What is Chris Marie Green reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Chris Marie Green, author of Only the Good Die Young.

Her entry begins:

It seems I went through a bit of a dark time lately.

I went on a Gillian Flynn jag. I had read Gone Girl last year and loved Flynn’s wordsmithing abilities. She knows how to use details to paint a picture, and she often turns everyday things into something else entirely. She also has the guts to give us characters we won’t necessarily like as people—even the main characters! Since I do write a series that involves darkness and murder (Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire), I’m always looking for an author who can nail the atmosphere of a crime novel, and Flynn never disappoints.

Having said that, I bought the audio version of Dark Places, which is about a woman whose family was slaughtered when she was a girl. She identified her brother as the culprit, but when she gets involved with a hobbyist “murder club” that likes to review details of crimes, she realizes that maybe big brother wasn’t so guilty. If I’d been holding an actual book, I would call this a page-turner, but...[read on]

About Only the Good Die Young, from the publisher:

You know the theory that ghosts are energy trapped when someone dies violently? It’s true. I know it for a fact...

My name is Jensen Murphy, and thirty years ago I was just an ordinary California girl. I had friends, family, a guy who might be The One. Ordinary—until I became a statistic, one of the unsolved murders of the year. Afterwards, I didn’t go anywhere in pursuit of any bright light—I stayed under the oak tree where my body was found, and relived my death, over an over. So when a psychic named Amanda Lee Minter pulled me out of that loop into the real world, I was very grateful.

So I’m now a ghost-at-large—rescued by Amanda (I found out) to be a supernatural snoop. I’m helping her uncover a killer (not mine—she promises me we’ll get to that) which should be easy for a spirit. Except that I’ve found out that even ghosts have enemies, human—and otherwise…

Visit Chris Marie Green's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Chris Marie Green.

--Marshal Zeringue