The Talented Ms. Cooper

Natasha Cooper’s latest Trish Maguire legal thriller, A Poisoned Mind, was reissued not long ago in paperback in Britain (and is still available in the States from St. Martin’s Minotaur). January Magazine contributing editor (and Rap Sheet correspondent) Ali Karim took the occasion as his excuse to ask the author and former editor some questions about her professional background, her early days writing historical romances, her interest in today’s economic uncertainties, and what it is she finds so fascinating about the complex world of laws and lawsuits.

One of my favorite parts of their exchange comes when Karim inquires of his subject, “Who inspired you to read, and ultimately to write?” Cooper answers:

Unlike the rest of my family, I had a bit of a problem with reading and now know that I’m dyslexic, although when I was 5 and should have been learning to read, no one ever talked about dyslexia. In those days you were just classed as “thick.” But eventually my mother realized what was happening and taught me herself. Oddly, given my late start, I had always thought of myself as a writer. My novelist grandmother encouraged me, though always adding practical caveats about contracts and advances. She herself had given up writing when her agent embezzled his authors’ royalties. He died in prison.

The full interview can be found here.