“I’ve got this crazy idea, it would be Agatha Christie meets Lost. They were like ‘how are you gonna pull that off?’ and I was like ‘I have absolutely no idea.”
Stuart Turton joins Brian to talk about the writing of his New York Times bestseller, “The Last Murder at the End of the World.”
Stuart talks about how this was the hardest book he’s ever written, why it was so hard, and how he had to throw a full 130,000-word draft away and start over. He talks about how he knew things weren’t working and the changes he made that changed everything. Turns out, he killed the wrong person.
Stuart and Brian talk about the unintentional symbolism of the fog, the beauty of the mourning lanterns, why Stuart hates red herrings, and how the constraints of writing a mystery novel are like a game of chess to him.
“That’s the thing that you started with, that was your premise, that was your holy grail, and that's the reason you started writing this book. But it's not working. So have courage and toss it.”
Links
The Last Murder at the End of the World
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Eagen (the best thing Stuart’s read lately.)
Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (the other best thing Stuart’s read lately.)
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (the best thing Brian’s read lately.)
(all links are Amazon affiliate links)
Support
The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.
Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.
Subscribe: