So you want to write a crime novel: Part 4. Outlining

 

Outlining aka A Can of Worms

 In many ways, crime novels are no different in terms of structure from other genres, but they certainly differ in details, character traits and action scenes and sometimes these need careful plotting.

 I am going to say right up front that “how to” books can be helpful to a writer of any experience to help them write better and faster. There are hundreds of authors who earn more money by writing books on how to write than by their fiction and thousands of books out there telling you how to outline your books for surefire success. If you are a novice, it is easy to glaze over at the amount of advice, some of which is in direct contradiction to other advice. Even experienced writers who remain alert to the possibilities of new ways to look at how they write can get stuck in a rut of reading advice after advice. You may think that buying several books – I have at least 9 – on structure, outlining etc., will make you a better writer.

 I am here to tell you it doesn’t work like that. Because you are you and your thought patterns and how you see the world is different from mine or anybody else’s. In short, you have to read, try and keep it if it works for you and discard it if it doesn’t. Otherwise you will spend all your time trying to find that perfect system and no time doing the creative bit, which is why you wanted to write in the first place.

 There are two types of writer when it comes to outlining and plotting. The pantser and the planner. Whichever you are, a crime writer will need a crime (murder, usually), a detective, clues, red herrings and several characters including the villain(s).

 If you are a pantser (someone who sits at the keyboard without a thought in their head and who puts fingers to keyboard to see what happens), you will say you never outline. I beg to disagree in part. Yes, you might have no idea when you start, but I certainly believe that your first draft is, in effect, your outline to see what has and has not worked; what needs changing and what needs discarding. By the time you have finished that first draft, you will know your characters and their motivations, but you might have written yourself into a couple of corners and need to do some major re-writing.

There are varying degrees of planner. Jeffery Deaver, for example, plots every nuance so meticulously, he almost writes a short novel in the plotting phase. Hybrids – and I am one – write a loose road map but allow enough wriggle room for change when you are in the heat of the first draft. Following the road map analogy, I know the beginning and the end and which towns (clues) I have to go through to get to my destination. But whilst on the journey I am more than likely to go off the main road at a tangent. Sometimes that strengthens the story; sometimes it leads into a cul-de-sac. Sometimes getting out of the cul-de-sac gives a glorious opportunity to seed a really obscure clue.

 Some successful authors, such as Minette Walters, have no idea who the villain is until over halfway through. There is a certain logic in this. If the author doesn’t know, then the clues will not point to one particular person and you have an opportunity to confuse the reader still further.

So, let’s look at a few ways of outlining your crime novel.

 Physical – and usually cheaper – methods.

 Index cards. I use these, even though I have Scrivener (more later). I prefer a physical system where I can jot down disjointed ideas — clues, character actions, events — on separate index cards. They are useful because you can rearrange them to see if you have the best flow line for your book. Sometimes shuffling them up will lead to a clue or red herring you hadn’t thought of.

 Notebooks with sections. You can use one section for the characters – a page for each; one section for details of your setting; a section for your plot, i.e. the events in your book and a section for clues and red herrings.

 Whiteboard or very large post-it notes/pieces of paper. When you have that first what-if? thought, it might be the central tenet of your story. It might be a what if X is found dead in a locked room with no weapon in sight? It might be the theme of your novel and every novel has a theme whether or not the author realises what it is. It might be the motive for the murder(s). Write that in the centre of your whiteboard/post-it note/paper. From that central point, you can make a mind map – simple or complicated. As ideas come to you, you look along the arrows out from that central point and make a note along the most relevant arm. Or, it may be more relevant for you to jot down the events, bits of character traits and the clues in different colours. I sometimes do this, then take a picture of the whiteboard, download it to my computer and use it as the basis for my outline.

 

Techno methods

 Most writing software includes sections on research, characters, settings, and things to help the writer write the book. My only advice is to be familiar with what the package does, but only use those parts of it that are relevant for your way of planning your book.

 Instead of giving my opinion here, I will put a link to a review page and you can make up your own mind.

Book Writing Software (2020): Top 10 Pieces of Software for Writers (thewritepractice.com)

 Mind maps: As with the writing software, I state no opinions. But you can find out more here: 

Compare The 10 Best Mind Mapping Software of 2021 - The Digital Project Manager

 

Whichever methods you use and I emphasise they must suit your writing methods, only take from them what you need.

 So my last advice is to take a look at all these methods, try them out – many software packages have a one month trial – and see what is the best fit for you.

 Next month, I shall be covering Plot and Theme in your crime novel.

 

So you want to write a crime novel - Part 3. Research

 Research is absolutely key to the success of your book. Why? Because somebody, somewhere will know what you don’t and if you get your information wrong, you will lose a reader. I once read of the ‘stink of carbon monoxide’, whereas it is odourless. I’ve never read another book by that author.

So, the watchword with research is get it right and go the extra mile to make sure it’s right.

 Is your setting contemporary, recent past, historical, the future? That will massively affect your research and the behaviour of your characters. Someone on a 25^th century space mission to a distant star will have completely different behaviour/social mores/beliefs/knowledge than an 11^th century monk in England.

 Likewise, the country in which you set your novel will need to be believable. So, if your detective is in 19^th century Paris, you need to know what Paris looked like then. No point in mentioning the Eiffel Tower before January 1887 when its construction began and it didn’t open until May 1889, the lifts weren’t working properly and it took an hour to climb to the top. You may not need to put that in the novel, but you need to know it.

 Something as small as time can trip up the unwary novelist. We are so used to clocks now that it would be easy to make an error if you are writing historical novels. Sundials and water clocks have been around since before the time of Christ, but the first non-water clock in England was at Dunstable Priory in 1283 and its sole purpose was to regulate canonical hours. The first mechanical clocks did not appear until the 14^th century. Check your facts.

 Research your chosen setting thoroughly. There are plenty of online resources to help you.

Google Earth/Maps where you can “travel” along the roads your book takes place in. Yes, it may be a few years out of date, but not many.

 If your book is set in the future, common everyday things may have a more catchy name. J D Robb’s Eve Dallas books are set in 2060 New York, where they have wrist units that tell the time apart from other capabilities.

 Make your characters believable, but, as you are writing crime, your characters – good and bad – will have traits other genres do not need. I will say this in a later post, but don’t set them in a vacuum. All chars were doing something before the book opens; they had a life, work, went shopping etc. Make them real for your period and that means the language they use.

 My own view on language in historical books is not to be too welded to the truth of the period. In my own Tudor Engima novels set in an alternate Tudor history, I use a few slight differences, for example mayhap for maybe and I sometimes alter the word order to make it sound more archaic, but your reader must not have to wonder what your character is saying. This also applies to accents. I remember trying to read a Scottish crime book, which was probably very good, but written in such abstruse dialect I had no idea what anybody was saying.

 Don’t make your main character or your killer (or any character, come to that) all good or all bad. People are people and have been since we came out of the cave system. Greed, revenge, money, fear and love live in all of us; it’s part of our DNA, so although modern man has many resources to use in the implementation of the crime, his/her instincts are exactly the same as someone living in Ancient Egypt.

 Technology is beguiling for those writing books set in the future. The world really is your oyster, but, again quoting the J D Robb books, the author has a world where everybody’s DNA is on file, so dead bodies can be identified immediately and the technology also permits the investigating officer to determine the precise time of death. 12th century Brother Cadfael had to rely on his knowledge of where plants were found, properties of herbs etc. So, unless you are writing a book set in the 11^th century where your detective has been sent back from the late 21^st century, be very careful about what was available for your detective at the time your book is set.

 Your method of murder will also depend on the time your novel is set.  Firearms has an interesting history. The Chinese used fire lances in the 10^th century. The first cannons used in Europe were in the early part of the 14^th century and hand-held cannons in the late 14^th century. So check your ballistics. A rifle is not a pistol is not a revolver.

 A knife wound will mean blood spatter. Even if your novel is set before the forensics of blood spatter were documented, your detective will notice what the spatter looks like and, if he/she is experienced, will be able to surmise how the crime happened.

 If you use poison, be sure you know doses, effects and times of activity; ditto drugs. With some drugs, your killer will have to know where to source them and that, in itself, can be part of your plot. If your killer decides to strangle the victim, make sure your forensic knowledge is in accordance with the time in which your novel is set.

 With all your methods of murder, make sure you know what the post-mortem will discover and how the pathologist knows it.

 As with all research, you will only use a sentence or two in passing to add believability to your text. Do not be tempted to display your new-found knowledge because that will not only stop the flow of the novel, it will make your reader roll their eyes and shut the book. Do not preach.

If you would like to explore internet resources, I have included links below, but also a link to my own book, gleaned from over 30 years experience as an information professional and over 20 years searching the Internet. You can find my book here.

 Below are some of the resources you may find useful and I hope you have found this blog useful. Next month, I shall deal with outlining your book.

 Research Resources for Mystery and Crime Writers (writerswrite.com)

 7 Great Websites for Crime Writers | WordDreams... (wordpress.com) – USA emphasis

 Resources for Crime Fiction Writers (addictivebooks.com)

 England / United Kingdom - Guide to Online Primary Sources - LibGuides at University of California San Diego

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So you want to write a crime novel. Part 2: First Thoughts

How do ideas come for a crime story – or any story, come to that? Some people read a piece in a newspaper and that turns their imagination on. In fact, some famous crime writers have based their novels on real life events. Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d was one such, which relied heavily – some might say too heavily – on the life events of film star Gene Tierney.

Sometimes the first thought will be What-if? My own Dearly Ransomed Soul was born while sitting in the chorus at the Three Choirs Festival’s opening performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and wondering what-if the soloist was murdered just after the performance?

What-If? can be born anytime, anywhere. From seeing two people talking on the bus to someone overtaking you on a dangerous corner, to finding a single red rose on your doorstep. The only limit to What-if? is your imagination.

Sometimes your first thought will be the method of murder. It was my mother who suggested a hatpin through the eye and into the victim’s brain as an imaginative way to dispose of an enemy. I winced at the immediate mental vision but used it all the same.

 Of course, with the method, will come research. If your killer has used a gun, you need some knowledge of ballistics and gunshot residue. Ditto a knife wound – blood spatter etc - especially if you are writing a police procedural which will include details of the post-mortem. If you poison your victim, you need to know how long it will take to kill him/her. Will it be something you find in the garden or the garden shed? The method of murder and the method of investigation will also be dependent on the time in which your novel is set. They didn’t have DNA in medieval times. That may affect your choice of detective, if you are writing a historical crime. I will mention Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael novels here. Although he is a monk, he spent 40 years in the world, went on crusade and learned about herbs and poisons en route. Dorothy Sayers novel Unnatural Death used an innovative murder method that had the police and Lord Peter Wimsey stumped for quite a while.

 So, who is going to be your Main Character (MC)? Some authors, for example, Janet Lawrence and Ann Granger had their MC married to or involved with a police officer. If your MC is a police officer, you must be conversant with the procedures in place at the time your novel is set. Your MC must also fit the time in which the novel is set. Police attitudes and procedures in the 21^st century are completely different to those of, say, the 1970s or 1950s. You couldn’t have the politically incorrect, corrupt DCI Gene Hunt (Life on Mars) working successfully in 2021.

