An interview with L. C. Tyler

LC:  I suppose it’s to underline the metafictional aspects of Ten Little Herrings – the self-conscious addressing of the devices of fiction – in this case, the devices of detective fiction.  And of course, as a (fictional) literary agent you would make a good interviewer.

Elsie: Sounds like a load of bollocks, if you ask me.

LC: I didn’t ask you.  Actually, it’s a rather good idea.  Since you are a fictional character, I can make you ask me the sort of question no real life interviewer would – for example …

Elsie:  Would you agree that Ten Little Herrings is the finest work of literature by any writer in any genre this year?

LC:  You are too kind.

Elsie:  Hold on, Tyler.  That’s not the type of question I would ask, as you know well.  I’d be much more likely to say: your latest book is total crap, but at least that makes it better than the previous two.  Are you currently working on something different or do you see crap as an exciting new genre?

LC:  Maybe this interview isn’t such a good idea after all.

Elsie:  No, I’m getting into this now.  In Ten Little Herrings you (or more accurately I) say: “producing sequels is a sure sign of the second rate author” – isn’t this a sequel?  In which case, what does that make you?  Explain clearly and don’t snivel.  I can’t stand authors who snivel.

LC:  You said it on page 6, and I have to remind you that you are an Unreliable Narrator, so not everything you say is true.  Crime novels often run in series – think Poirot, think Lord Peter Wimsey.  I had the idea of sending you and Ethelred on the trail again – this time to France, and to a hotel where the guests were being mysteriously murdered.

Elsie:  And where you had the only fit bloke stabbed before I could fix up a hot date with him.  What are you like?  Anyway, you refer to Christie and Sayers.  Are these your influences or are you just dropping random names to try to impress people?  Speak up and try not to talk bollocks when you answer.

LC:  Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers were certainly some of the earliest crime fiction I came across, along with (a little later) Ellis Peters, PD James and Barbara Vine.  I guess like most crime writers I also read a lot of detective fiction.   I’ve just read CJ Sansom’s Dissolution, Martin Edwards’ Waterloo Sunset and Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death.  All three strongly recommended if you are stocking up for holiday reading.

Elsie:  I’m not.  When I’m on holiday I read Hello Magazine.  You write comic crime, supposedly.  Which other writers of comic crime fiction do you most admire?

LC:  I like Chris Ewan’s Good Thief’s Guides and Malcolm Pryce’s Aberystwyth books – both series, please note.  Though not easy to find now, Colin Watson’s Flaxborough books are very funny.

Elsie:  If you could plagiarise anyone’s work and get away with it, who would you rip off?

LC:  Parody does of course form an important part of what I do.  So I guess I’m happy to rip off anyone.  I briefly parodied Sartre in my first novel, The Herring Seller’s Apprentice, but I’m not sure anyone noticed.  Imitation is of course the sincerest form of flattery.

Elsie:  Why don’t you currently have an agent?  Are you afraid they would turn out to be like me?

LC:  Yes.  That’s exactly what worries me.  Any more questions?

Elsie:  Have you got any chocolate?

LC: No.

Elsie:  That’s it then.