Steve Mosby, author The 50/50 Killer, goes up against his Orion editor Jon Wood

We put Steve Mosby, author of THE 50/50 KILLER up against his editor at Orion, Jon Wood, to rate the sins of THE 50/50 KILLER. To start, we asked Steve about the violence in the book:

Steve: It’s not as bad as it seems, I don’t think. A nasty atmosphere in places, maybe, but it has a relatively low body count for a serial killer novel, especially when it comes to women. In fact, it feels pretty tame to me…

What did Jon say?

Violence
1 is no violence, 100 is… Wait, was there one scene without blood and gore in it?





Swearing
1 means no penance, 100 means you’re putting truckers to shame.





Steve: A fair amount of fuck and shit, but nothing stronger. And it’s all entirely necessary and justified.


Sex
1 means a nun can read it without blushing and 100 is… Wait, is this actually erotica?




The Fido Factor
1 means animal lovers won’t be offended. 100 means PETA’s planning a book burning in protest.





Steve: Nothing for animal lovers to get upset about. Just people lovers.


Too Stupid To Live
1 means your characters have brains and use them, and 100 means it’s a wonder they weren’t killed 1000 times over.




Steve: They do their best, but they don’t figure it out until the end, whereas I knew it all along.


Other Sins…
Gratuitous use of ‘dead girlfriend syndrome’. 1 means everyone’s happily married, 100 means a history of devastating heartbreak all around.





Jon: Tricky because whole novel is about dead relationships (literally and metephorically!). So I suppose it as to be 90 - but only 20 for 'gratuitous' as it's integral.

Steve: More broken relationships than a James Bond box-set.



Verdict: Steve’s either pretty honest, or very good at guessing how his editor will rank things.



THE 50/50 KILLER reviewed by Sandra Ruttan
Steve Mosby interviewed by Sandra Ruttan

Steve was born on 30th July 1976 in Horsforth, Leeds. He went to University there, studied Philosophy, and then spent a few years temping around, doing the usual menial and unfulfilling jobs for small amounts of money. He's the author of three novels - The Third Person, The Cutting Crew and The 50/50 Killer - and his fourth, Cry For Help, will be published in the UK in 2008.

Check out the book trailer for THE 50/50 KILLER here.
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