Matt Plass
Author Interview - Matt Plass
Author of The Ten Worst People in New York
The ten worst people in New York are dying, one after the other.
A late-night TV chat show feature, The Ten Worst People in New York, is the talk of the town. When a real estate mogul on the Ten Worst list jumps to his death, it could be a coincidence. But after a corrupt NYC councilor, also on the list, dies suspiciously, recently widowed Special FBI Agent Alex Bedford suspects foul play.
Young British filmmaker Jacob Felle arrives in New York to connect with his estranged sister, Elizabeth, and to reconcile a long-buried family trauma. But Alex and Jacob are on a collision course, and when Jacob becomes a suspect, the two find themselves in a race to unravel the mystery before even more people die. Both Alex and Jacob must confront their worst fears and put their lives on the line as they try to find the answer to two key questions:
Why are the killers targeting the ten worst list? And who will be next to die?
Author Interview - Matt Plass
Author I draw inspiration from:
Beside my desk is a short bookshelf with five books in permanent residence. They may not be the best I’ve read. I’m not even sure I’d call them my favorites. But as I was writing The Ten Worst People in New York, if at any time I found myself staring at a blank page and realized that I’d lost my voice, or my direction, or my sense of humor, or the desire to be a better writer, then I would reach for the short shelf...
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris is the perfect thriller. The characters are vivid, the tension palpable, the prose both intimate and elegiac at the same time. Not a word is wasted, and what an engine the book has! You race to the finish line, desperate to know, but wanting the experience of living in those pages to continue forever.
Magical, muscular, erotic, unsettling... The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter is a collection of short stories loosely based on familiar fairytales, the most famous example being The Company of Wolves, with themes and ideas borrowed from Little Red Riding Hood. Carter mines the darkness under the surface of the original tales, giving her new offerings a feminist twist that—on release in 1979—some considered dangerously subversive. I go back this book for the use of language. Her style is bewitching. Carter doesn’t invite you into her world—you really have no choice but to enter.
The reviewer Arthur Smith once said that ‘The point about Martin Amis is that he can write better sentences than you’. Amis’ novel Money is arguably his greatest achievement. Modern critics question the way he writes about race and gender: his female characters, for example, seem to exist only as sexy, two-dimensional foils for the heavy, brutish men stampeding through his work. But no one questions Amis’ ability to write extraordinary prose, to subvert our expectations, and to smuggle humor into the darkest corners of experience.
The best plots are complex without being complicated. The Spy Who Came in From The Cold by John LeCarre is the perfect example. The reversal near the end of the book, when the world turns upside down for poor Alec Leamus—alone and confused on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain—is both wholly surprising and utterly satisfying. Click, click, click, the pieces fall into place as we realize the truth. A masterclass in twist.
Margaret Atwood is a wonderful novelist, and also a fine poet. A dip into her collection Dearly puts rhythm in your head, and shows how much can be achieved in very few words. The wonderful Update on Werewolves makes me wonder if Atwood had been reading Angela Carter before she picked up her pen.
Author Interview - Matt Plass | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
On a train. Or a plane. Any place where you can’t perform household chores, take work calls or succumb to the lie that you have something better to do. Increasingly, airplane Wi-Fi and improved cellphone network coverage threaten to ruin the train/plane sanctuary, but for now at least the Wi-Fi can be ‘down’ or the carriage ‘too noisy’ to do anything other than plug in your headphones and open a book.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Tom Ripley from any of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series. I'd love to see how Ripley would use the elevator time, how he might try to turn it to his advantage, how he might try to take advantage of me. If we were stuck there long enough, perhaps I'd even see a glimpse of who he really is behind the mask.
Author Interview - Matt Plass | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
There was no moment, writing is something I've always done, always felt compelled to do. But it was only when I joined Jonathan Santlofer's excellent Crime Fiction Academy class at the New York Center for Fiction that I first thought I might be able to publish a novel. That was in 2016--it's been a long road!