 Where are you going to set your novel? Setting can play a huge part in the tone of the novel and also affect how you seed your clues. If your setting is 12^th century York, for example, the clues will need to be in harmony with the setting. Again, do your research and make sure everything was present then. Your MC cannot rely on technology, so must watch the other characters’ behaviour and be alert to things that appear out of kilter. Candace Robb’s Owen Archer is an excellent people watcher. Make your setting vibrant, not by huge paragraphs of description, but by passing comments that highlight it. Paul Doherty’s Hugh Corbett books perfectly capture the reality of 14^th century London. But the same would hold if you set your book on a space station. Or, like J D Robb’s Eve Dallas, you could set it in a real place in the future, and play what-if? with the technology.  

 How are you going to present your murder? Locked room murders were very popular in the golden age of fiction – Carter Dickson’s Sir Henry Merrivale is a good example. Where will your body be found? On a beach? Or a space station? All this will affect how you present the body to your reader. Will the victim be sprawled up the steps of the Town Hall or hanging from a lamppost? Will the murderer have tried to present the killing as suicide and, if so, how will the detective discover it was murder?

Another popular way of writing crime novels is that of the pastiche. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels. When I studied for my first degree, I made my dissertation - tongue in cheek - about the change of metaphor in the pre and post Reichenbach stories of Sherlock Holmes. My tutor was so amused, she made me promise to write a Sherlock Holmes story at some point. It took 30 years to honour the promise. If you decide to do this, please make sure you are not infringing copyright.

 Now we come to the fun bit. The suspects and clues. Make sure you have enough characters to confuse the reader. But, as I have stressed before, you must seed your true clues very carefully and present plenty of red herrings that are believable – more in a later post. And make sure you know what was available to the detective at the time. Fingerprints, for example, were first accepted in British courts in 1901.

 And the most difficult question. How will your detective catch the killer? If you make the clues abstruse, then you must also make them believable and form a link that leads to the murderer. That’s another fun bit. I find the best way is to think up the clues, then turn them on their heads so they are not obvious and seed them amongst the red herrings.

 Still want to write a crime novel? Excellent!

 Join me next month when I will be talking about effective research, possibly the most important component of ensuring that your novel is believable.

 

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Do you want to write a crime story?

 

"There is evil everywhere under the sun” Agatha Christie.

 Perhaps you have always wanted to write a crime novel. Now is your chance.

 This is the first in a monthly series of posts about writing crime fiction. Let’s start at the very beginning.

 What kind of crime novel do you want to write? There are many forms from which to choose:

·       The cosy, where sometimes you get to eat cake and are given the recipe.

·       The gritty crime novel, which has a hard edge.

·       Noir, which can be scary and gory with no punches pulled.

·       Historical, set in any era from Ancient Egypt to the recent past.

·       Psychological novels, which have a lot of suspense and careful plotting. They major on detailing the innermost workings of the mind of the main character and how the MC concentrates on his/her victims’ weaknesses.

·       Legal novels where the lawyer sometimes does the detecting or aids the police investigation.

 You can choose, within these categories to write a police procedural, with the investigating officer as your main character; or a private detective; or an amateur sleuth who can either be a nuisance to the police or a helping hand. Do you want your story to be utterly serious, humorous or a mix of the two? Some stories mix up forms, so a historical crime can also be a police procedural etc.

 So your first and most important decision is to decide which form of crime novel you want to write. It must suit you, otherwise it’s a non-starter. Don’t write a gritty police procedural if the thought of gory murder scenes turns your stomach or you don’t want to be confined by the strictures under which the police have to work. Likewise, if the thought of a light-hearted, witty amateur sleuth getting in the way of the police puts your teeth on edge, don’t go there. Above all, my advice is that, irrespective of which is the best-selling kind, only write what you want to write. If you try and shoehorn your style to noir if you really want to write a cosy murder set in a teashop with recipes for lemon drizzle cake, you will fall at the first hurdle.

 The crime genre has a slightly different set of needs to other types of genre. You need a crime – usually murder and, usually at least two of those. You will need to plot and plan a little more precisely, although I will deal with allowing yourself off the plotting leash in a later post. You will need a main character. He/she does not have to be the detective. Many successful crime novels have been written with the killer as the main character and the book deals with how the killer does/does not get away with the crime.

