Blood Lines (38 page)

Authors: Grace Monroe

Tags: #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Mystery, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Crime, #Murder, #Spies & Politics, #Conspiracies, #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary Fiction, #Crime Fiction

BOOK: Blood Lines

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‘No rest for the wicked, miss, as my old mother used to say. Best get on your bike and get up here pronto. She’s a screamer …’

The party was in full swing as I got on Awesome.

I looked back at Joe standing in the light of the pub and knew that all the people who mattered to me were behind him.

It felt odd.

It felt nice.

I hoped it would last.

THE END

Exclusive author interview

Q. How did you get the idea for
Blood Lines?
Did it
come to you as a complete story, a character, a theme?

MT: I was jogging past Ruthven Barracks, a fabulous Jacobite ruin when the inspiration for
Blood Lines
came to me. A top level legal official had been assaulted and the writer’s act came into play. I asked myself what if … The result was
Blood Lines
; it is so far removed from reality that no-one but me can ever see where the idea came from. The plot lines for the books are inspired by actual legal cases; a group of foreign policemen did take over the drug supply chain in their neighbourhood to supplement their pension – they were apprehended.

LW-B: Much of the story came as a direct response to what had happened in
Dark Angels
– the last few lines of that book really paved the way for this one, as they’re all about Brodie really, everyone else is just unlucky to be involved.

Q. Do you draw upon your own experiences with family
and friends as you create characters and plots?

MT: A writer is the sum total of their experiences so to that extent my family and friends appear in the books. When I was an aspiring writer, I heard an author speaking and she said you cannot write unless you have had an interesting life – my life has been filled with events and memorable characters.

LW-B: No, not at all – my family and real friends are all very lovely and very normal!

Q. Which character do you feel most connected to and
why?

LW-B: Lizzie is my favourite. Her back story and her ability to recreate herself in any situation (and with any man!), is one that I would like to explore. She’s a great counter-balance to Brodie.

Q. Who are your literary influences?

LW-B: I’m not sure that I have influences, but I do have preferences. In crime, Cain and Nasaw are constant favourites, but I could read any Dickens or Zola any time of any day. I am hugely impressed by what Jodi Picoult has done, and, in the last few years, have been blown away by Susanna Clarke, Michel Faber, and Louise Welsh.

Acknowledgements

From Maria:

Lots of love to Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates who is the most amazing agent; your kindness and support has been invaluable.

To the girls at Avon, you are the best team. Special thanks to Maxine Hitchcock and Keshini Naidoo, whose insight into the manuscript was awe-inspiring. It has been many years since I have been a lawyer and I am grateful for the support given to me by my friends in the legal profession, especially John Mayer, who keeps me on track.

From Linda:

Lots of thanks as always to the hordes of lovely ladies behind all of this – particularly Keshini Naidoo (who gets first shout this time for having had to trawl
so
many edits and for the sheer imagination of her contributions to our Men on Friday afternoon discussions); Maxine Hitchcock (for always sounding like a little ray of sunshine in the midst of nasty discussions about murderous modes and deadlines); Sammia Rafique (for possessing a full deck of technological abilities and email friendliness – things I aspire to possessing myself one day); Sara Foster (for fantastic copy editing and allowing me to keep in all the dodgy Scottish slang and sweariness); and, again, again, again, Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates for top-notch agenting stuff and words of wisdom on everything in the world ever.

Thank you all – see you in six months, Linda xx

BLOOD LINES

Grace Monroe is the pseudonym of Maria Thomson and Linda Watson-Brown. Maria graduated with a law degree in her 20s and soon met her future husband. The couple now have four children. Since finishing her law career she has worked as a hypnotherapist, stage hypnotist and fertility counsellor amongst others. After 10 years as a university Politics lecturer, Linda returned to a journalistic career as a columnist and features writer at
The Scotsman
. She went on to write regularly for the
Daily Mail, Sunday Herald
and Independent amongst others and also started ghostwriting. In 2006, her first ghost-written book,
The Step Child
, was a
Sunday Times
best- seller, and she continues to write many works in this field. Maria and Linda met in 2003 and decided to write as a team in 2006.
Blood Lines
is the second novel in a planned series featuring Brodie McLennan.

For more information go to:
www.gracemonroe.net

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updates on Grace Monroe.

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By the same author:

Dark Angels

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

A division of HarperCollins
Publishers

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London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

A Paperback Original 2008

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers
2008

Grace Monroe asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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EPub Edition © JANUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007281817