Interview with Liz Mistry, Author of Unbound Ties

What can you tell us about your new release, Unbound Ties?

Unbound Ties was written during lockdown and is about a serial killer who targets pregnant women. However, this serial killer has links to my main detective (DI Gus McGuire’s) family and so the story takes us back into Gus’s mum’s past as a black girl growing up in foster care in a mono-cultural Scotland. It also looks at injustice and how family secrets can have serious repercussions.

What books are currently on your nightstand?

My TBR (To Be Read) pile is a mile high. But, I’m currently reading an early copy of Jeffrey Deaver’s The Goodbye Man which will be followed by Ayesha Malik’s This Green and Pleasant Land and then Noelle Holten’s Dead Perfect – after that, I’m not sure.

What advice would you give your teenage self?

Not to wait till I’m in my fifties to go after my dream of being a published author!

If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?

Probably reading… or writing … or going for a walk … or eating ice cream … or having a bubble bath … or catching up on sleep … or swimming … or drinking coffee on my decking …

What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy?

My family really do make my world go round. I have periods of severe and debilitating depression and anxiety and my family are the ones who help bring me out of these slumps. They are endlessly supportive, humorous, patient and always light up my world – even in my darkest moments.

What scene in Unbound Ties was your favorite to write?

In Unbound Ties I had a few scenes I was particularly happy to write. The ones with Compo (the lovable computer nerd) and Professor Sebastian Carlton (the eccentric profiler) are always a joy to write. I write about dark things and these scenes inject a humour and warmth into the novels which gives both me (and the reader) a respite from the bad things that are going on. I think the inspiration for this dark humour has to come from Stuart MacBride, a Scottish author whom I greatly admire, who has a wonderful way of making you laugh out loud amidst his very dark crime thriller books. Another author who does that is JD Kirk.