AUTHOR INTERVIEW
WICKED CITY
ACE ATKINS TALKS TO BARRY FORSHAW
My sixth book - Wicked City - was published Few writers have ever had such rich detail in
earlier this year by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. The their novels.
novel is the true tale of a town known as the
As far as modern, working writers, I have to say
most crime-ridden, wicked city in America.
the top of my list is Elmore Leonard. He’s by far
The city, Phenix City, Alabama came to the
the most literary and sharp on the crime scene
attention of the national and international press
– something most critics don’t get – by making it
in 1954 after a major political assassination.
all look so easy and effortless. I also won’t miss
The city was home to gamblers, bootleggers,
a book by Michael Connelly, Lee Child, George
prostitutes and pimps. During World War II,
Pelecanos and Robert Crais.
General George S. Patton was so furious about
Crais is really fantastic. He’s carrying on an
the killing of his soldiers in bar brawls that he
incredible tradition of Los Angeles stories,
threatened to flatten the entire red light district
falling right into place after Chandler and Ross
with a team of tanks.
Macdonald. I think if you start with The Big
Imagine a town you’ve seen in an old Western,
Sleep roll through to Moving Target and then
only in the 20th Century and you’ll get the idea.
catch up with Chasing Darkness, you’ll see the
I wrote my first published novel when I was whole history of Los Angeles. It’s fantastic.
twenty-six, not long after college. But before
On the edge of crime, I’d send anyone to James
that teachers had forced the de rigueur
Carlos Blake and Daniel Woodrell. Both brilliant
secondary school classics upon me while I was
American writers.
furiously making my way through the canons of
For me, crime fiction is all about sharp
Chandler, Hammett and John D. MacDonald.
characters. Even deep in the American South,
But even before I met those guys, when I was
we get the BBC. I am obsessed with Life on
about fifteen, I fell in love with every Ian Fleming
Mars. It’s one of the finest crime shows I’ve
novel. Fleming really started my career path
ever seen. The Americans are trying it right now
as a journalist and later a crime writer. I still
but without Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt, it all
remember every detail of his wonderfully-drawn
unravels. There was something Shakespearean
women and gorgeous, detailed setting.
Crime time 54 www.crimetime.co.uk 27
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