1) How long have you been writing?
I started writing just for fun 16 years ago. I started writing more regularly for about the last seven years
2) What is your favorite genre to write?
Generally crime, but I particularly enjoy writing thrillers.
3) Which genre have you never tried before, but would you like to try out?
This is a hard question to answer: many other genres interest me but if I had to choose one, I’d say historical fiction.
4) Please tell us about your book.
It’s a thriller. It’s the story of a missing child, the hunt for a predator hiding among people, and a father who thinks, as his homeland’s (Africa) saying goes, that ‘sometimes revenge and the right punishment walk on the same path’. Claps, a criminologist, understands that the child isn’t the predator’s only victim. The story leads us to a Psychoanalyst and a schizophrenic girl who is only able to communicate through her drawings who may have the answers with something she’s seen…
5) Which character was your favorite, and why? Which character was your least favorite, and why?
My favorite character, or to put it better the one I’m more attached to, is Claps, the criminologist, to whom I ‘gifted’ a hard life – unsteady health, and a complex personality. For these reasons I guess… ehm… I’m not his favorite author! I should add that, villains aside, I don’t have a least favorite character: they are all my creation after all.
6) What was the hardest part about writing your book?
In the book there’s a predator and there’s pedophilia, but obviously I avoided any in-depth descriptions of the violence acted on the young victims. In light of this, the hardest part of writing Missing was evoking horror (to inspire pity) instead of describing it.
7) What is your writing routine? Are there things you absolutely need to start writing?
I don’t follow a schedule, but I have to admit that mornings and evenings are the times in which I’m more eager to write; and yes, there’s something I can’t start without: a good coffee.
8) How long did it take you write your book from start to finish?
A year more or less, with long reflection breaks in between.
9) Can you tell us about your editing process?
The editing process is a fundamental moment, in which a good editor is very valuable. It’s the time to identify corrections, possible weaknesses in the story, harmonize the “colour” of the characters and the story itself. In a word, it’s the moment in which the book is made fit to be given to the reader.
10) Is this book part of a series? If so, how many installaments do you have planned?
Missing’s core characters (Claps and Sensi) have already been protagonists in an older, unpublished novel. They will also be the protagonists of two more stories at least, but I don’t think we can say this is an instalment in a series since every story is independent and can be read without having to have read the others.
11) Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Always write with passion; with your mind and with your heart. Never forget who you are writing for, but don’t write just to get your reader’s approval.
12) Why should everyone read your book?
I also wonder why… Honestly, I think Missing is a good thriller, without shortage of suspense. The overall story is compelling, and the individual characters’ stories are interesting. I’m sorry, I haven’t been modest, have I?
13) If you could meet three authors, dead or alive, which authors would you choose?
That’s a very hard question… if I were to limit the choice between these last two centuries, I’d like to meet, even if I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to spell a word in front of these geniuses, Joyce, Proust, and Hesse. While for what concerns my genre, luckily they are all still alive: Le Carrè, Grisham, and Thomas Harris, who I’d happily invite to spend dinner with me in Florence, maybe in Cantinetta Pinchiorri.
14) What inspired you to write your book?
Nothing in particular, nothing that I was able to identify at least. It was an idea that I got all of a sudden and developed little by little.
15) Are you working on something at the moment? If so, can you tell us more about it?
I have fairly recently published a new novel in Italy in which Claps has to confront a very particular foe – a man affected by a rare psychiatric pathology: multiple personality disorder. One of these personalities (the villain has ten, among which there is a woman and a child) is very dangerous… Furthermore, at the moment I’m about to deliver a new novel, a thriller, obviously, but it’s still too early to talk about this one.
Author bio
Monty Marsden, a Tuscan by birth, grew up in Milan, where he studied medicine and still works. He lives in the province of Bergamo, with his wife and four children.
About the Book
The search for a missing child reveals she is not the only one… A gripping serial killer thriller for fans of Angela Marsons and Jeffrey Deaver.
In a little village in Lombardy, it’s a cold November morning when Ami, steps out of her house to go to school… and never comes back. As soon as her father raises the alarm, a frantic search begins.
The investigation is led by Police Commissioner Sensi. His men immediately find a trail to follow, but it soon proves to lead nowhere. Three months later, Police Commissioner Sensi decides to visit Dr Claps, an old friend and a renowned criminologist, who guesses from his first few words the real reason for the visit.
It’s not just about Ami; she’s not the only little girl to have disappeared.
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