Can you tell us about the character and series that you are currently working on?
The central character in The Queen’s Intelligencer series is Robert Poley, who started out playing second fiddle to Elizabethan ‘detective’ Tom Musgrave in my Master of Defence Elizabethan murder-mystery series. Poley was a real spy and equivocator, most famously involved in the murder of Richard Creagh, the Archbishop of Armagh in the Tower of London by poisoning his cheese (1586), the unmasking of the Babington Plot (also 1586) and the murder of Christopher Marlowe (30 May, 1593). I have had to change Poley from the historical paradigm revealed in such books as Charles Nicholls’ ground-breaking The Reckoning. In real life he seems to have been a ruthless, self-serving rogue and petty criminal happy to stab anyone in the back – and employed by Walsingham, Burghley and Robert Cecil so to do.
What fascinates you about criminal activity during your historical period?
The late Tudor/early Stuart period is a historical era that is bursting with criminality and intrigue. England was effectively at war with a Europe that was itself riven with political and religious conflict. It is the war between Catholicism and youthful Protestantism that catches the attention – and England, of course, proved to be a seething melting-pot, bursting with adherents to both beliefs, who were willing to go to any lengths. Stephanie Merritt (bestselling novelist S J Parris) gave a telling insight into the situation in a talk I saw recently. She likened the young Catholic insurgents in England – especially those involved in plots to free the Queen of Scots like Anthony Babington and John Savage – to modern-day jihadists. After all, in Regnans in Excelsis, Pope Pius V effectively declared a fatwa on Queen Elizabeth. So then, as now, the ardent (usually youthful) faithful saw attempting to kill her as a sure way to Paradise, whether or not they died in the attempt (as so many of them did). On the other hand, Elizabeth and her Council worked hard to stay within the law – thus all of the carefully-recorded confessions, and the properly conducted trials (to the mores of the times). The idea that any Queen outside Alice in Wonderland could just say ‘Off with her head’ is fiction of another kind.
If you had to mention one crime novelist who has inspired you, who would it be?
Out of a vast and crowded field, my current favourite is Lee Child, closely followed by Mick Herron. The 110th Specials giving the Slow Horses a run for their money. Of course my Kindle is stuffed full of Chandler, Hammett, Fleming, Gardner, Sayers, Heyer, Christie, Cussler, Conan-Doyle and so-forth but it’s Child and Herron I buy without a second thought and read with a mixture of enjoyment and awe.
What is, in your opinion, the most challenging aspect of writing crime fiction? And what do you most enjoy about the process?
The most challenging aspect is the denouement. Of course everything else is important from characters to setting, style to narrative pace but especially in crime novels, the denouement must be convincing, satisfying, and ideally surprising. When I’m writing murder mysteries I always ask my wife (who is my editrix) near the end if she knows who did it. If she does, I go back and change everything. I am also a believer in ‘explanation on the run’ – no sitting down while little grey cells get exercised. I prefer the Holmes approach ‘It was a great luminous dog. The Vicar used it as a murder weapon. I’ll explain it all while we try and stop it happening again. You have brought your trusty service revolver, I hope, Watson…’
Are you working on a project at the moment?
I am working on the last two of The Queen’s Intelligencer books – Shadow of a Queen (first draft just finished) about Anthony Babington and Mary Queen of Scots’ downfall (which leans heavily in Elizabethan Common and Statute Law towards the end) and Shadow of a Spy which will look at how Poley became involved in the death of Christopher Marlowe. Another fine example of the use (and misuse) of the late Tudor legal system.
What advice would you give to anyone interested in writing Procedurals, mysteries or thrillers? This really is a case of the classic advice ‘write what you know’. There is no use setting out to write crime narratives with a modern police background unless you know what you are writing about. It is notable that many ‘classic’ crime novels get round this by introducing ‘consulting’ detectives or characters who operate on the edges of police investigations (Holmes, Wimsey, Poirot et al; but then there are the idiosyncratic detectives – Alleyn, Dalgleish, Morse who largely take the focus away from day-to-day policing) Then the reader’s attention is captured by the characters and the puzzles rather than the procedure. This is also true of the traditionally American Private Eye and the growing number of other backgrounds from which PIs now come. And, right on the edge, are the spies; detailed knowledge of how the various espionage agencies work often takes second place (leaving the Le Carre school aside) to the to the romance, sex and violence. More recently too, the resurgence of Historical fiction has allowed thriller- and crime-writers to produce mysteries that are not hampered by reliance on knowledge of due process; Lindsey Davis is the perfect example of this. So, given that, pick your time, your man (or woman – I hear you Vera) and place – and the world’s your oyster.