Interview with Margie Orford on the “Unputdownable” Like Clockwork

October 19th, 2009 by Claire

Just in time to mark the release of new editions of Margie Orford’s first two Clare Hart thrillers - plus the launch of the third book, the prequel Daddy’s Girl - Moira Richards interviews the author on Orford’s life of crime, with specific reference to the first novel in the series, Like Clockwork:

Moira: Hi Margie - I spent an entire Saturday reading ‘Like Clockwork’, and found it an unputdownable and thoroughly enjoyable whodunnit. The novel received similar reviews in the South African press, but I think too, that there is a lot more to it than the fast-paced serial-crime story.
I felt while reading this novel, a sense of … pollutedness encroaching on me. Perhaps this was because I am a woman, I don’t know. I noticed too, that your protagonist, the police profiler Clare Hart, was narrated many, many times taking a shower.
MO: I am glad that you the book kept you out of trouble for a whole Saturday. I often feel tainted, corrupted by how violent our society is - and yes this is a way of cleansing. I always have thought of rape victims who are told not to shower or wash after an assault. Their skin must crawl with the traces of their attacker.
Clare’s apartment too is a haven, almost a cloister. So washing is a way of cleansing. It is also a way, I think, of keeping herself separate. It is not always easy to keep a perspective - because rape (and murder, obviously) completely negates the humanity of the other person (the victim) it is hard to be surrounded by so many raped women and not feel that de-humanisation happening to you by association.