From the Debut Prize
On the eve of my recording for Crime Cymru, I finished yet another book inspired by my joy of watching interviews and festival related books. There are so many books out there, that knowing that a book has appeared at a festival, or been on a shortlist, like The Maiden, that it gives me a reassurance of some quality, although I’m aware that this is subjective.
As someone who will soon be constructing and compiling my first novel, I can learn a lot from the writing styles of these highly regarded books. Although there is one problem with the historical genre, which I struggle to deal with as a writer, and that is the level of detail required for accuracy. But in this books’ case, the story, although based in 1679, could quite easily be updated for a modern audience, as there were very few overtly needed historical period elements. It was all about the maiden at the centre, whichever way you take it in the title, as this was obviously one with a double meaning.
Split between two narratives, one, a woman awaiting execution via the maiden of the title and another, with a further protagonist. Finding out why the story has been split leads to a really good use of the multiple narrator approach in audiobooks. However, for once, although Angus King is involved in the narration, I’m not sure his voice was totally necessary for the plot, although it could be the journalist character that he is playing, but because it doesn’t involve dialogue, it’s a bit weird. The different social standings of the two protagonists really shows the complexities of the social structure within the period and the power vacuum caused by that.
Although the book was way more dramatic in the final four hours of the novel and I think if I were writing it, I would have started with this dramatic method and put the slower elements in dribs and drabs, but I think that is just a personal preference from someone used to first absorbing their drama through the faster medium of TV, as I did when I first started attempting to become a writer. Because of this, the need for a faster pace is probably the reason for this preference.
As you get to the culmination of this book, you understand how well the book is structured and why it made it onto the Bloody Scotland debut shortlist and the quality of the writing will have me looking for the next one written by this debut author.
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Maiden-Audiobook/B0BLFJ1ZCT?eac_link=XeCWu8PxWMmh&ref=web_search_eac_asin_2&eac_selected_type=asin&eac_selected=B0BLFJ1ZCT&qid=ffH1xbxAsn&eac_id=262-6578624-5351614_ffH1xbxAsn&sr=1-2
