“My intention with the book was always to put ordinary people into extraordinary situations. I think there is a remarkable amount of fiction that is about incredible, superheroic people doing these amazing things that strain credulity to the point where I don’t want to read them. My books are about people who could be your neighbours who suddenly find themselves in these incredible situations.”
Chris Pavone talking about ‘The Accident’, in an interview with ‘Kirkus Reviews’ [March 10, 2014]

And that, I think, is what makes readers identify with literary characters: that they are ordinary people. That’s why Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey – a book that should be on the shelf of every novelist and writer of screenplays – advocates establishing the protagonist’s ‘ordinary world’ before the main action starts.

It is difficult, reading The Accident, to accept that he has read little crime fiction but Pavone has worked in book publishing in the US for 20 years as an editor at Clarkson Potter specialising in cookbooks. So something must have rubbed off.

To read my review of The Accident, click here.
To read the full article at Kirkus Reviews, click here.
To read an excerpt of The Accident, click here.
For more about Christopher Vogler and The Writer’s Journey, click here.

 

‘The Accident’ by Chris Pavone [Faber] Buy now

If you agree with Chris Pavone, perhaps you will agree with:-
Celia Brayfield – fiction without its darker side is like a Miss Marple mystery without its murder
Lucien Freud – half the point of painting a picture is that you don’t known what will happen
Peter Carey – on dealing with noise while writing

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
I agree with Chris Pavone, who puts ordinary people into extraordinary situations #amwriting http://wp.me/p5gEM4-17Q via @SandraDanby