My Life of Crime by J.A. Baker author of Finding Eve and The Uninvited

If you're after disturbing, thought provoking psychological thrillers with a dark edge, then look no further for today we have J.A. Baker on the blog... and she can't be so frightening after all because she brought me my favourite biccy - Tunnock's Teacakes! 

Here's a little more about the author, then it's over to her ...
 J.A.BAKER was born and brought up in North East England and has had a love of language for as long as she can remember.
She has a love of local history and genealogy and enjoys reading many genres of books but is an addict of psychological thrillers.

In December 2016 she was signed by Bloodhound Books who published Undercurrent.
Her second novel, Her Dark Retreat was published in October 2017 and The Other Mother was published in December 2017. Her fourth novel, Finding Eva was published in August 2018.

J.A. Baker has four grown-up children and a grandchild and lives in a village near Darlington with her husband and madcap dog.

You find out more about J.A.Baker here
http://www.jabakerauthor.co.uk/                      https://www.facebook.com/thewriterjude/

https://twitter.com/thewriterjude

My Life of Crime by J.A. Baker

Two Books that influenced me

Tideline blew me away with the style which I thought was poetic considering it’s a psychological thriller. The whole premise of the book was highly original and unbelievably clever. I don’t want to give too much away in case people haven’t read it but basically, it’s about an older woman who kidnaps a younger man and holds him in her house by the river. I read it in just over a day and have read it another twice since then, something I’ve never done with any other books.

Lie with Me has a subtle plot that subverts convention with the final twist. Again, it’s difficult to talk about without letting any spoilers slip but what I can say is that Sabine Durrant writes the kind of stories I wish I had written! Her writing style is superb and along with Hancock, she is one writer I aspire to be like.

Two songs that influenced me is a tricky one! I had to think long and hard before answering this question. I’m not sure I’ve been heavily influenced to write by any songs but I’ve grown up with songs that evoke wonderfully happy memoires so decided to choose two of those.

The first is a song I Get a Kick Out of You by Gary Shearston. This was one of my dad’s favourite songs and played regularly in the house when I was growing up. My dad came from a very difficult background but taught us that education and literature was one of the most important things in life. We visited the library every week with my parents and I’ve some amazing memories of those times.

The second song is called Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Fairport Convention. It’s one of my husband’s favourite songs and has been played a lot in our house while I was writing. I’m now completely hooked. It’s a beautiful song and the lyrics are enough to influence anybody to start writing!

I don’t watch a lot of TV but I do enjoy crime dramas, many of which I watch and wish I’d written such as Luther, Bodyguard and Fargo.

The two films that have influenced me most are probably Secret Window with Johhny Depp and Jacob’s Ladder starring Tim Robbins. They both focus on the psychological aspect which I really enjoy.

Secret Window is a film adapted from a Stephen King novel and shows how difficult it is for a write to separate themselves from the characters in their books, a sentiment most writers can identify with!

Jacob’s Ladder is a brilliant film about how somebody was affected by the war in Vietnam and again focuses on the slow mental breakdown of the main character, a trait I often include on my books.

Two people who heavily influenced me are definitely my parents. I realise most people think this is an obvious and possibly trite answer but my siblings and I are the children of war babies who had really tough lives and we were brought up to appreciate everything.

It’s only as I get older that I realise just how difficult their formative years were. My mum’s house was bombed and they were left homeless and my dad was brought up in a single parent family. He never knew his dad and as a child and they moved about a lot due to being constantly evicted. He had a vivid memory of being woken up at midnight and having to push a handcart full of their things in order to avoid the rent man calling the next morning.  Being evacuated to a village in North Yorkshire gave him an entirely new outlook on life which he lived by and passed onto us. He taught us that kindness is everything and books have the ability to change lives for the better. My sister loves reading, I’m an author and my brother is a poet so dad’s ethos obviously worked.

 

The Uninvited

A fragile woman. An unwelcome intruder. A house full of secrets

Available here

Faye and her husband Hugh have had a traumatic year. Wanting to start again, the couple decides to buy a large rundown property, Cross House in a village in North Yorkshire, hoping to leave the past behind them.

However, the tranquillity is soon ruined when Faye begins to awake, every night, to the sound of somebody creeping around the bedroom. She tries to explain it to Hugh, frightened for the safety of their children Aiden and Poppy, but Hugh dismisses her claims, thinking she is heading for another breakdown.

But when Faye discovers some diaries that contain secrets about the family that lived in the house before them, she starts to wonder if the intruder might be closer to home than she first thought.

Obsessed with finding answers, Faye is determined to learn about the Wentworth family, a fractured family with a tragic past.

And when she discovers that Hilary Wentworth fell to her death down the stairs in Cross House, Faye realises she is in mortal danger…