CRIMINALLY GOOD: Interview with author Paolo Sedazzari

1) Who are you, and what have you written? 

I am Paolo Sedazzari and I have written The BMX and The River Cult Murders which has recently been published by The New Pulp Press. They are based in Florida and specialize in lurid crime fiction.

I like to think of it as an authentic day-by-day account of how a murder investigation is actually conducted, where every breakthrough is fought for, and nothing falls into the lead detective’s lap.

I have made a few films which are listed HERE, plus I have an oral history novel called Feltham Made Me coming out soon.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

Very simple. I LOVE crime fiction. Good crime fiction is a puzzle, but the puzzle is not simply numbers and data – it’s linked to human behaviour and motivations. At its core it’s a fight between good and evil, but some crime fiction also gives an insight into all the greys in-between. 

3) What informs your crime writing?

The BMX Kid and The River Cult Murders is based on a real life series of murders that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts. I like crime fiction to be rooted in reality, which is why I do a lot of reading of true crime. My all-time favourite in that genre is David Simon’s  Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

A recent review on the Zani website described The BMX Kid as “combining the grit of a true crime tale with the page turning structure of the best fictional detective story.”

This is exactly what I am trying to achieve!

My next crime novel is also based on two real life cases, so I am researching the available files on those cases.

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

I try to get as much writing done as I can in the morning – so I can then spend the rest of the day in the pub! It’s the Julian MacLaren-Ross writing routine and it works very well. 

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

That’s a hard question because I am a believer in writing in your own voice. So while there a hundreds of books and writers I admire – for instance Raymond Chandler’s Long Goodbye is one of my favourites. But I can’t say I wish I’d written that because it’s written in Chandler’s voice, in his own words, set in the time he was in.

I think Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl is a masterpiece, and if I ever get anywhere close to that level of excellence I would die happy.

But I love what I do – when I was re-reading The BMX Kid for the final time just before I sent it to the publishers, I was enjoying it so much I was actually wishing that someone else had written it, so I could have the pleasure of reading it for the first time – and not know what was going to happen next.