Kat Davis, author of In a Dark Mirror – debut

In her brilliant crime novel debut, Kat Davis takes our obsession with solving old crimes and uses it to create a gripping psychological thriller. In a dark mirror mixes dark crime and a touch of horror to create an unforgettable book.

We asked the author to answer our recurring “A Life of Books” questionnaire so readers could get to know her a little better and get book recommendations for their must-read pile.

When you think back, is there a book or series that shaped your childhood?

When I was nine or ten, I borrowed a book from the library by Lois Lowry called Autumn Street. I think I chose it because I knew the author, but it’s not one of her better known books. It’s told from the point of view of a girl whose father is fighting in World War II. It has a devastating ending where something terrible happens to a child, and I think it really shocked me to find something like that in a children’s book. I was used to books that always had a happy ending, even if it felt wrong. I don’t know if I’d say it shaped my childhood, but I remember it as a book that changed my understanding of what novels can do.

Would you like the children in your life (your own or those of your relatives) to read these books too? Or what is your philosophy regarding children’s reading?

My daughter is seven, and I probably wouldn’t read this book to her yet, but I’m pretty liberal with the books I read to her. For example, we’ve read a few books that only touch on the Holocaust, including Lowry’s Number the stars. I expect that I prefer reading certain things with her and having the opportunity to articulate and discuss the difficult parts. I think it will be different when she starts reading these kinds of chapter books on her own. I hope that she will feel that if she reads something she finds upsetting, she can come to me and we can talk about it.

I discovered some of my favorite authors in high school. Which authors did you discover then? Either ones that were assigned in class or ones that you discovered on your own.

My parents had a bookshelf where they kept a lot of books they read in college, and I basically worked my way through the whole thing, and so I ended up reading a lot of Faulkner and Woolf. That’s also how I got into Dostoyevsky and Chekhov, which led to me majoring in Russian in college. While I was reading these big, impressive books, though, I was still sneaking other things in. My mom was a school librarian, and she suggested I read the first part. Harry Potter book, long before they were so popular. I remember her telling me that the second one was already in print in the UK, but we would have to wait because it hadn’t come out in the US yet

Are there any books you read while writing your debut that influenced the direction of your own book?

When I started In a dark mirrorI thought it was horror. I watched Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House And We always lived in the castleI read Victor LaValle’s The Changeling and Sarah Waters The Little Stranger. I also looked at some short stories by Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enriquez. Looking back, I think I should have read more crime novels. I remember recently reading Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and Revenge is my by Marie NDiaye, both of which are essentially crime novels, albeit very consciously “literary”, and I felt a real kinship with them and I thought I should have read more books like thisbut I guess we don’t always know what we’re working on when we start a project.

What book have you read that made you think, “Damn, I wish that was mine”?

I know I just mentioned it, but I had this feeling when reading Melchor’s Hurricane Season. I could never really write a novel like this one (it draws heavily on her knowledge of the drug trade in Veracruz!), but I think I’ve also always admired that dense, modernist, stream-of-consciousness prose style. I’ve read it in a wonderful translation by Sophie Hughes, but Melchor definitely cites Faulkner as an influence. In contrast, one of my writing teachers once said that reading my writing was like drinking a glass of water. She didn’t mean that in a bad way, but it’s very true. I seem to be at my best when I write simply, avoiding all unnecessary words. But maybe that’s why I admire writers with a more maximalist style so much, because I know I can’t do that.

What have you read recently that you would recommend to Debutiful readers?

For similar moods as In a dark mirrorI would recommend rabbit hole by Kate Brody. It also deals with the intersection between crime and internet obsession. Jess Loureys Unspeakable things is a mystery with a children’s storyteller and is very dark. I just bought Mariana Enriquez’s Our share of the nightwhich I would like to delve deeper into.

And finally, I have to ask… Excuse me. What’s next? But wait! Use only three words.

Another dark novel