I respond very well to rules. If there are certain parameters it's much easier to do something really good. Especially when readers know what those are. They know what to expect and then you have to wrong-foot them. That is the trick of crime fiction. And readers come to crime and graphic novels wanting to be entertained, or disgusted.

None of us know what is going to sell or what people want to read.

Most of the people who write to me are really clever, really engaged. They just want to say that they have read my book and liked it.

People are interested in crime fiction when they're quite distanced from crime. People in Darfur are not reading murder mysteries.

I'd read so much right-wing crime fiction where they find the evidence and shoot the bad guy - I thought there must be another approach.

I love Mikhail Bulgakov. He is very original and takes the story to unexpected places. I didn't realise political writing could be so funny.

In my heart Im just a lucky waitress.