My Life In Books ~ talking to author Jane Isaac @JaneIsaacAuthor

My Life in Books is an occasional feature on Random Things Through My Letterbox

I've asked authors and people in publishing to share with us a list of the books that are important to them and have made a lasting impression on their life

I'm really pleased to welcome crime author Jane Isaac here to Random Things today. Jane is the author of the DI Will Jackman series, published by Legend Press.

I read and reviewed her third book, Beneath the Ashes here on Random Things in November and enjoyed it so very much.

Here's a snippet from my review:

"Jane Isaac has written an exceptional story with real depth and some wonderful characterisation. Her plot is complicated yet thrilling, with twists that are unexpected and an ending that I certainly didn't see coming.
Beneath The Ashes is absorbing, with a lead character who I fell a little in love with. This is clever and the plotting is fiendishly good. I'm looking forward to reading more by Jane Isaac"

Visit Jane at www.janeisaac.co.uk                        Follow her on Twitter @JaneIsaacAuthor

My Life In Books ~ Jane Isaac

The Secret Seven by Enid Blyton

I’ve always loved adventures and was one of those little girls who would tuck her torch under the bedclothes after lights out, desperately trying to reach the end of the book before I was caught. I devoured all of Enid Blyton’s books, but The Secret Seven is really where my love of mysteries began. I remember begging my mother for rubber-soled shoes!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The characterisation of Little Women drew me into the story, so much so that I became emotionally involved and wanted to be a March sister! It’s one of the books that has stayed with me throughout adulthood and even got a mention in my third novel.

The Whole Story: A Walk Around The World by Ffyona Campbell

After a reading break in my teens, I moved into travel memoirs in my early twenties. Books like Ffyona Campbell’s A Walk Around The World fuelled my wanderlust and eventually, when I was thirty, my husband and I took a year out to travel the world.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

During our travels I spent a lot of time in the Far East, and read this book just before we landed in Japan. My husband still reminds me of the days we spent in Tokyo, searching for Geishas and samurai swords. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t see either.

Tokyo by Mo Hayder

It wasn’t until I’d left Japan that I read Tokyo by Mo Hayder (retitled The Devil of Nanking), a compelling mystery set between Tokyo in the 1990s, and 1937 Nanking. While the mystery was intriguing, the history in this book was both heart wrenching and harrowing, and tales of the atrocities stayed with me long after I read the last page.

Beneath the Skin by Nicci French

Not long after I returned from travelling my daughter was born and I lost my reading mojo for a while, until a friend bought me a copy of Beneath the Skin by Nicci French, a creepy and intense tale that captured my imagination and re-ignited my love of psychological thrillers. I remember working my way through their early list, the perfect escapism when my daughter was young.

 

The Empty Chair byJeffery Deaver

Another friend introduced me to Jeffery Deaver and I quickly became fascinated by the way that Lincoln Rhyme, the paraplegic investigator sorts through the clues that lead them to the killer, aided by his brilliantly flawed sidekick, Amelia Sachs.

There is something about the twists and turns of thrillers that draws me in, time after time, and it was a combination of Nicci French and Jeffery Deaver that eventually inspired me to write my own version of detective novels with a psychological edge.

Jane Isaac ~ February 2017

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