An interview in two parts - Damien Seaman

The Book:

Düsseldorf, 1 March 1929, the dying days of the Weimar Republic. A prostitute is found dead in a cheap hotel room, brutally murdered. But her death is soon forgotten as the city’s police hunt a maniac attacking innocent women and children. A killer the press has dubbed the Düsseldorf Ripper.

Detective Thomas Klein’s career is going nowhere until he gets a tip off leading to the Ripper’s arrest. But the killer’s confession to the hooker’s murder is full of holes, and Klein soon comes to believe this is one murder the killer didn’t commit. Motivated by spite, ambition, or maybe even a long-buried sense of justice, finding out who really killed Emma Gross becomes Klein’s obsession.

Particularly when the evidence begins to point closer to home…

Based on the true story of notorious serial killer Peter Kürten and the unsolved murder of Düsseldorf prostitute Emma Gross… 

The Author ... 

This is what they have to say about him over at BLASTED HEATH ... A former journalist, editor, parliamentary assistant, financial analyst, factory worker and security guard, Damien Seaman’s short crime fiction, interviews and reviews have featured on numerous ezines and blogs. He has dabbled in petty smuggling, baboon-whispering, scuba diving and sunbathing, with varying levels of success. And don’t even ask about the Goddamned tennis lessons.

He has lived in Belgium, Germany and Libya, spent probably more time than was healthy visiting Kuwait, and currently resides in the county of Shakespeare’s birth. He also has a fear of camels, but he doesn’t like to talk about it.

The Interview (Part One)...

MCN: You have 3 words. Describe The Killing of Emma Gross.

Damien: Hardboiled German expressionism.

MCN: You now have another 21 words. Tell me some more.

Damien: Emma Gross is equal parts police procedural, psychological

thriller and dramatic deconstruction of a love affair gone very, very wrong.

MCN: I’m liking all those parts, BTW. Emma Gross is an incredibly assured debut

(this is me buttering you up)- this level of skill doesn't happen straight away, so go on spill, 

what else have you been writing?

Damien: Ha! You terrible brown noser, you. What was it about the book you

found particularly skilful?

MCN: Eeesh, I hate it when people answer a question with a question. Emmmm, what did I 

find skilful? All around quality - character/ plot/ prose/ sense of time and place - difficult to find fault, really. So, where did you learn your craft?

Damien: I couldn't write until I worked as a journalist in Brussels. That's

when I really learned to write quickly, and to make a story out of

unpromising material. Out of thin air sometimes. Once I was sent to

interview a man from the Cook Islands and my boss couldn't remember

who he was, just that he was either the prime minister or the foreign

minister. Luckily the man gave me his card when we met and he turned

out to be the foreign minister, so I could at least make it look like

I'd been briefed. But even then I didn't have a clue what to talk to

him about until we actually started talking.

High wire days, those were, and very useful. Everything since that job

has been a kind of tweaking or refining what I learned then. As for

Emma Gross, I think the secret with that was that I'd found a story I

really wanted to get out and that no matter how long it took I was

going to do it. If there's a reason the book turned out to be good,

that's it.

MCN: Yeah, that chimes with me. A story you were passionate about. Talking about 

passions (we were, keep up) you mentioned a love affair gone terribly wrong. We are terrible gossips at MCN – do tell ...

Damien: Let's just say it's based on experience, though nothing as harrowing as 

what occurs in the book. I will say that I probably wouldn't have been that 

confident writing about abortion if it wasn't something I'd had to deal with 

myself.

MCN: Answered with admirable honesty, sir. (And there was me after some salacious 

details) 

To be continued ...