In Nicola Solvinic’s debut novel The Hunter’s Daughter, the author flips the modern thriller on its head by following a well-to-do cop who is secretly the daughter of a serial killer. When a copycat killer starts making their presence known, the daughter begins to question everything she knew about her life while tracking down her suspect.
We caught up with the author via email to ask her our recurring A Life of Books questionnaire so readers can get to know her better as well as get some book recommendations.
Is there a book or series that, when you think back, helped define your childhood?
When I was a little girl, I devoured Nancy Drew mysteries. My mom gave me a copy of The Hidden Staircase, and I was instantly hooked. I read every one of those yellow-spined books in my library and developed a nice collection of my favorites.
Those books really inspired a love of mysteries. It was the first time I’d read about a female detective collecting clues and catching the criminal.
Would you want any children in your life (yours or relatives’) to read those too? Or, what’s your philosophy on what children read?
I would love for the kids I know to read them! I think it’s important to have books that are also puzzles to expand curiosity, to be in dialogue with a book in that way. I like to be surprised by a book’s ending, and I think that kids are very much the same.
I was given free reign to roam the library when I was a kid. If I had kids of my own, I would definitely have given them the same freedom.
I discovered some of my favorite writers in high school. What writers did you discover then? Either ones that were assigned for class or ones you found on your own.
I had an English teacher who taught poetry, and through her, I discovered Adrienne Rich. Her poem, “Orion,” is still my all-time favorite. Every time I look up at Orion in the night sky, her words ring in my head. The poem means something different to me at every life stage I read it in, so it’s always current for me.
We also read Dracula, which was a lot of fun. I think that we all had gotten very accustomed to modern visions of Stoker’s monster, but it was really revelatory to get into his roots and see who Dracula was before filmmakers interpreted him for the screen.
Are there any books that you read while writing your debut that helped shape the direction you took your own book?
I read Karen Dionne’s Wicked Sister. She has such an amazing sense of place, and her work inspired me to use landscape as a character in The Hunter’s Daughter.
The landscape I knew from childhood was rural Ohio, and I wanted that background to ring true and feel believable as I developed the more fantastical elements of my book.
In Wicked Sister, I also loved Rachel’s sense of imposed isolation, how a crime can put a wall between people close to and far removed from the event. I think this is very much true in real life, and it’s one of the themes I explored in my own book.
What is a book you’ve read that you thought, Damn, I wish that was mine?
Definitely Madeline Miller’s Circe. It’s a gorgeous book that totally draws the reader in to the life of a significant figure in mythology. The myths we have left over from ancient times are pretty sparse in terms of what the subjects felt and thought, which leaves a lot of room to interpret and experiment. I loved seeing Circe’s story come to life in this way, and it really showed me that we are each the hero of our own story.
What have you been reading lately that you can recommend to Debutiful readers?
I’m reading Lauren Nossett’s The Professor. I’m loving the twisty turns and the dark academic feeling! And I always love it when I can’t guess who the culprit is!
And, finally, I have to ask… I’m sorry. What’s next? But wait! Only use three words.
More murder books!