I am absolutely delighted and honoured to be kicking off the long-awaited #blogtour for Steve Cavanagh’s latest thriller, Thirteen featuring one of my favourite characters, Eddie Flynn.
Many of you who follow my blog will know how much I adore Steve’s books and a little known fact is that my hubby (Mr F) is a very reluctant reader, in fact he reads 1 book every 2 years , however when I received a copy of Steve’s first book The Defence – he actually stole it off me and read it and LOVED it and for that I will be forever grateful!
As mentioned I have read and reviewed all Steve’s books in the Eddie Flynn series and I wanted to do something special for the blogtour so I asked for a content piece about Eddie and Steve and I am thrilled to be able to show you a Steve Cavanagh exclusive interview:
Enjoy:
Thirteen and Eddie Flynn
A crime writer nearly always has three books in their head at any one time.
The book that they’ve written a year ago, which is either about to be published or has just been published. The book that either they are writing now or have just finished writing. And lastly, the book that they are going to write next.
My headspace is currently occupied by three books.
The first book in my head is Thirteen, which is just about to come out in the UK. It’s the fourth in the Eddie Flynn series, but all of the books in the series can be read, and should work, as standalones. That is to say, each book has its own complete story. So you don’t have to read them in order. In Thirteen, Eddie Flynn is representing a Hollywood movie star accused of the brutal double murder of his wife and his chief of security. The other part of the narrative in that book follows a character called Joshua Kane. Joshua is a serial killer. But Joshua isn’t the man on trial – he’s on the jury for the double murder case. And he’s killed to get there.
I’ve been blown away by the reaction to the book, and I’m pleased to say that I think this book is my best one. It’s certainly the book that comes closest to original idea I had for the story. The other very pleasing thing is that readers who wouldn’t normally pick up a legal thriller are meeting Eddie Flynn for the first time and they are going back to the earlier books to spend more time with the character. Eddie is a former con artist, who now plies his trade as a New York criminal defense attorney. Eddie began life in The Defence as a broken man. Someone who had lost his family, and his career, because of one mistake. The subsequent books follow Eddie as he tries to atone for that mistake. How does he do this? He helps people. The people who have no chance of getting a not guilty verdict, the people who have been wronged and suffer the ultimate injustice – they are the innocent people facing a trial for a crime they did not commit. They don’t need a fancy lawyer in a thousand-dollar suit. They need the man who will break the law to do the right thing. They need Eddie. And he needs them.
Eddie is a combination of characters, ideas and thoughts. He came out of a number of happy accidents. I’m a lawyer myself, and I once conned a witness into revealing they had been lying on the witness stand. But I make no bones about it – it was a trick. A carefully phrased question. After that experience, the idea of a con man and a trial lawyer sharing the same skills didn’t seem so far fetched anymore. Eddie is also prone to courtroom tricks, much like one of the inspirations for the character from real life – Clarence Darrow, the famous civil rights lawyer. I’ve written more about Darrow for the Irish Times, if you’re interested you can read more here after you finish this (Irish Times link).
I don’t want to say too much about Thirteen in case I ruin it. All I can say is from the age of twelve, when I first read Silence Of The Lambs, I’ve wanted to create a character as clever, as manipulative, as charismatic, and as frightening as Hannibal Lektor. In Thirteen I took my shot. I leave it to you to judge how far I missed by.
The second book in my head is the one I’m publishing next year. Twisted, my first standalone novel which I have just finished and is currently in the hands of my editors. Again, I can’t say too much about this one. I can tell you it’s a book about a marriage, and secrets, and thrillers, and twists – both fictional and the kind that happen in real life – the kind you don’t see coming.
And the third book in my head is the next one. The one I haven’t begun writing yet. I can say that I have not written a word, but I’m thinking about it very carefully. The next book will be a return to the world of Eddie Flynn. I’ve chosen the words in that sentence carefully. World is the operative word in that sentence. The next book in the Eddie Flynn series will be expanding and contracting that world in all sorts of ways. It will be the book that sets the series on a new course – one that will eventually bring Eddie to a crossroads in his life.
I’ve always enjoyed reading a crime fiction series. The Eddie Flynn series is my effort to make readers fall in love with a character, and follow him to that crossroads.
I hope you come along for the ride.
To read my reviews on the Eddie Flynn series click on the book titles below:
To read my Quickie interview with Steve – click here
