Why did you decide to write crime novels?

At first, I didn’t. My first novel was an epic adventure story set in thirteenth century Spain. I wrote it for my nephew when he was a child. Years later I dusted it off, re-edited and self-published it. The book, ‘Reconquista’, was long listed for the Children’s Book of the Year award 2016. It didn’t win, but it did get the attention of a publisher, who suggested that I write something more commercially viable – crime stories for adults. Crime was then, as it still is, the best-selling of all genres of fiction. Many of the aspects of my historical adventure fiction translated across to crime fiction – tension, intrigue, jeopardy and so on, and I had loved mystery stories since childhood, so I agreed. Thus, ‘Plague’ my first crime novel was begun. A contemporary thriller, but with a lot of history attached. It had the misfortune to be published during the height of the COVID pandemic, when bookshops were closed, although it did get some extra publicity because of the title. It was the first of a trilogy of books set in Whitehall. The third of them ‘Opera’ was listed for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2023.

And why, now, historical crime novels? What prompted you to choose the period that you’re setting your books in?

Writing historical fiction was my first love (see above) and I wanted to do something different after my three Cassandra Fortune novels were concluded. It was 2021 and I didn’t want to write about COVID, directly, which would have been inevitable if I’d set my book in the early 2020s (to have omitted it would have been too far from reality). Setting my next book in the past might allow me to write about the post-pandemic period, but indirectly. I lit upon the years immediately after the second world war because of the parallels with the present day – then too there was an outpouring of joy after a global conflagration/disaster, followed by austerity and economic downturn. The difference was that, despite Britain being bankrupt at the time, the groundwork for the Welfare State was laid, the state I grew up in and benefitted from. Once I started reading about that time I got really hooked and I found even more parallels. It was a time of great optimism as well as an austere one.

Aside from being historical, what category would you ascribe your crime books to?

I think categorisation is distorting, so I try to avoid it, although I recognise that we’re stuck with it, it’s the way the industry works, how publishers choose and then market their books. I would like to think that I write good stories, wherever and whenever they are set. That said, using the current categories of crime fiction, I would say my Clapham trilogy tales are historical mystery thrillers. They aren’t quite ‘cosy’, but they aren’t ‘police procedural’ either. They could, I believe, stand as historical fiction as well as historical crime fiction (many readers say so).

What is your approach to researching your novels? Has the process changed over the years?

I begin by reading around the subject and this then becomes a honing down process. For the Clapham-set books I read a lot of general histories of the time and then, when I had found the hospital – the South London Hospital for Women and Children – as a setting, I focused on the creation of the NHS and what preceded it. Necessary reading around clothing, food and daily practicalities followed, including rationing, which continued for long after the war (indeed some items were rationed post war which had never been rationed during it). I also researched the rise of the London gangs.

The process hasn’t changed over the years, but my focus gets sharper more quickly. Otherwise I run the risk of disappearing down the rabbit hole of research for researching’s sake, because I find it all so interesting! By the way, if you want to know more about the South London Hospital for Women and Children, a unique institution, see my article at xxxx aspectsofcrime.A Responsibility to the Past.

What crime books are most influential on your writing?

Books, in general, influence my writing, fiction, poetry and non-fiction. In terms of prose, I admire the exquisitely elaborate, like that of Michael Ondaatje, but also the spare and beautiful prose of E.Annie Proulx. I strive for the simplicity and perfection of Hemingway and the stylishness of Chandler (chance would be a fine thing). We’re all searching for that perfectly turned phrase, as Hilary Mantel almost said. The one writer I return to repeatedly for inspiration is T.S.Eliot.

I read crime books voraciously, it’s necessary, as well as a pleasure, to see what one’s contemporaries are doing. Crime fiction is having a golden age right now, in my humble opinion, addressing serious issues and questions. Trevor Wood’s homeless detective and now his policeman suffering from early onset dementia. We have deaf, blind and neurodivergent investigators. Speculative crime thrillers like Eve Smith’s, addressing climate change and medical advances. Racism, misogyny and culture wars, plus the incredible impact all this has on children can all be found between the covers of crime novels. It’s terrific.

What advice would you give to someone starting out as a crime writer?

Persevere. I would say that to any aspiring writer. Luck lays such a part in success and just because you can’t get an agent/publisher/contract doesn’t necessarily mean what you’re writing is bad. It simply means that the agent/publisher in question doesn’t have room for it right at that moment. That said, learn from your rejections, if you can, look at what the market wants, how you can sell your book.

Don’t only aim for the big publishing houses, though that would be the way to make most money, but there is some excellent fiction coming out of small indies and submitting to some of these might help you develop, even if rejected. Or will help you improve if you get picked up.

Can you tell us a little bit about the project you are currently working on?

I’m currently writing book three in the Clapham Trilogy scheduled for publication in Spring 2026, entitled Festival Days. It’s set in 1951, so I have files and files on subjects like the politics of the time, Britain’s retreat from empire, the Festival of Britain, for which the book is named, the black market and (of course) organised crime in London at that time. The book is darker than the first two in many ways, dealing with some of the most callous and unfeeling of crimes, which themselves have parallels with today. At the same time it’s also optimistic, as London enjoys the opening of the Festival and begins to see the benefits of the new institutions, like the NHS.