In Conversation with Gillian McAllister

In Conversation with Gillian McAllister

Today I'm in conversation with Gillian McAllister, author of four cracking crime novels, with one new one due out this Spring.  So without further ado, let's chat on....

Not only are you an author, but you are also a lawyer. How important was it to you to include a side of that in your writing?

I don’t think it was important, as such. To me, it just felt natural. I became a lawyer because I was interested in the justice system, the idea of guilt and retribution, and so much more. To me, humans making good decisions, bad decisions, and spur-of-the-moment decisions, and the punishment society imparts, is the stuff of being human.


What are your favourite books to read?

At the moment I mostly re pre-releases within my own genre: I like to keep up with what’s doing well, what works and what doesn’t, and the cultural conversations taking place. The perfect book for me would be a thriller that blends in credible, realistic and heartfelt relationships. The sort of thing I try to write…


Crime novels can be a bit far-fetched at times. Is fact stranger than fiction?

I have a big commitment to realism in my novels – I agonise over plot so that it seems real and it’s something I think my readers appreciate. There are some news stories I am itching to use but they’re just too bizarre!


Any advice to anyone dreaming of becoming an author?

Write the book. It’s the simplest and hardest thing, to spend hundreds of hours on something that may come to nothing, and I think our sensible and logical brains try to stop us from doing that. It’s hard because it’s a hard thing to do, not because you’re rubbish at it or not meant to be doing with it.


Where do you get your writing inspiration from?

News stories, good writing, great TV dramas, and gossip.


What are you working on next?

I’m writing a book about two people who find themselves on either side of witness protection.


If, heaven forbid, there was a fire, what possession would you grab first to save?

I’m sad to say it would be my laptop containing my work in progress. Over all other things, including my cat. How embarrassing.


What five people, living or dead, would you choose to invite to a dinner party?

Zadie Smith, Lee Child, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Michael Stipe from REM.

Gillian's new novel, The Evidence Against You, is out on 18 April 2019. It’s about a woman whose father murdered her mother. After serving 20 years for it, having been convicted due to overwhelming evidence, he gets out and tells her he didn’t do it. But is he telling the truth?

Thank you Gillian for taking part with in conversation with and I can't wait to read your new novel in April. 

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x