A South-West Setting:
No place like home (and no better place to set a crime novel)

Diane Jeffrey

I’m the author of eight psychological thrillers, and one of the questions I’m asked most frequently by readers is why I set the majority of my books in North Devon. My short answer is that the area abounds with places to hide a body: the moors, the woods, the Atlantic Ocean, reservoirs, caves … Furthermore, the UK might be one of the most surveilled countries in the world, but there are massive zones with no CCTV in North Devon and it also has notoriously sketchy internet and phone coverage. So, it really is an ideal place to commit a crime (I imagine) and, consequently, to set a crime novel.

But there are actually many reasons why I choose North Devon as my setting. The first piece of advice given to any budding author is: write what you know. And while I don’t take this tip too literally (if I did, my books would be rather boring), I hope that grounding my books in a place I know well helps to make them feel authentic. I grew up in North Devon and I think the area lends itself perfectly to the small-town, tight-knit-community vibe which I like to convey, especially when a shocking event has occurred in one of my novels. Finally, I actually live in France and have done for pretty much all my adult life. So, while I can use Google Maps and Safari to help me out, I can’t easily head off for a field trip, so I really do need to set my books somewhere I know intimately.

Because I live in France, writing for me is a great way of keeping in touch with my roots. I keep up to date with the news, partly because the news often inspires me with “novel” ideas; I read eclectically, but almost exclusively in English; I feel less homesick and more connected with my country of origin as well as with my mother tongue thanks to my novels. Writing also gives me a great excuse to come “home”, which I still think of as North Devon and the UK, to do “bookish” things and meet up with author friends and old schoolmates. This is probably the main reason for my setting of choice.

A recurrent theme in my novels is feeling displaced and there is undoubtedly an autobiographical element to this as I often feel quite homesick, even after thirty-odd years of living the other side of the Channel. I sometimes have dual locations in my novels and I like to catapult my main character into a place where she feels she doesn’t belong so that she is torn by the pull of home. For example, in my sixth novel, The Other Couple, there are two main female characters: Kirsten, who spends a weekend with her lover in North Devon, but who hates getting sand between her toes and can’t imagine living anywhere outside of the capital, and Amy, whose husband has disappeared and who follows the trail of those responsible to London, where, as a country girl, she feels completely overwhelmed. The two women are polar opposites and embark on a cat-and-mouse chase with fatal consequences and there is a sort of town mouse / country mouse theme woven into the story.

In my latest novel, A Mother Always Knows, I have once again depicted a North Devon setting. The novel kicks off with the discovery of a young man’s body in the woods. I have taken liberty with the geography of the area to fit the needs of my story. Certain places in my novel do indeed exist, such as Saunton Sands, Barnstaple and Lower Buryknoll Wood (although I don’t think there has ever been a murder there). However, where I wanted to allow my imagination to run amok and not be tied to an accurate portrayal of a location, I have made up places and place names, for example, Hotleigh, Shallowcott and Brayworthy (although I think any fellow Devonians would agree that these places sound quite local)!

I’m currently working on a novel – my ninth – that is partly set in North Devon and partly set in France …

When a young man is found murdered in a quiet rural village, it sends shock waves through the close-knit local community.
But Carla is more concerned for her teenage daughter, Iris. When Joshua was alive, he humiliated Iris in the worst possible way, and now she’ll be the main suspect in his murder.
As the police investigate every lead, Carla must navigate the murky waters of guilt and betrayal as well as her growing suspicions of what her own daughter might be capable of.
When a shocking revelation threatens to tear her family apart, Carla is forced to ask herself how far she’ll go to protect her loved ones. In a world of secrets and deception, can a mother truly know what lies beneath the surface?

A Mother Always Knows published by HQ is out on 12th March in ebook, audiobook and paperback.