Joy Kluver has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. More recently she’s been escaping the madness of motherhood by turning her hand to crime novels. A book blogger, she’s also part of the First Monday Crime team and if you’ve been to any of their events it’s likely you’ve eaten one of her cookies. She also organises author talks for her local library. Joy lives in SW London with her husband and three children. She has written three DI Bernadette ‘Bernie’ Noel books – ‘Last Seen’, ‘Broken Girls’ and ‘Left For Dead’, and the series has been shortlisted for Best New Kid on the Block (best new series) in the Dead Good Reader Awards 2022. Joy is represented by Anne Williams at the Kate Horden Literary Agency.
At school, were you good at English?
Not sure if I was good at all parts of English but I was good at writing stories. I remember being very proud when my yr 5 teacher put one of my stories up on the wall. But I hated English Lit in secondary school as I hated pulling everything apart and analysing it. I wanted to read the story as a whole and enjoy it. I was an avid reader as a child and into my teens.
Who are your favourite authors?
As a teenager, I was heavily influenced by Virginia Andrews. Post-mortem by Patricia Cornwell introduced me to the world of forensics. But I think my favourite author and book is Kate Atkinson and Life After Life. It’s an ingenious novel.
What genre do you write?
I write crime, in particular, police procedurals.
What draws you to this genre?
I think Virginia Andrews helped to draw me to the dark side but also, as a kid, I watched a lot of police drama on TV. Whether it was Juliet Bravo or Hill St. Blues, I loved watching them all.
What have you written to date?
I’ve written six novels to date, three of which have been published – Last Seen, Broken Girls and Left For Dead. My very first novel was called Unearthed but it’s staying buried on my computer! It did give me the character of DI Bernie Noel though so it’s not all bad. The other two – not sure what will happen with those ones.
Do you work to an outline or plot or prefer to see where an idea takes you?
I’m a terrible plotter and I really struggle to write an outline. I much prefer to see where an idea takes me which makes me a pantser – I fly by the seat of my pants! This does mean I have a few ideas that have got up to around 10-15k words and then stalled. But particularly with police procedurals, I like having Bernie and her team discover the evidence as they work the case. It’s rare in real life that the police know exactly what’s happened in a murder so I like to do the same as I write.
How do you select the names of your characters?
I really ought to have a list of all the characters I’ve had to date so I don’t double up! When I started at a writing class back in 1999, my tutor told us to get a book of baby names and a telephone directory. The baby book gave the meaning of the name (which I have used) and the directory provided the surname. I also think carefully about how old my character is and what name would fit them.
What kind of research do you do?
I tend to do it as I go along but not always. I’m a visual person so it helps if I can see the place I’m describing. I’ve used streetview on Google maps but there are limitations with that. With Broken Girls, we went to visit a pathway near Devizes in Wiltshire. It looked good on Google but even better in real life. There were steep banks on either side and the trees looked like they might fall down, their roots visible. There was a hole in one bank with a blue rope next to it tied to a tree. None of this showed up on Google. Then we met a dog walker who told us about the ghost who haunted the lane. All of this went into the book!
For your own reading, do you prefer E-books or paper books?
I’m definitely a Kindle convert as I can make the font bigger! And they’re great for taking on holiday too – more space in the case. I love reading normal books too though and I’ve recently bought quite a few to read this summer.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
Probably the best place to go to is kluver.co.uk which takes you to my blog and some pages about me. I’ve recently started Murder in Merton: Crime Writing Events . I’m working with Merton Libraries and Wimbledon Bookfest to bring crime writing events to the London borough of Merton. You’ll also find me on Twitter, Threads and Instagram as Joy Kluver, and on Facebook as Joy Kluver Author.