Nicci Cloke, Her Many Faces – Writer Interview

Nicci Cloke, Her Many Faces – Writer Interview

Thanks to Nicci Cloke and William Morrow for the ARC copy!

Synopsis:

When 4 rich and influential members are poisoned at London’s most unique personal membership, a younger waitress is arrested. As her private life and upbringing are picked over, her obsession with on-line conspiracy theories is uncovered.

After the homicide accusation, 5 males start to query how properly they actually knew her. To every of them—her father, a reporter, her former lover, her pal, and her lawyer—she is somebody solely completely different. However which is the true face of Katherine Cole? And is she a killer?

The reality about who Katherine is, and what precisely she has completed, lies someplace between these 5 male views. The searing laser of the male gaze has by no means been extra harmful, as Katherine’s trial grips the nation and theories and perceptions about her spiral uncontrolled.

What follows is a chilling kaleidoscope of a thriller, each a sensible courtroom drama and a daunting examination of how one girl will be so ruthlessly deconstructed by the boys who know her greatest—and simply what occurs when she decides to talk out ultimately.

Writer Interview Questions written by Becca Hughes – see her weblog, Becca Critiques Books right here!

1. What’s your stance on conspiracy theories? Many people have fallen down a rabbit gap of conspiracy theories sooner or later. Do you could have any responsible pleasure theories? Personally, I’m a agency believer that aliens exist—however I’m undecided they’re looking for us anytime quickly.

I’ve fallen down so many rabbit holes up to now few years, each in the course of the analysis of this novel and earlier than. I just lately learn an excellent ebook, Conspiracy: A Historical past of Boll*cks Theories, and How To not Fall for Them by Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge, which was so fascinating on the origins of a few of the most outstanding and enduring conspiracy theories. It additionally launched me to some glorious ones I wasn’t conscious of beforehand, together with the ‘Paul is Lifeless’ city legend concerning the Beatles changing McCartney with a lookalike in 1966. Whereas that one didn’t persuade me, I’m open to the prospect of there being different life on the market within the universe – I’d like to know what they’d consider us if there was.

2. Why did you resolve to make the perspective all from males and no girls? I discovered this alternative fascinating—may it’s a commentary on the male gaze, or maybe the patriarchal constructions that consistently choose girls?

Sure, I’m actually within the idea of the male gaze, and, as you say, the societal constructions which have made it a lot simpler for us to evaluate girls, or to try to pigeonhole girls in a means we don’t appear to do with males. Presently within the UK, the television present Adolescence (which is exceptionally properly completed) is all around the information, and there have been some highly effective conversations popping out of it – I noticed an interview the opposite day with a youth employee who mentioned he’d had breakthroughs with younger males who’d turn out to be radicalised by manosphere content material by asking them in the event that they’d use the language they did about women when speaking about their moms or sisters.

It’s good to listen to that work is being completed, nevertheless it’s sobering to understand that for these boys, girls solely deserve respect after they’re diminished down and safely boxed into these roles. The narrators within the ebook don’t have such harmful views however they do all have a really slender sense of who Katie is and the way she should subsequently act: she’s an harmless daughter or a manipulative temptress or a protecting pal. None of them see the potential for her to be all of these items and extra, and that blind spot impacts all of them.

3. Please inform me you have been impressed by Legally Blonde when Tarun questions Camilla concerning who she follows on Instagram. Though not integral to the plot trajectory it felt very a lot ‘you’ll be able to’t take a bathe the day after getting a perm’! It’s a gentle, however pointed, reflection on how we choose others primarily based on seemingly trivial particulars. Was {that a} acutely aware affect, or was it extra about making a refined commentary on how persons are scrutinised in at the moment’s world?

Ha! I prefer to suppose that each one barristers are impressed by that scene in Legally Blonde although I’m certain Tarun would by no means admit to watching it… However sure, I’m positively on this new layer of scrutiny we’re topic to in relation to our on-line lives – and naturally that is true of Katie in addition to Camilla, in the course of the trial – even essentially the most harmless or idle motion we tackle social media or an web discussion board can be utilized to color an image of who we’re or what we imagine.

I’ve observed that some individuals really feel that simply following a controversial determine on social media means you mechanically agree with the whole lot they are saying, when the other is likely to be true. And I believe typically we now have this sense that our on-line lives are extra nameless, or much less public a minimum of, than our IRL selves, and there’s a false safety in that. It opens a complete new avenue for somebody with a forensic eye like Tarun to search out weaknesses in a sworn statement, or to name a witness’s credibility into query.

4. Katherine’s story, at its core, is a couple of lady searching for independence and function. Whereas her journey feels each distinctive and highly effective, it’s additionally relatable. Was your intention to take what may very well be an ‘odd’ story and present how everybody’s journey will be extraordinary?

I’m so glad to listen to it feels relatable, that was actually vital to me. These formative teenage years are so complicated and I believe it’s once we first begin to really develop a robust sense of self – which is why, for Katie, it’s so painful to be diminished or labelled, to be silenced, in the way in which she is within the wake of the murders. She makes errors and dangerous decisions as she tries to grasp the world and discover her means in it, in the identical means all of us do – however hers set her on a a lot darker path. I wished there to be that sense that, had anyone occasion not occurred, or anyone particular person acted in a different way or sooner, she may not have ended up in that dock.

5. The pacing of the thriller in Her Many Faces is so well-balanced—there have been no pressured pink herrings, and the ending didn’t depend on introducing a shock character. How did you discover the appropriate method to maintain readers on edge with out giving an excessive amount of away?

