My earliest recollection, I must have been about three at the time, was
listening to my Grandfather read me a story and looking longingly at
the cover of the book he was holding and thinking, how much I wanted
to read the book for myself and how wonderful it would be. That has
never changed. I still find it a thrill being able to read.
By my very early teens, I had read all the popular classics, by that I mean Jane Austin and contemporaries. I was fortunate in that I grew up in a family that loved both books and music, particularly opera, and so I had a good supply of both.
So it was inevitable that I would turn to a life of crime. Whilst babysitting at neighbours house I perused their shelves and started reading Let’s Kill George by Lucy Cores. I was so fascinated by the mystery aspect, that on Saturday when I received my 10 shillings pocket money, that’s 50p to you youngsters, I bought The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, and the rest is, as they say, history. From then on every Saturday I bought an Agatha Christie book.
In the intervening forty years since I first discovered AC, I must have read hundreds of books. My database tells me that I have some 4400 books, and their subject matter is various, but my great loves remains the mystery, and in particular psychological suspense. I don’t pretend to always understand them, but since discovering Dorothy L, I now have wonderful people with whom I can discuss them, and become enlightened to the facets of the stories that have escaped me. It is a great source of pleasure to discuss a book and discover a completely different view other than your own.
If asked, what type of mystery I read, I don’t know how to answer, I don’t think my reading matter falls into any one category. I have already mentioned psychological suspense, but I love humorous mysteries, I am a great Janet Evanovitch fan. I greatly enjoy Joyce Holms, Fizz and Buchanan series. But I also love thrillers, and I am great Lee Child fan. So maybe the simplest thing is what don’t I like. Easy, I do not like stories where we know the identity of the killer and get his/her pov. Hence I say I like mysteries, if you know who the killer is, where is the mystery?.....
One of my greatest pleasures is finding new authors, which is why I was so excited when Michelle Spring asked me if I would like to attend a meeting that proposed a group based loosely on the Sisters In Crime in America. I could foresee an opportunity to promote the lesser know female mystery writers. The reason that I volunteered my services on the admin side was to ensure that such a marvelous opportunity did not slip away for want of a little organisation. It’s why most good idea’s fail, there always has to be someone, that does the admin which lays the foundations. I am happy to be that person, my reward is all the wonderful creative things people can do when the paperwork is running smoothly.
I actually love books, not just the writing, or the plot or the character, but actually holding the book is thrilling.In summary, I love to read, it is still to me the greatest gift. I read in the checkout queue at the supermarket, in the queue in the bank, as soon as the traffic comes to a halt I have a book on the passenger seat and I can take in a chapter while the traffic sorts it self out. I am just so grateful to the wonderful authors out there, that sweat and toil to produce a book, I hope that somehow they know how much I appreciate
them.
Lizzie Hayes
