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Ayo: How were you introduced to the genre of crime fiction?
Caroline My family had great fun holidaying at my grandmother's in Scotland and trying to guess who-dunnit in her Agatha Christie's. I never looked back.

Ayo: Who were your influences when you first started writing and which authors continue to influence you today?
Caroline I'm addicted to real-life survival stories, like Tony Bullimore's incredible tale of enduring his yacht capsizing in the icy wastes of the Southern Ocean. I was on the edge of my seat until he got rescued. I also adore action-adventure thrillers from guys like Wilbur Smith and Terence Strong, and when I first started out I didn't know of any women writers in this field. I guess I set out to write what I wanted to read.

Ayo: What made you decide to write a novel and when did you start believing that you were a fully-fledged author?
Caroline When I saw a pile of my books in my local Waterstones. I was writing freelance travel articles for newspapers and magazines and barely earning enough to keep me in my morning cornflakes, so I decided to go for broke and write a novel. I was blissfully naive about how hard it was to get published, which on retrospect was a very good thing or I might never have started.

Ayo Your first book won the CWA Debut Dagger.. How surprised were you when you found out that you had won the award?
Caroline Surprised is an understatement. I entered on a complete whim and after mailing my effort I threw the details in the bin thinking I must have been mad to believe I even had a chance. I had no idea I was short-listed until the CWA's letter arrived, and then I had to read it through three times until I realised what it was talking about. My knees went quite wobbly when it sank in.

Ayo Having won the award did you feel that there was a lot of added pressure on you when you began to write your 2nd book?
Caroline Funnily enough, no. The award boosted my confidence just when I needed it. But now you've made me think about it, I reckon the reason why I didn't freeze up and panic is down to my wonderfully supportive agent and editor. They believed I could write an even better book, so I believed it too

Ayo: One of the impressive things about Blood Junction was the fact that it had sold out before publication in the UK. Were you surprised about this?
Caroline Having been a book rep in the dim and distant past, I know how hard it is selling in new authors, so when the news came in I just about fell off my chair.

Ayo: Both your parents are the adventurous type. Your mother having set the land speed record and your father being a jet pilot. You have also done three rallies. Is there any other career you would consider having if you were not a writer. Caroline Explorer. Wildlife photographer. Astronomer. Anthropologist. Park Ranger. Firefighter. Helicopter pilot. I'd better stop there or I'll find a more perfect career and be packing my bags!

Ayo What is the most important element for you when you are writing?
Caroline: Pace. Squeezing the tension and then releasing it, and gradually building the scenes, lifting the reader higher and higher for the final climax

Ayo: Have you had any hair-raising situations while you have been rallying? Caroline: Just a few! I was robbed in Russia then chased by a car full of Georgian mafia guys who wanted to steal my four-wheel-drive. But scarier was being chased by a huge bull Bactrian camel in central Kazakhstan. He reckoned I was threatening his territory and came for me at full speed, roaring loud as a train. His teeth missed biting my backside by a whisker as I launched myself inside the car and slammed the door shut. I've been lost in the desert, survived sandstorms and cyclones, driven through storm-swollen rivers, and each time I think I might not make it, but I do. I'm still here. Amazing.

Ayo: What do you enjoy the most when you are writing?
Caroline The action scenes. Car chases, hand-to-hand fights, shoot-outs. I love working out what each person does under pressure and why. Some sensibly leg it for the trees while others stay. Why is that? Why stay when the air is cracking and slapping with bullets? That's what keeps me at my computer keyboard typing away. I want to know why my characters do the things they do.

Ayo What is your biggest distraction when you are writing?
Caroline: The telephone. I quickly learned to leave it on answer-machine and pick up the messages at the end of the day or I'd never finish the page I was on. Ayo: Your latest book is called Dead Heat. How did you go about doing your research for this book and where did you get your inspiration? Caroline: I was horrified to hear of asylum seekers in Australian camps sewing their lips together in protest against the treatment they were receiving, and so I took a closer look at what was going on out there. To make sure I got the atmosphere exactly right, I headed to Far Northern Queensland and I was in a small tin boat cruising the mangroves deep in the rain forest when I met my first saltwater crocodile, the largest and most aggressive reptile around - some are over 20 foot long -and I knew I had to include one in the book.

