Jassy Mackenzie Launches Worst Case at The Book Lounge

The Book Lounge launch of Jassy Mackenzie‘s fourth novel, Worst Case, was a thrilling event which saw an exchange of sparkling dialogue between the author and fellow crime-writer, Mike Nicol.

Nicol began by asking Mackenzie when the main characters, Jade de Jong and David Patel, had first come to her.

In response, Mackenzie spoke about her first novel, Random Violence: “When I started writing Random Violence,” she said, “I wanted to find a niche that hadn’t been done before. Female leads in crime fiction are slightly more rare than males. What I found missing in the line up of female heroines was the renegade, the equal of Jack Reacher, in terms of toughness and independence, not necessarily adhering to the law. Most female leads tend to have set occupations, police officers or lawyers, with good nine to five jobs, even if these lead them into difficulties at times. I wanted a heroine who as likely to go against the law as to do right by the law.”

“With Jade’s father as a cop, wouldn’t that push her in one direction?” asked Nicol.

“I wanted to create a reason for her to turn her back on everything her father stood for,” Mackenzie replied. “Firstly, I got her father murdered in a horrible way. So of course, Jade had to avenge his death. I also introduced some history with a mother she never knew so that genetically she gets something in the mix she never could have anticipated.”

In Mackenzie’s view there are times when every woman wishes she could stand up and “bliksem” somebody. “I wanted to create a character that allowed that side of me, and that side of readers, to be expressed. Jade is a woman who will get her own way, whether through deviousness or physical battle in order to make something happen. In doing that I managed to express a lot of my own inner frustration at being obliged because you’re physically weaker and because society expects that you won’t smash somebody’s face that deserves it!”

The research into the killing distance of the gun Jade uses – a Glock 19 – in a discussion with a (friendly) ex-boyfriend with firearm expertise had the audience amused. No thanks to Vodacom, the call Mackenzie had made to “Stefano” to enquire whether one shot would reliably kill her fictional victim was dropped midway. When his phone rang again, he continued the conversation where they’d left off, saying, “You could definitely kill with one shot but you must make sure the person isn’t more than four or five metres away…” at which point the person who’d made the call said, “Hellooooo?” It wasn’t in fact Jassy that had called back.

The rest of the evening was spent hearing similarly engaging tales – including those of Mackenzie travels to the UK to learn about the workings of Scotland Yard. A question and answer session with the audience rounded off the evening and the author signed copies for eager fans.

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Liesl Jobson livetweeted from the launch using #livebooks:

• Follow Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) on Twitter for more

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Book details

• Worst Case by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415201534
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