Laura Lippman: ‘Crime fiction is an outstanding vehicle for social commentary’

Prom Mom is inspired by a true story. You once said, ‘The best fictional crime stories are really credible. And the best nonfiction crime stories are like, oh, that couldn’t happen’. Can you tell us what really happened and how you went about fictionalising it?

I’ve been inspired by a lot of real-life stories before, but with Prom Mom, it was actually more generic – it was the situation that interested me, not any actual case.

Are there ethical and stylistic challenges to basing a novel on real-life events?

Ethical, definitely and I think the ethical considerations are evolving because of the true-crime gold rush in podcasting. Stylistic? Well, every novel has those challenges.

Did you look at how other writers handled this?

No, I don’t think I would ever do that. If they did it well, I would be in utter despair.

To what extent was this a lockdown novel?

It is, primarily, a lockdown novel. Not about Covid, per se, but about the trapped-in-amber feel of certain times.

What was your own experience of high school? And did it help make you a writer?

Oh, I was a nerd, albeit one with better social skills than Amber. But I have a teenager now and it’s shocking to me how certain things never change. I tried to write my first “book” when I was six, so by high school, I was pretty settled in my mind that I would be a writer.

Your mother was a librarian. How big an influence was she?

My mom was very hands-off about my reading, which was smart. She knew I’d value books more if I found them for myself.

You have written a dozen novels in the Tess Monaghan series. How big a leap is it from being an investigative journalist to a private investigator?

Not that big; I had a colleague who was asked if he wanted to leave the paper and be a PI.

How big a help is your background in journalism?

I think it’s a big help. I don’t romanticise research. I meet deadlines, for the most part. I don’t require a lot of hand-holding.

Tess’s sidekick, Mrs Blossom, has the superpower of being invisible ... because she is a 60-year-old woman. Do you find crime fiction a good vehicle for social commentary?

Oh, I’m so glad you referenced Mrs Blossom because I’m in the middle of a book that’s all about her. Yes, crime fiction is an outstanding vehicle for social commentary.

[ Ann Napolitano on the Oprah effect: ‘95 per cent of the credit goes to her, not my book’ ]

You’ve said a lot of crime fiction can be summed up: a beautiful woman dies and a man feels bad about it. And also: one death is enough. Does a philosophy underpin your fiction?

I think I’d like people who read my books to consider: what if everyone matters? What if everyone has humanity and deserves to be considered? But the through line in almost every book that I write is that no one is more capable of bad acts than someone absolutely convinced of their own goodness. People who identify as “good” scare the pants off me.

‘I have no desire to write about big, evil characters.’ Is less more when it comes to crime?

Well, it is to me, but I think I’m a bit of a weirdo.

What projects are you working on?

As mentioned above, I’m writing a novel about Mrs Blossom, which is really a novel about ageism and classism, and how a woman in her late 60s might begin a new life, even if she doesn’t want to. It’s a little bit of Charade, a little bit of the children’s book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler.

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

So many! It’s my favourite form of tourism.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve come across?

“I became a writer so I could make stuff up” – Donald Westlake.

Who do you admire the most?

My kid, I think. I cannot imagine a harder gig than being 13 right now.

[ Kate Mosse on writing about women pirates: ‘This is a proper buccaneering, swashbuckling book’ ]

You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?

I’m getting rid of guns in America and I’m casting a spell so that the people who claim that the Second Amendment grants them unimpeded access to firearms finally understand that they’re wrong, they just are.

Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?

Book: Windfall by Wendy Corsi Staub – super smart, super fun. Film: Showing Up. Podcast: You Must Remember This.

Which public event affected you most?

In 2021, I attended the unveiling ceremony for a monument to the five journalists killed by a gunman in Annapolis, Maryland. One of those slain was a very good friend, Rob Hiaasen.

The most remarkable place you have visited?

I’ve travelled a lot since a pretty young age, so it’s hard to single out just one, but on my most recent vacation I visited Monet’s home in Giverny.

Your most treasured possession?

I have a charm bracelet that belonged to my paternal grandmother and it has a charm for every book my father wrote.

What is the most beautiful book that you own?

My great-grandmother’s six-volume set of Shakespeare.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

I would choose my friends, all living, and I couldn’t possibly name them all because I’ll leave someone out. So I’ll just call them the “Gal Pals” and the “Gretchens”.

The best and worst things about where you live?

The best thing is that it’s home and I love it as one loves a family member. Crime is the worst thing. Crime and poverty.

What is your favourite quotation?

WH Auden: “For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives In the valley of its making where executives Would never want to tamper, flows on south From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs, Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives, A way of happening, a mouth.”

Who is your favourite fictional character?

I should say Ramona Quimby, as I use her as my avatar on social media, but I think it’s Martha from Half Magic by Edward Eager, a book that is just nowhere near as well-known as it should be.

A book to make me laugh?

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson.

A book that might move me to tears?

A New Path to the Waterfall by Raymond Carver, especially the final poem, Late Fragment.

Prom Mom is published by Faber & Faber on August 10th