Crime Files Q&A with Tom Callaghan

If you were stranded on a desert island and could take one crime
novel, one DVD boxset and one character from a crime novel,
who/what would you take?
The Big Sleep, The Wire, Charlie Parker from the John Connolly books.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party and what would
be on the menu?
Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, James Lee Burke, Stephen King, Basil
Bunting, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis. We'd eat Cantonese, steak,
vegetarian, Classic Italian, rural French, and lots to drink. But the real
answer is a mix of Thai and Vietnamese dishes with my wife Sara and my
son Akyl.
Are you a hero or a villain?
Id probably be the observer who avoids getting involved, a minor
character whose name appears halfway down the credits.
What is your favourite line from a film/TV series/book? What
crime novel do you wish you had written?
I have seen things you people wouldn't believe Attack ships on fire off
the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the
Tannhuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in
rain. Time to die
Bladerunner
I would love to have written The Big Sleep.
If your book was being made into a film, who would you want to
play the lead character?
Ideally, a Kyrgyz actor should play the part of Akyl Borubaev, which
would be the opportunity of a lifetime. But if the film were set
somewhere else, then you'd want a tough guy who's also compassionate.
Daniel Craig? Where are Bogart and Mitchum when you need them?
Whats the scariest place youve visited?
Peru, in the middle of a civil war.
Rochdale town centre, on a Saturday night.
You are master of cluedo and have any name, weapon and room at
your disposal, whodunit and what happened?

As Im the master, Im taking the game out of Tudor Hall, and placing it
in the Kulturny bar in Bishkek. All the rooms have dead gangsters in
them, shot, stabbed or poisoned. Whodunit? Its up to Murder Squad
Inspector Akyl Borubaev to find out