Interview: David Downie, author of Paris City of Night

Author David Downie is a native San Franciscan, but for the last 25 years has divided his time between Italy and France. His travel, food, and arts features have appeared in more than fifty magazines and newspapers worldwide. He has been a contributing editor, European arts editor, or Paris correspondent for half a dozen publications. His latest book is the spy thriller, Paris City of Night.

For more information about David Downie, please visit his website.

Thanks for this interview. When did you decide you wanted to become an author?

It’s unclear to me whether I ever made the conscious decision to become an author. I started writing when in my teens. My first attempts were not autobiographical. I was interested in other people, in situations, in conversation and the way we communicate with each other. I only began making my living as a writer in my late 20s.

Do you have another job besides writing?

No, no other job: for the last 20-some years I’ve earned a living by writing.

Were you an avid reader as a child? What type of books did you enjoy reading?

Childhood memories are notoriously unreliable, and I don’t pretend to remember details regarding my early passion for words. I read widely when young, but I did not read “children’s books,” other than Pinocchio and the Jungle Book. I read dictionaries and encyclopedias. I read Twain, O’Henry, Stevenson and Dickens, but also Poe and Melville. I was lucky enough to be brought up in a household of readers. We had thousands of books in our living room. When I wasn’t out playing baseball in the street, I read and read.

Tell us a bit about your latest book, and what inspired you to write such a story.

Paris City of Night is a novel of suspense, set in contemporary Paris. It merges the glamorous City of Light — the city’s nickname — with a dark, sinister city of night, with emphasis on the “n.” Many neighborhoods will be familiar to readers, but most will not, unless they’ve strayed into Belleville in the 20th arrondissement, or the Canal Saint-Martin district in the 10th and 11th arrondissements. The book’s hero is an expert in vintage photography and daguerreotypes; the daguerreotype plates are key to unlocking a code. The CIA and other agencies (American and French) want the plates to try to stop a terrorist attack. The people funding the terrorists want the plates for the opposite reason. It’s a complex story peopled by anti-heroes, with a several false leads that keep readers guessing. Paris City of Night is plot-driven, but the characters are fully formed: they eat, drink, sleep, get mad, swear, and do things they would not normally do in life if they hadn’t found themselves in a crisis. Violence is for the most part suggested and not enacted — Paris City of Night is not a blood-and-guts thriller. It’s a fast-paced psychological, political thriller in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, whose TV programs and movies I watched over and over when growing up.

Article Author: Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvani writes fiction and nonfiction for children, teens and adults. She also offers online workshops on the art of reviewing and picture book writing at SavvyAuthors.com.

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