Our host Vick Hope is joined by Harriet Tyce.
Harriet left behind a career in criminal law to complete a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2019, she published her debut novel Blood Orange, which follows attorney Alison as she defends a woman accused of murder and jeopardises her own picture-perfect life in the process. Harriet followed this with three other standalone crime thrillers: The Lies You Told, It Ends At Midnight and A Lesson in Cruelty. Earlier this year, she joined Series 4 of The Traitors, becoming a firm fan favourite for her authenticity and audacious approach to the game. Her fifth novel Witch Trial – a courtroom drama centred on the murder of a teenager in an Edinburgh park and the two friends who stand accused, is out now.
Listen to the full episode here and read on to discover Harriet’s five most influential books by women.
‘It is a superb literary thriller. It is the perfect example of why crime fiction should not be regarded as lesser than any other kind of literature. Louise Doughty is an exceptional author who crosses genre with the work that she does.’
‘There’s six of them and they are all absolute doorstoppers, they take you from Scotland to Malta. There’s chess games with living people who become dead, there’s twin swaps. They’re huge, epic!’
‘This is literature, but as I’ve said in my blurb it has this page-turning ability. It really does read a bit like a thriller. You want to know what happens. You want to know if people are going to survive and how they’re going to survive and how it’s going to turn out. And the sense of place she evokes with the Forbidden Kingdom, with Tibet back in the late nineteenth century, is extraordinary.You can sort of feel the breathlessness of it.’
‘I think I was feeling quite blocked when I read this. It left me thinking that I’m overthinking this. And not in a sort of pull your socks up, but just it’s not all that frightening. I do say to anyone having difficulty with working, with writing, go and read this and you’ll feel better. And it made me feel better, that’s all I can say.’
‘There’s a lot of witchy stuff and satanic stuff and it’s just a really cool, mad, beautiful book. The way it’s written is incredible and her poetry is wonderful as well.’
