In Conversation With... Karin Slaughter

The bestselling crime author talks to Fanny Blake about being published before 30, her love of collecting, and her new novel, The Good Daughter

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Karin, 46, lives in Atlanta, US. She grew up in Jonesboro, Georgia, with her mother and father, a car salesman,  and her two older sisters. Her 17 novels include the bestselling Grant County and Will Trent series. Her latest stand-alone thriller, The Good Daughter, is out this month.

Slaughter is my real name. I never understood why people asked me if it was until I was in London once and saw a massive sign that said “Slaughter” and I thought, “Wow! that’s pretty scary.” Then I noticed this little “Karin” on top and I realised the poster was for my latest book. That’s when I got it.

When I was about 10 a bunch of young kids were murdered in Atlanta, a 45-minute drive from Jonesboro. It was all everyone talked about. That got me interested in reading true crime. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was probably one of the most seminal works for me in that genre.

My dad had a rule that I could read anything I wanted to as long as I asked him if I didn’t understand something.

He didn’t really believe in censorship. If something was really scary, I was pretty good at shutting myself down although I didn’t scare easily with books.

I wanted to be a writer since kindergarten. I was always writing little books but I didn’t think you could make a living out of it. So I wanted to be a lawyer who was a writer too. Then I participated in a trial in high school and saw what rubbish it was so I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer after all. I was very disillusioned.