"IT WASN'T UNTIL SHE STARTED SMOKING THAT I REALLY GOT A HANDLE ON LOVING HER." : THE GOOD LIAR'S DENISE MINA

I'm always excited when Denise Mina has a new book because not only is she a great writer, she's an entertaining interview. Just like her books, she's witty, bold, and always has something worth saying. Her latest book is The Good Liar that deals with Claudia Atkins O'Shea, a forensic expert about to speak about her cutting edge blood spray analysis that lead to the conviction in a high profile London case. Time goes back and forth and between her preparing to tell the truth of what happened at that symposium and her investigation where she works to find the truth. The book ties into her past studies and as usual Denise had some entertaining things to say about it.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY: The Good Liar is a unique book. How did it come about?

DENISE MINA: I studied law in the late 1980s and majored in forensic science - we had to learn how to cross examine expert witnesses on their evidence. Many of the disciplines we studied - hair matching, forensic odontology (bite mark evidence), fire investigation, handwriting comparison, are all regarded as either junk science or highly questionable now. I wondered what it would be like to realise that your discipline was b.s. and whether I would have the courage to admit it. What would it take? 

S.M.: What did you want to get across about forensic science?

D.M.: That law s a static discipline and science is always developing. That’s the nature of the scientific method. But when other disciplines try to represent themselves within that they become warped: like psychiatry. Legal insanity is completely different from clinical definitions of mental illness. 

S.M.: Claudia is such a complex character. How did you construct her?

D.M.: She started as an awful goodie-goodie to be honest. It wasn’t until she started smoking that I really got a handle on loving her. I’m not a restrained person and she is. I found it hard to see inside her head and then suddenly I was living there.

S.M.: How did you balance and when to know to cut between the time shifts?

D.M.: I thought of the shorter time frames as the girders of the story and tried to make the past episodes fit around them in a way that would heighten the tension between the two realities. There was a lot of moving around!

S.M.: What made you choose London for the setting?

D.M.: All forensic services were privatised in England and Wales in 2012 and that doesn’t apply in Scotland so it had to be London. 

S.M.: If you couldn't write, what other art form would you pursue?

D.M.: I’d love to have been a sculptor. I love wood and clay. But it’s hardly a living for most people and you’d have to teach to support yourself. I didn’t like teaching. Too much admin.