The mystery starts with a question: What if?
When an idea for a thriller starts percolating in Linwood Barclay’s mind, most often it builds off a questionable premise. What if you woke up one morning, and your family was gone? What if everybody in the house next door was murdered?
What if you found out the killers went to the wrong house?
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“If I have a really good ‘what if,’ I think if that idea is strong enough to sustain a book,” he said. “Before I start the book, I want to know what set of circumstances made that ‘what if’ happen. I like to know where my endpoint is, and I know where I’m starting, so I have a very rough idea of the middle. But I have to know where I’m going to end up before I start.”
The approach has worked well for Barclay, a best-selling author whose 17 novels have captivated people around the world. His newest novel, “A Noise Downstairs,” is available on July 24 and centers around a mystery of a typewriter that seems to work on its own, perplexing its owner and leading him into a dangerous investigation.
He released his first novel in 2004, at the end of a long career as a journalist with the Toronto Star. Since then, his work has won international awards and topped bestseller lists, as well as been developed into TV shows and movies.
Barclay will spend July 27 at Custer Theatre on Franklin College’s campus as part of the Johnson County Public Library’s Authors at JCPL series. The first 100 Johnson County Public Library cardholders to reserve a seat to attend this event will receive a signed copy of “A Noise Downstairs.” Barnes & Noble will be on site selling additional copies of the book as well as other titles by Barclay.
Leading into the event, he shared some of his thoughts on writing mystery, his love of television and meeting his fans.
On getting started writing:
I’d like to tell people it was Hemingway or Dickens that inspired me, but in fact it was television. As a kid, I had all of these favorite shows, and one episode a week of my favorite show wasn’t enough, so I had to write more. I’d write novellas based on characters someone else created. When I was 11, 12 years old, I’d write 30 or 40 typed-page novellas. I got my dad to teach me how to type so I could do them more quickly. That was my inspiration.
His earliest influences:
The first books I read obsessively was the Hardy Boys. So I was always reading mysteries, and then I moved on to Agatha Christie and the Rex Stout books, so I always liked that genre.
Being pulled by the mystery genre:
Part of it is that I really like plot. To me, plot is what really drives the story. It’s the engine of the story. There’s really no other genre that relies on intricate plotting than all types of crime fiction.
What sets “A Noise Downstairs” apart:
This book that I’m touring for is a little different in that it started with the fact that I love old typewriters. I bought, just to put on the coffee table as a piece of art, this old typewriter. I kept looking at it, and I thought, ‘There’s really a good story there.’ It spoke to me.
Using that inspiration:
I think the ‘what if’ with that is, what if I started hearing the typewriter make noises in the middle of the night. That was the starting point. Then I had to figure out how that actually happened.
How his 27-year career at the Toronto Star impacts his writing:
Having worked at newspaper doesn’t necessarily affect the content of what I write so much as how I write. It’s unthinkable to miss a deadline, so I always deliver early. I always treat writing as a job, and sit down and go to work.
Meeting his fans on tour:
It’s a very lonely profession, really. You sit in a room and write. It’s a very isolated job, and you go a long time before there’s feedback. You spend months working on something, and you hope people like it. Then you get to find out if you did. You get some feedback.
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Linwood Barclay
What: An appearance and book signing by the best-selling author of 17 novels. The appearance is part of the Johnson County Public Library’s Authors at JCPL series.
When: 7 p.m. July 27
Where: Custer Theatre, 101 Branigin Blvd., Franklin. The theatre is in the Old Main building on Franklin College’s campus, at the corner of Branigin Boulevard and Monroe Street.
Admission: Free, but registration is required at pageafterpage.org/authors-at-jcpl
Giveaway: The first 100 Johnson County Public Library cardholders to reserve a seat to attend this event will receive a signed copy of Barclay’s new novel, “A Noise Downstairs.” Barnes & Noble will be on site selling additional copies of “A Noise Downstairs” as well as other titles by Linwood Barclay.
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