What makes the tawdry thriller?
DH: A lot of crime thriller fiction comes from classic Raymond Chandler. There are certain models for it that I suspect are a little tired in the 21st century. Like Cold War-style thrillers, where the bad guys were the Russians or Chinese and not quite human. Russians bad, Americans good; we all know the world isn’t that simple. At one point, you could write a successful thriller just by setting it in exotic locations. Now the same places are holiday destinations. HK: What are you reading right now? DH: Something on the Etruscan language – the Etruscans were a very interesting race. They pre-dated the Romans, got swamped by them and wiped out. The Etruscan language isn’t quite fully understood. I’m thinking about doing something on them. HK: As a fiction author, does your journalism background come into play? DH: Not at all. I have to consciously turn off the journalist part to write fiction. The first novel any journalist writes is a fictionalized assignment. And that’s pretty boring.
