Today On the Spot we have Irish crime novelist, K T McCaffrey, author of several novels including his latest, The Cat Trap. We reviewed The Cat Trap at BSC earlier this month.
We’d like to welcome Mr. McCaffrey to BookSpot Central!
Professor Crazy: In The Cat Trap, Emma Boylan, intrepid investigative reporter, is back. She’s split from her husband and is now living with her boyfriend, Detective Inspector Jim Connolly. Connolly’s ex-wife, Iseult, is a member of a group of rich, bitchy women who are of the horse racing set. The women have formed a club that meets on the first Friday of every month, so call themselves the First-Friday Club. They help each other plot revenge on those who have wronged them in some way.
My first question is about Margot Hillary, a club member whose son, Ronan, was the (perhaps willing) prey of the homosexual advances of his swimming trainer, the ex-Olympian Brandon Edwards. Though the schemes for vengeance which the club comes up with are often cruel, you make the readers sympathize with some of the reasons behind at least the earlier schemes, like the one against Edwards. Unfortunately, it results in his death, whether intended or not.
Would you say Margot was justified in her desire for vengeance?
KT McCaffrey: She was certainly entitled to look for justice, but to do so in the normal course of events would entail exposing her son to a virtual re-enactment of the crime in a court of law. So, what’s a mother to do? I’d say it’s reasonable that she should desire to exact some form of retaliation. The plot she hatches with her friends is intended to redress the situation but when it goes wrong, the results are, by any standards, totally unacceptable.
Professor Crazy: Lisa Dunlop is a relatively minor character in The Cat Trap, but she is an important one. We’re introduced to her in the Prologue, though we don’t know at the time who the woman is, or who is responsible for what happens to her. She’s been taken to a tattoo parlor, unconscious, by a group of women who pay to have the word “S L U T” tattooed on her forehead, though no reason is given until later.
Also, among other aspects of the novel she’s involved in, she accuses the character Darren Dempsey of having raped her. Darren is the father of Nuala Barkley’s children, Chris and Katie, who get kidnapped later on.
Did you write the Prologue first, and then come up with how the woman in it was involved in the other plot lines; or, did you write the majority of the book first, and then think of including Lisa Dunlop in the Prologue?
KT McCaffrey: I had Lisa Dunlop’s episode as a prologue from the start. I thought it was pretty important to set the tone of what was to come from the get-go. It’s only two pages in length but it acts as a kind of microcosm of what’s in store for the reader.
Professor Crazy: I brought up the First-Friday Club before other subjects I’ll ask you about, because they are a group of women you can love to hate. Their actions are despicable, but they possess elements of tragedy in their lives that make them a very interesting literary creation. They are also behind the framing of Emma’s boyfriend, Connolly, for the savage rape of Nuala Barkley (also a club member).
Connolly’s ex-wife, the beautiful but spiteful Iseult, engineers the plan. Things exactly right, though, and both Iseult and Nuala end up murdered, with Jim charge with the double homicide. Emma believes he’s innocent, despite the seeming evidence against him, and she questions the people she thinks might have played a part in framing him – which leads her to the surviving women of the First-Friday Club.
They make a good couple. Do you plan to have their romance continue in your next novel, and for Connolly to participate more actively in the story?
KT McCaffrey: Connolly has featured in my last four books I’ve given him an important role in the up-coming title. Although all of the books have ‘stand alone’ stories, there is a continuity from book to book.
Professor Crazy: I have read that two of your favorite authors are John Connelly and Michael Connolly. Did you name Emma’s boyfriend after them as an homage to their work?
KT McCaffrey: Nope! When I was young, living in a small midland town in Ireland, I had a friend (a little older than me) named Jim Connolly. He it was who introduced me to my first alcoholic drink and explained how I should go about getting laid. For that, and all the joys that followed, I gave him hero status in my books. All true, honestly.
Professor Crazy: You introduce The Cat Trap with a quote from The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith:
When lovely woman stoops to folly
And finds too late that men betray
What charms can soothe her melancholy?
What art can wash her guilt away?
Did you have this quote in mind before you started writing the novel, or choose it afterwards because it seemed very appropriate? Either way, it’s a great quote!
KT McCaffrey: Can’t remember. I think it came later. I’ve used quotes from William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde in my previous two books, so you’ll note, I like to keep to Irish poets – and besides, I remember their works from my school days.
Professor Crazy: I theorized in my review of The Cat Trap that the cover illustration, of a woman in high heels from the lower calf down, “trapped” in criss-crossing police tape, was chosen on purpose because it seems to be (at least, to my over-active imagination) to be seen from the vantage point of a cat. Was I correct, or is this just a sort of happy coincidence?
KT McCaffrey: Even though I’m a graphic designer, I had no imput into the cover. The publishers, for reasons best known to themselves, like to control the cover. As it happens, I think they’ve done an excellent job. So, you could be right, I’d never thought of it as being shot from the vantage point of a cat. I’m just glad they didn’t ask me to pose in the shoes for the photograph.
Professor Crazy: Is the cafe the Cat’s Pyjamas, where the First Friday Club meets, a real place, or is it a creation of your own imagination?
KT McCaffrey: Well, now, as we say in Ireland to questions like that, ’tis and it ’tisn’t. Yes, there is a restaurant in the location I use in the book but it’s not called Cat’s Pyjamas.
Professor Crazy: I enjoyed reading about the musical references you made, like to Fleetwood Mac, U2, Amy Winehouse, and Bruce Springsteen. Are these musicians you personally like, or are they ones you felt your characters might logically like, or both?
KT McCaffrey: Yeah, I like them but I felt they worked for the characters. My favourites are Waylon and Willie, Haggard and Jones – last of the old hats. I’m also a big fan of Emmy Lou Harris and Lucinda Williams.
Professor Crazy: You introduced Emma in the novel Revenge. How long ago was that written, and is it still in print?
KT McCaffrey: Emma first saw the light of day back in 1999. It’s out of print at the moment but I do expect it to be reprinted one of these days.
Professor Crazy: Which other novel featuring Emma would you say gave you the most pleasure to write, and how long, in general, has each one taken to think about and write from start to finish?
KT McCaffrey: As I write each book, I think it’s the best – which means each book is my favourite at the time of writing. But because Revenge was the first, and because it made the bottom half of Ireland’s best sellers list, and because it got a couple of really good reviews, I have a special place in my heart for it.
Professor Crazy: Do you have a title thought of for your next novel yet, and when do you think we might anticipate it being published?
KT McCaffrey: Yes. I have just completed my seventh novel. It’s working title is, Who’s Afraid of Tarantino? and I’m very excited about how it’s turned out. The blurb goes something like this:
A stage version of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction isn’t the only disquieting factor bothering investigative reporter, Emma Boylan. When the naked blood-encrusted body of a well known property developer is discovered on a graveyard slab, her boss at the Post requires her to act as back-up writer to a younger ‘hot-shot’ male rival.
Peeved at being sidelined, Emma embarks on a line of inquiry that leads her to London’s West End theatrical world, an involvement that creates a domestic problem for herself and Detective Inspector Jim Connolly, the man she is living with. Their relationship – both recovering from marriage breakups – comes under stress when she withholds evidence from him. Connolly, in charge of the case, accuses her of impeding his investigation.
Undeterred, Emma continues to probe into a number of disturbing deeds from the past. With dogged persistence, she peels away layer after layer of deception before finally arriving at a terrifying climax that proves more frightening than anything she’s ever experienced before.
Once again, I thank KT McCaffrey for participating in this interview, and I and the BSC staff wish him the best of luck in the future!
