Today I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for The Last Honeytrap by Louise Lee. I loved the measures that were taken to ensure that the entrapment was a success and absolutely adored Florence and Michael (see my review). This is undoubtedly a book for everyone, no matter what genre is your favourite! Don’t forget to visit other blog stops along the tour for other great content. Below Louise shares her Inspiration behind The Last Honeytrap.
Inspiration behind The Last Honeytrap:
Without realising it, I’ve been writing about Florence Love for years – she just had different names and back stories. But she was never a PI, which is odd given I was one. In retrospect the genre frightened me a lot. PI books tend to be serious and edgy and super-cool. Or serious and edgy and bleak. Or just serious. Trouble is, I’m incorrigibly silly, so my writing didn’t seem to sit in a niche presided over by hard-boiled legends, such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald.
Then I did an MA in Creative Writing. One of my assignments was a short story and I wrote about a sassy female PI employed to entrap a Dutch politician. My tutor thought it was great and told me to Write that book! So I took a big breath, decided to forget about genre and see what happened.
In terms of inspiration, my own PI experiences provided lots of creative fodder. Eight years before I’d left teaching to set-up a PI company. Did my time undercover, finding the missing, following cheating spouses, telling taxi drivers to follow that car, peeing in coffee cups and jumping the odd red. Owned the gadgets – the spy sunglasses, camera clutch bags, bugging equipment and GPS tracker. And the outfits, wigs, reading glasses, hats – you name it, I had it.
With regards to Florence Love’s personality, her voice is largely my voice; that’s inevitable when you’re writing a novel (especially your first). You have to sustain the book for a hundred thousand words – it’s sensible for the protagonist’s voice to be intrinsic to you.
However, Florence also has elements of a lot of other people I know – both girls and boys. My bestie, Trevor, is the pedantic, scientific type – Florence has swathes of him. My Nan is the most stubborn, mischievous woman I know – in certain respects (my favourite respects), Florence could have been her twin. I’ve even drawn from my own daughter – she’s two so very needy – just like Florence who, underneath it all, is a little girl lost. It’s important to me that the reader sees her childlike vulnerability.
Finally, I was inspired by fictional characters too, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time of writing. When it comes to her professional life, for example, Florence has the arrogant perfectionism of Sherlock; in her personal life, she has a Bridget Jones-like naivety and quirkiness. In retrospect I’ve no doubt those brilliant characters (and their brilliant writers) have propelled me sub-consciously.
But ultimately Florence Love is a woman dealing with personal issues and contemporary pressures, whilst doing an extraordinary job. Yes, she’s flawed. Big-time. Though I’d argue she’s no more flawed than a lot of the best people I know. She’s just brutally honest with the reader – says out loud what we wouldn’t dare. Then again, I’m biased. What I can say is that Florence Love will get there in the end, just in her own inimitable way.
What do you think about the Inspiration behind The Last Honeytrap?
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