Delighted to welcome award-winning blogger and author Noelle Holten who worked as a Senior Probation Officer for 18 years before writing Dead Inside – her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins – which introduced DC Maggie Jamieson in a series which continues with Dead Wrong.
Hi Noelle how lovely to see you in my virtual cocktail lounge. What can I get you at the bar?
N: I’d love a double rhubarb gin and tonic!
Sounds good, I’ll join you. Where did we first meet in real life?
N: We met at Morecambe & Vice Crime Festival in Sept 2019 – though we’ve be “friends” online for a few years.
It was wonderful to meet up there. What were your first impressions?
N: Adored you – adored you even more when I saw the evil eyes you gave the bar staff who tried to remove your glass of wine with one sip left! LOL Still makes me giggle!
My work is obviously done. Points in common?
N: Crime fiction; a good laugh and enjoying ourselves amongst our kind of people!
And crime festivals, of course. What would be your dream panel (at any event) – subject, fellow panelists or a Q&A with someone you have met or would love to meet?
N: I love the topic of Offender Profiling so I think having the chance to interview Prof David Wilson would be interesting. I met him at Bloody Scotland last year and had a good chat, I also saw his panel and could have listened to him all day long!
I’d come along to that. I loved Dead Inside, tell me about Dead Wrong, the second in your series.
N: In Dead Wrong DC Maggie Jamieson’s past comes back to haunt her.Three missing women running out of time… They were abducted years ago. Notorious serial killer Bill Raven admitted to killing them and was sentenced to life. The case was closed – at least DC Maggie Jamieson thought it was… But now one of them has been found, dismembered and dumped in a bin bag in town. Forensics reveal that she died just two days ago, when Raven was behind bars, so Maggie has a second killer to find. Because even if the other missing women are still alive, one thing’s for certain: they don’t have long left to live.
A reading treat in store for me. What are you working on now?
N: Dead Perfect (Book 3) is coming out October 2020 and I’m working on the final legs of Book 4 for submission. Then I will be starting to write Book 5 – which is the last in my contract. After that – who knows? If I am not offered a further contract for this series, I have an idea for a psychological thriller which I wouldn’t mind having a go at.
You’ve certainly been busy! Is there one thing lockdown has made you think about/want to do?
N: Spend more time with friends and family – get my ass out more too! I am quite an introvert but when the choice is taken away from you – and you can’t go anywhere, you really appreciate the things you could do pre-lockdown!
That resonates with me too. What are you most looking forward to when lockdown is finally lifted?
N: Meeting up with friends / crime fiction tribe for a MASSIVE G&T and some laughs! Hoping to also be able to go to Ireland for my dad’s one-year memorial mass and over to Canada to see my mom, sister and brothers.
Noelle, I do hope you can make your dad’s memorial mass and see your family soon. It was lovely to chat here and I look forward to that massive G&T in real life.
You can find out more about Noelle Holten’s books here and follow her on Twitter @nholten40