. What is it about this period that fascinates you?

MM: My interest in that period really sprang from the first book, The Whaleboat House, a story which, for dramatic reasons, I felt obliged to set in the immediate aftermath of World War II. This involved a large amount of research into a conflict I knew little about at the time. One of the notable themes of wartime narratives is that of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances. It’s a theme which chimes with the sort of stories I like tell, all of which feature ‘amateur detectives’ at their heart.

BA: Before the publication of The Whaleboat House, you wrote screenplays. Is there a big difference between writing for the screen and writing a novel?

MM: There are huge differences between the two crafts, the chief one being that you are restricted in a screenplay to what your characters say and do. Unless you fall back on voice-over narration - which rarely succeeds, I think - there’s little you can do to take the viewer into the heads of your protagonists. Novelists are not limited by this constraint; they can transport their readers wherever they please. This is the reason that so many outstanding novels written in the first person fail to translate to the screen. It’s almost impossible to recreate the distinctive ‘voice’ of the book.

BA: Can you recommend us a must-read crime book?

MM: Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson. A masterful blend of horror and humour.

BA: Are you working on something at the moment?

MM: I’m currently researching the next book, a murder mystery set in the south of France in the mid-1930s – so no World War II in this one!