Ayo: While Dead Heat is not about India Kane she is in the book. Was this deliberate?
Caroline: I hadn't planned on bringing India into Dead Heat, but when the story unfolded I found I couldn't ignore Ayo: Have we seen the last of India Kane? Caroline: No way. My next book, Black Tide, is from India's viewpoint, and is set in the teeth of the wind on the of Western Australia.

Ayo: Like Blood Junction, Dead Heat is quite evocative as well as being shocking and violent. Was this intenional and do you feel at times that there is a need to temper the amount of violence now found in some crime books?
Caroline: The prologue to Blood Junction was purposely shocking, because it's based on shocking fact. Yes, I wrote a story, which I hoped, would be entertaining, but the history behind the book is of the Aborigines persecution, the massacres and shootings, and that violence against them was real. Anything I wrote could never be as bad as what actually happened. Having said that, the worlds my characters inhabit are extraordinary. They are up against arch villians who have everything to lose if they win, and these villians will do anything to stop them. Personally, I love reading about the underdog who outwits the bad guy! I think there's quite a few of us who like being scared from time to time without actually experiencing it first-hand, which is where story-telling comes in. We can sit on our sofas and get terrified and then go and recover over a nice cup of tea.

Ayo: Has your writing style changed from when you had your first book published?
Caroline: I wouldn't say the style has changed but it's become more fluid. I have more confidence in the pace and in I'm saying, and I think this comes across. At least, I hope so!

Ayo: What made you decide to set both your books in Australia?
Caroline: It's a country of extremes, not just because of the climate but its people. You couldn't meet a more warm or hospitable bunch, but when you head out of the cities there's a thick ugly vein of racism. I used to live there, I love the place, its heat and space and freedom, but that ugly vein is always around.

Ayo: How would you describe your books to someone who is about to make their first foray into the genre?
Caroline: I am so far from Agatha Christie I could be writing about the salt-water sea they've just discovered on Jupiter. Crime is a huge umbrella, and I'm right out on the furthest strut of the brolly, doing action-adventure.

Ayo: How do you build your story? Do you begin at the beginning or start with the solutions to the murder (murders) and the incident that happens and then work backwards? .
Caroline: When I've finished a book I immediately write the first chapter of the next. It's already been simmering away so I've a rough idea what I want to write about, and plunge right in while I'm still in writing mode. Then I take a long, break, and concentrate on working out the plot, specifically the ending. I have to know the penultimate scene so I have something to work towards.

Ayo: If you could invite five contemporary crime writers to dinner who would they be and why?
Caroline: Five! Wow, what a treat! Okay, I'd have Jeff Long, who wrote The Descent, one of the best and most ping thrillers I've read lately, he's broken genre conventions and written something unique, a dark and readable sort of SF for us couch potatoes that I couldn't put down. Then there's Matthew Reilly, who self-published his first novel, and writes the stuff I love, lots of high-tech weaponry and escapes from the jaws of death, explosive firepower and cliff hanging suspense. To balance all that high-octane testosterone, I'd have to invite Michelle Spring, who is elegant and eloquent and astute, and takes me into worlds of self-deceit and loss as well as icy intrigue. Always raises the hairs at the back of my neck. So, we've two guys, two gals at my dinner . . . just need one more . . . I think I'll go with another gal. But she's not your normal gal at all, she writes ball-busting stuff, no-holds-barred rides of vengeance about a sassy young woman with a big mouth and an even bigger heart, Evan Delaney, and if you haven't met her yet, you're missing a treat. Hand me the wine now, please. My glass needs filling.

Ayo: What are you working on at the moment?
Caroline: I'm just finishing up the next India Kane book, Black Tide, which will be out next year, and am itching to get on with book number 4. It's set in Alaska and I've already written the first two chapters and can't wait to see what happens next. They've got such extreme weather, ice storms and snow and gale-force winds, but it's the bears that worry me. They get really big out there.

Our thanks to Caroline for taking the time out to talk to us.

More information about Caroline can be found on her website: - http://www.carolinecarver.com

Books by Caroline Carver
Blood Junction
Dead Heat