My Misspent Youth

This is a series of short reminiscences from crime writers based around a memento from their childhood – a favourite novel, photograph, poster, toy, baseball card and so on – that is connected to their writing life.  Our featured writers will be talking about the memories associated with their memento, about how they first came to be a writer and about their current projects.

Ayo Onatade talks about how her youthful fling with The Mysterious Affair at Styles propelled her towards a life of crime.

Charlie Stella on a 1960 mob movie he became enamoured with and that would serve as an epiphany much later in life.

Patti Abbott’s true confessions about her misspent adolescence.

Lynn Kostoff’s lyrical micro-memoir moves from memories of the treehouse his father built him in ’62 to his writing life in the present.