INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: MEL SHERRATT
This week we're delighted to feature internationally bestselling author Mel Sherratt!
Mel writes police procedurals, psychological suspense and crime dramas — fiction with a punch. Shortlisted for the prestigious CWA (Crime Writer's Association) Dagger in The Library Award, her inspiration comes from authors such as Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Lisa Jewell, Mandasue Heller and Clare Mackintosh.
To date, she has sold two million books. All of her crime novels have been bestsellers, each one climbing into the Kindle UK top 20, and several reaching number one. Mel has also had numerous Kindle All-Star awards, for best read author and best titles.
She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and terrier, Dexter (named after the TV serial killer) and makes liberal use of her hometown as a backdrop for some of her books.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MEL SHERRATT'S MAILING LIST AND KEEP UP-TO-DATE WITH ALL HER LATEST NEWS AND PLOTTING.
‘A unique voice.’ Mail on Sunday
‘I love all Mel Sherratt’s books.’ #1 bestselling author Ian Rankin
Q: You’ve just published your twentieth crime novel. Do you prefer writing police procedurals or psychological thrillers?
A: Hmm, that’s a difficult question to answer as I find all my books to a certain element are psychological thrillers. There is usually a ‘whydunnit’ instead of a whodunnit in my books. I like to get into the minds of my killers, so that as a reader, you may feel you understand why a killer did what he or she did, mostly because of their past.
Crime thrillers in general are an everyman/everywoman genre — they feature regular people in circumstances we all dread. They confront our deepest fears — murders, serial killers, errant or abusive spouses, lost children, etc. They are gripping and thrilling but also contain mysteries that readers love to figure out. We all analyse the people around us and readers can draw on their experience and gut instinct, not just to work out the mystery, but whether or not to trust the main character.
Q: What author, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?
A: I’m very lucky that over the years I’ve been writing, since 2012, I have been to many crime festivals in the UK and met most of my favourite authors. I actually can’t believe how many, and often get starstruck when I talk to them.
But there is someone I keep missing and that’s Lisa Jewell. Whenever I’m on a panel at an event, she will be on one the next day, and vice versa. It’s very frustrating.
So I would love to have dinner with her, and a good natter about her books as I’ve read every one since she started out writing women’s fiction, and now she writes amazing dark psychological thrillers.
Q: What's the strangest thing you've had to research for a book?
A: Over the years, I’ve not researched so many strange things, as my stories are mostly about social issues, but I do have a fascination in twins. For my book Ten Days, I learned about twinless twins — either a twin dying at birth or later in life and how it affects the surviving twin. It was fascinating to read about how some of them feel a part of them is gone; others felt as though the twin was still with them.
Also, the DNA around twins is fascinating, in how identical twins do have differences. Of course, I can’t go any further as that would spoil a plot in one of my books . . .
Q: Who would you want to play your main characters in a film/TV adaptation — any why?
A: I have a few series written but for my main one about Allie Shenton, who starts out as a detective sergeant and then a detective inspector, it would be actress Rachel Shenton, star of All Creatures Great and Small. I’ve met her several times now, as she is local to me, and I remember chatting to her about Allie, and Rachel said that she could see herself running around the streets of Stoke-on-Trent as a cop.
Incidentally, I can’t believe Allie Shenton and Rachel share the same surname — surely a twist of fate . . .
Q: What are you currently reading and watching?
A: I have just finished the second book of the Detective Joanna Piercy Murder Mysteries by Priscilla Masters. As an author who writes about, and lives in Stoke-on-Trent, although it makes me smile to see local readers recognising places in my city, it was only when reading Priscilla’s books that I actually got to experience it for myself. In Burnt on the Moors, I found myself thinking, ‘I’ve visited The Roaches’, ‘I know where the village of Flash is,’ ‘I’ve been to the Winking Man pub’, with a smile on my face as I read on.
I enjoy the books because they are set in the 1990s, so most of it is good old-fashioned policing, with all the bias and stereotypes of the police force during those years.
I’ve just finished watching Gangs of London. I watched series one as soon as it came out, so as it was a while ago, I rewatched it and then watched series two. It was phenomenal. I have to admit to looking away at the levels of violence, but I love that the story is really about families at the heart of it. I felt like each episode was like a separate movie and I just wanted more.
I’m now four episodes into The Devil’s Hour and am loving it for its creepy vibes!
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MEL SHERRATT'S MAILING LIST AND KEEP UP-TO-DATE WITH ALL HER LATEST NEWS AND PLOTTING.