Why did you choose this book?
Initially, I met Roderick Hart on twitter, as you do, and we linked because he is a fellow author living in Scotland; just over the Forth in Edinburgh to be precise. I enjoy crime novels and I was promoting my first murder mystery at that time, as well as ‘The Healing Paths of Fife.’ I think it was the latter which intrigued him. Rod has recently become an Eventispress author too; joining what we call the ‘Eventispress Family.’ (that sound a bit like the mafia doesn’t it?)
Did I feel empathy to any particular character?
Yes to both Alison Ogilvie and to Douglas Hunter in Interleaved Lives, in the sense that life’s tough at times, as are relationships. I always feel very close to my own characters and Dot in MISSING Past and Present, whose husband went missing, would have had an enormous amount of empathy for Douglas Hunter, whose wife had disappeared and he had no idea where she was.
Both Dot and Douglas handled their circumstances with resilience but their reactions were very different. Douglas threw himself into his new career, although he didn’t really have a clue how to set himself up as a private detective by himself. However, Dot escaped from the world she knew; a homeless character who became familiar to those who passed her by.
Is there a lasting thought or memory from the book which remains with you long after the novel is finished?
Life can move on in a positive way in the end, despite the traumas life throws at us.
Interleaved Lives (available on Amazon) is a great crime novel, set in Edinburgh. It has complicated and unexpected twists and turns but it is the characters who draw you in. Great book!
Diana Jackson 