Thanks, that’s so nice to listen to. I believe the construction actually helped – having the 5 voices, every of whom have their very own half to play in revealing what’s occurred, makes it a lot simpler to steadiness the pacing and exposition. Though it was an actual headache to edit 5 completely different strands and work out the order of the chapters!

I used a spreadsheet for every draft, colour-coded by character so I may see at a look how typically every of them was talking and when key data was being revealed. And I discover it a lot simpler to edit a bodily copy of the manuscript, which for this novel meant I’d typically unfold the entire ebook out on the ground in entrance of me, so I may bodily transfer chapters round and see how that may have an effect on the tempo. I do know I may do this on display screen much more simply, nevertheless it simply doesn’t work for me!

6. I used to be hooked early on, and the half that actually caught with me was Tarun explaining why they go to crime scenes in particular person to make sure all of the details are proper and no proof is missed, akin to ‘a single diploma’s distinction within the angle of a wall or a line of sight’. Have been these particulars impressed by actual instances, or was it purely a fictional contact?

That was really impressed by one other ebook I learn throughout my analysis, Beneath the Wig: A Lawyer’s Tales of Homicide, Guilt and Innocence by William Clegg QC. It’s such an excellent, informative learn, and he talks about how vital it was to him to go to against the law scene (on one event, making ready a defence, he ran into the prosecution’s barrister doing the identical factor). He describes visiting against the law scene in Belarus, knee-deep in snow, and through one other case taking a jury to a flat to find out whether or not a scream may very well be heard from two properties away because the prosecution had asserted. I used to be so struck by this, and I knew I wished Tarun to be the sort of barrister who would obsess over each tiny element of the proof, who would have that type of hands-on, no-stone-left-unturned strategy to constructing his case.

7. On the subject of crime, are you a real crime fan? I couldn’t assist however discover how the absence of a first-person POV from Katherine—and the narrators’ doubts about her—created the sensation of watching interrogation footage on-line. Have you ever watched these kinds of movies? I used to be reminded quite a lot of that setting. (Should you’ve by no means seen these I’m certain you’d be a fan!)

Yep, I’m an enormous true crime fan! I believe that, in addition to interrogation footage (which I all the time discover gripping – there’s a documentary referred to as 24 Hours in Police Custody that’s wonderful for this), I used to be impressed by the interviews in true crime documentaries. What’s particularly attention-grabbing to me about these is that, for essentially the most half, persons are talking about occasions of the previous with their present-day data influencing the way in which they bear in mind issues, or the way in which they wish to retrospectively painting their half.

I wished to play with that in Her Many Faces – to what extent is every man colouring his recollections of Katie as a way to justify his personal actions, or to suit with the model of her he now is aware of to be true? That sort of unconscious (and even acutely aware at occasions) revising of reminiscence – and it’s one thing all of us do – is such wealthy materials to me, I discover it fascinating.

8. Was there a personality you deliberately crafted to evoke robust destructive emotions within the reader, or did you intention for extra morally complicated portrayals? I used to be ready to out of the blue hate Max nevertheless it by no means occurred!

I’m getting some pretty robust suggestions about Conrad! I believe quite a lot of us have recognized or dated a Conrad, so he was fairly simple to craft, and I’m glad readers are seeing by means of him a lot extra shortly than Katie does. A morally complicated character is all the time extra compelling to me although. I believe that with Max, it might have been simple to lean into a extremely destructive portrayal of this sensationalist, underhanded tabloid journalist, however I wished to dig deeper. He has his personal causes for distrusting Katie, primarily based on previous experiences in his work, and though he behaves reprehensibly at occasions, I preferred understanding that there are layers there, and that there was hope that he may flip issues round by the top of the novel. That’s way more attention-grabbing to me once I’m writing.

9. I usually discover myself getting misplaced in novels with completely different POV’s for every chapter however the chapter titles and the completely different names used to check with Katherine was a stroke of genius. What impressed you to undertake this format?

This was really the start line of the novel for me – I used to be fascinated with the completely different nicknames I’ve had in my life, and the completely different selves these had come to signify once I look again; the weather of my persona I’d subconsciously adopted or performed as much as in every of these relationships. I like that concept that we’re many issues to many individuals, professionally and personally, and I began fascinated with whether or not we exist in some liminal house between the entire identities we now have to juggle in every day life or if somebody can ever really, absolutely know us. That advanced into the choice to make use of the 5 narrators’ POVs, to discover Katie’s character by means of that very fractured lens.

10. The usage of 5 narrators with completely different names for Katherine was good. How did you land on this variety of voices? And why did you select to not embody Bobby as one among them?

It was sort of a strategy of trial and error! There have been six voices in a single draft – I experimented with utilizing Sebastian, the bartender at March Home, to offer one other perspective, however the steadiness didn’t really feel proper. Actually, it got here right down to the variations of Katie’s character I wished to current alongside her backstory and the occasions main as much as the murders, and I needed to think about what number of narrators I wanted to do this with out it feeling repetitive or slowing down the tempo. I did toy with including Bobby’s voice at numerous factors in the course of the writing and modifying of the ebook, and I believe I’d have actually loved arising along with his chapters.

However on a suspense degree, for me it’s fairly useful that we solely see Katie’s relationship with Bobby by means of John’s – and later, Max’s – eyes. I believe it provides a query for the reader as to how Bobby actually feels about his sister, and the way he remembers their childhood in comparison with John’s typically rose-tinted view (or Max’s assumptions). I like that we get to learn between the traces there, so it felt like the appropriate alternative to stay to 5 voices.

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For extra creator interviews head right here.

E-book launch date: July fifteenth 2025
Purchase the ebook right here.
Goodreads web page right here.
ISBN: 9780063395046