Author
ABOUT THIS MONTH’S AUTHOR
Anne Cassidy
Anne Cassidy lives in Essex. She was a teacher for twenty years before becoming a full-time writer. She has published over twenty teen novels and is best known for the Booktrust Teenage Book Award winner Looking for JJ, which was also shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and the Carnegie Medal. Dead Time is Anne’s first book for Bloomsbury.
As a crime writer, inspiration for Anne’s books often comes from one of the many news stories of teen crime. In 2008,the year before Anne began writing Dead Time, 19 teenagers were killed inLondon between Jan and July. 15 of them were stabbed including high profile cases like Jimmy Mizen and Ben Kinsella. Anne is also interested in the philosophical aspect of murder. She says ‘People take great delight in reading Crime Fiction. Why is this? We live in a modern liberal society which abhors the death penalty yet we soak up murder stories in print and on television. So I asked myself the question is it ever right to murder? Are there any circumstances that make murder the preferable option?’
Read 10 questions with Anne Cassidy further down the page
ABOUT THE BOOK
Dead Time – The Murder Notebooks
Rose’s mother and Joshua’s father went out for dinner one night and never returned. Several years later, police investigations have turned up nothing but dead ends and Rose has given up hope of ever learning what happened to them. But when she is reunited with Joshua she discovers that he has been doing some investigating of his own. At the same time, Rose finds herself mixed up in a murder hunt after she witnesses the killing of two of her college classmates. Can there be a connection to their parents’ case?
Dead Time is the first of four books in The Murder Notebooks series by Anne Cassidy, the award winning author of Looking for JJ. This edge-of-your-seat thriller follows the story of teenagers Rose and Joshua, who are bound together by the mysterious disappearance of their parents.
Buy Dead Time
10 QUESTIONS WITH ANNE CASSIDY
Describe yourself in five words?
Bossy, Driven, Loyal, Pessimist, Funny (sometimes)
Who or what was your biggest influence in deciding to become a writer?
I was overwhelmed by the books I read, classics, detective fiction, modern literature and one day I wondered if I could have a go. I joined a writers’ group and the support of people there made me think that I could tell a story. So two main things: reading books and other people’s help.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Read a lot to see the variety of ways in which people tell stories. Write little and often, maybe have a target of 15 mins a day. Print out all your work into a nice portfolio. Join a writers’ group (or set one up in school).
Which of your characters did you most enjoy writing?
Most of my main characters are seventeen year old girls and in part they’re all based on different versions of me. Rose, in DEAD TIME, is full of self doubt and falls in love quickly and completely. I was very much like this. I have written three books so far in which I put Rose through a huge number of stressful experiences. I am enjoying this.
Which character from a book would you like to be for a day?
I’d like to be Estella in Great Expectations (one of my favourite books) and I would allow myself to fall in love with Pip (quickly and completely).
If you hadn’t been an author, what would you have been?
I’ve already been a bank clerk and a teacher. It’s always good to have a back up career when you are a writer. But if I’d done none of these I wish I’d been a doctor.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do?
Shop or watch daytime TV.
What book, film and album would you take to a desert island? (feel free to elaborate on your choices)
Book – The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (or any of her books). A moving and wonderful book full of heartbreak and hope.
Film - Sense and Sensibility with the wonderful Emma Thompson. I’ve watched it loads but I never tire of it.
Album – Smokey Robinson’s Greatest Hits Brings back my teen years.
What television programmes do you never miss?
Mostly the superlative American dramas: The Wire: The Shield: DeadWood: Mad Men:
Tell us something about your next project
I’m currently working on the third and fourth books of THE MURDER NOTEBOOKS series.