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
If, like me, you have bad book habits... If you read in the bath, if you fold corners, or—worse—scribble in margins, then physical books are the only workable format. Hardback books feel great in the hand, but I prefer a paperback that can be carried inside a coat, stuffed into an already full bag, or bent around a buttock in the pocket of a pair of jeans. And of course, what could be more beautiful than a wall of book spines—the colors and sizes never seem to jar or look out of place on the shelf, however different they might be.
I struggle with audio books—my mind wanders, I lose track—but that might change when I hear Sanya Simmons and Nathaniel Priestley’s recording for the new Vibrance Audio Book version of The Ten Worst People in New York. I can’t wait.
The last book I read:
The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris takes an old trope—the hard-drinking cop—and gives it a fresh new spin. Detective Nick Belsey skids along the wet pavements of London’s darker hinterlands with a gleeful sense of his own imminent downfall. Well worth a read.
Author Interview - Matt Plass | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
Notebook for ideas, PC for writing. I also use index cards to map plot points, moving scenes around on a table top to form different Tarot readings of what might be. I’m an early-bird, and I start writing at five a.m. hoping to give the best of my brain to my writing. Evenings are for editing, deleting, weeping, vowing to start over in the morning.
Oh, and I print and read aloud. What flows on the page often sticks and stumbles as spoken word. Many kinks can be ironed out of your prose if you read the stuff to your cat and listen carefully to how it sounds.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
A night out with John Self from Martin Amis’ Money and Maureen Coughlin from Bill Loehfelm’s The Devil She Knows would surely lead to nowhere good. I’m confident that between them they could lead me suitably astray.
Author Interview - Matt Plass | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
There is an unrealized version of me who makes Arts and Crafts furniture in the Morris/Stickley style. In truth, I doubt I have the patience to be a master cabinet maker, but I know I could be happy surrounded by wood and glue and clamps, guiding a razor-sharp plane along a shapely table leg.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
For one night, I would like to be dressed by Jeeves—Bertie Wooster’s Gentleman’s Gentleman—for a party at the great Jay Gatsby’s house. I’m not sure what I would wear, that’s Jeeves’ job, but it might involve a silver shirt and golden tie.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Tehran, Damascus, parts of Algeria... any of the beautiful, historical, cultural marvels that I and many others may never have the chance to visit because human beings don’t seem to be able to exist with one another, or share our abundant resources, without creating ridiculous reasons to fight and blow things up and kill.
My signature drink:
Single malt whiskey, neat. Japanese or Scotch. If you’re buying, I’ll have a 12-year-old Yamazaki. Cheers!
Favorite artist:
Ken Hiratsuka cuts channels in rock with a chisel and a lump hammer. We have a small piece at home—a single endless line like a carved maze—and if I had to save one thing from a fire, it would be that block of carved stone. Ken came to the US from Japan in 1982 and began carving shapes in New York sidewalks. Many of them are still there today. Kenrock.com for anyone who’s interested.
Number one on my bucket list:
I don’t believe in bucket lists. I’d rather see where life takes me, travel where and when I can, work hard, drift a little, pick goals and go for them with everything I have. I’ve found that approach generates enough experiences to keep me feeling alive.
Anything else you'd like to add:
There are many books that claim to help you be a better writer. I’ve read several of them, and who knows what effect they had—for better or worse. One I found truly valuable, for its unusual mix of easygoing style and tough love, is Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider This. So, if you’re a writer, consider that.
Find more from the author:
About Matt Plass:
Author Interview - Matt Plass
Born in England, Matt Plass made a successful career first in education and then in business, traveling extensively across the world, and living for several years in Azerbaijan, Istanbul, and New York. Matt now resides in the UK, where he has a farmhouse on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, and a study overlooking the 600 trees he planted during the Covid pandemic. He regularly returns to America and considers New York a second home.
