Krysten Ritter on writing psychological thrillers, “bad” characters

Krysten Ritter remembers when the idea for her new book came to her. She was on vacation with a good friend in a seaside resort in Mexico about 13 years ago, enjoying a “time of me” for a long time, when a man on a bicycle approached her. He was looking for his partner, who had rented a bike earlier during the day. She was gone. Disappeared. The man gave Ritter and his friend a physical description: did they see someone who corresponded to the profile?

“I thought:” Oh, my god, this guy plants an alibi, “said Ritter of his house in Los Angeles. “As if it is a type that happens; this guy could have murdered his partner, a story develops.” Ritter continued his vacation but mentally deposited the incident in his “big file” of ideas on his return. Back in Los Angeles, life continued as usual. Ritter has resumed his day job as an actor, playing his biggest role to date: the ex-superhero holder of the Marvel series “Jessica Jones”.

Ritter finally assembled to write a novel, based on an entirely different idea: the 2017 psychological thriller “Fire”. Six years later, Ritter's muse finally hung on to this F on a concept and it is now a full thriller “Hall of Distact Mirrors” called “Retreat”. The romance of Ritter of the novel is a young woman with a troubled past and visions of wealth in mode that are trapped in an elaborate scam which remembers David Mamet with his most. Ritter's novel, which she co-written with Lindsay Jamieson, is a bad intelligent orientation and a winding lap, because identities dissolve and mutate, and the big score is an elusive mirage.

Ritter first wrote as an ambitious young actor trying to generate history ideas for herself. She sold a scenario 20 years ago and had played with the idea of ​​writing fiction for a certain number of years before the idea of ​​her first novel came to her. “I am ingenious, I am a Go-Star,” explains Ritter. “When something forces me, whether it is a new actor role or an idea for a book or a script, I dive. I am not afraid to hear no, and I hear it all the time.”

As a fan of police fiction, Ritter has a sweet tooth for the unresolved and apparently insoluble mystery, perpetrated by a criminal who is also a kind of change of form. Liz Dawson, “Retreat's” Crafty con artist, changes his identity to stay ahead of his misdeeds like a wolf covering his tracks. The player is only played when Dawson is challenged by an even more sneaky thread than she. Dawson, whose background frame in difficulty is a source of shame, is in a way the “Breaking Bad” version of Jessica Jones – a crossroads in search of answers on her traumatic past.

“Not everyone comes from perfect places,” says Ritter. “I find myself attracted by dynamic characters with many layers to take off with delicious and multifaceted characters – unpredictable, a little bad, a little injured.”

The “fire of joy” came relatively quickly; “Retreat” was a more difficult business. “I had taken a little break in writing since” foodfire “came out because I was not constantly filming,” she said. She also started a family with her partner, the leader of the war against drugs, Adam Granduciel. “It took a long time to make” retirement “crack, and I was a little stuck.”

She had written “70, perhaps 100” pages when her agent presented her Jamieson, who immediately kicked the story of Ritter and offered suggestions on her pages. A vigorous back and forth between the writers started seriously. “It was exhilarating and energetic,” explains Ritter of collaboration with Jamieson. “In all areas of entertainment, you never work in isolation,” she says. “Collaboration is therefore second nature for me.

Jamieson worked quickly and the plot mechanisms began to be pleasant. “Lindsay raised the project so much – she had great ideas and helped enlarge it and better that I could not have done it by myself. She is also so fast and intelligent, and our tastes really clicked.”

Ritter considers himself his own ideal audience for his book. “Reading for work is something I do daily, but I love it when I can read for fun,” she says. “I have a bunch of thrillers on my bedside table right now. I try to cross them before working again on my life. ”

Although there are plans in progress for a possible television or cinematic adaptation of “Retreat”, Ritter is content to let his novel speak of himself. “Psychological thrillers are total candies for me, and I will devour a good one. I write in this genre because that's what my taste is as a consumer. I live for a popcorn thriller that you cannot deposit.”