 You will need enough suspects to give the reader enough of a puzzle to solve. One of the reasons Agatha Christie was so successful was because she gave the reader so many suspects to consider. Each suspect must have a logical reason why they might want the victim(s) dead. Their motivations must be logical and compelling. Each character must always act “in character”. You will have to learn to “seed” clues and red herrings so that your reader isn’t sure what is going on. The more you can confuse the reader, the more they will love the read. But there is one absolute rule. You must be fair to the reader. You must present all the clues so that, if the reader is able to see through your red herrings and pick them up, they can solve the murder. Hopefully, your red herrings will hide the real clues and that is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing crime.

 Have I whetted your appetite to try your hand at a crime novel? If so, make sure that when you have chosen your particular type of novel, you set about reading as many in your chosen category as you can by different authors. If you are still unsure, here are a few suggestions to kickstart your reading:

 

·       Cosy – Lynne Florkiewicz: Faith Martin and, may I also suggest my own Georgia Pattison series?

·       Gritty – Stuart MacBride: Ross Greenwood

·       Police Procedurals – Ann Cleeves: Peter Grainger: Michael Hambling: Damien Boyd

·       Noir – Val McDermid: J M Dalgliesh: James Carol

·       Historical – S J Parris: Paul Doherty: Candace Robb

·       Psychological – Angela Marsons: Minette Walters: Phoebe Morgan

·       Legal – Natasha Cooper: John Grisham: Scott Pratt

 

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The adventures of a writer doing NaNoWriMo

 

For those not in the know, National November Writing Month sets writers the challenge of writing a book, or part of a book, and the total wordcount to aim for within the month of November is 50,000 words. I had done NaNo twice, but 2020 has been a doldrums year for my writing, with no wind of creativity filling my sails at all. So I decided I would give NaNo a third try and write the next Georgia Pattison Mystery, or, just over half of it.

 I managed just over 60,000 words by 30^th November – about two-thirds of the novel. The theme of Who Wants To Live Forever is knowing oneself, something Georgia has always struggled with. And I am in good company with that theme, since it is, more or less, the theme of most of Jane Austen’s novels.

 Georgia’s life has changed since she decided to set a date for her wedding to her beloved Ned, aka Sir Edward Broome, a man who can trace his ancestry back to the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. And, for the history buffs, the surname Broome has sometimes been taken by “wrong side of the blanket” Plantagenets, who take their name from Planta Genista, the common broome shrub. So does that mean Ned might have royal blood in his veins?

 Like any bride, there are a few hiccups on the way to her wedding day, but these are all to do with her choice of dress, their choice of venue and, generally, Georgia’s mother having a meltdown when Georgia and Ned decide to have a tiered chocolate cake. But, finally, our heroine is walking down the aisle and things are set to go swimmingly. Of course they don’t. A complete stranger objects to the marriage and he is later found dead. The real trouble begins when Georgia finds out who the stranger is…

On the face of things, writing just under 2,000 words every day in November does not sound particularly onerous, especially in the middle of a pandemic when we are supposed to be stopping in and not being sociable. But I think the Covid-19 lockdowns have had a real impact on all of us, me included. That it affected me was a shock because I am, by nature, a hermit and very anti-social at the best of times. So why did I feel so trapped?

 I think it’s all to do with perception. My life didn’t change at all, in reality. I still walked the dog early enough to avoid other people and then hunkered down and wrote words. But the lack of being able to jump on the bus to Whitby if I felt like it, was difficult to handle. I found my inner sewing bee instead and my writing suffered.

 NaNo was my way of making sure I could still “do it”: making sure the creativity was still there, the spark, that what-if? that seemed to have gone walkabout. The good news is that I can still “do it”. And that has inspired the idea for a whole new series, which I want to start in January. I just have to finish Who Wants To Live Forever first. Another 30,000 words should see it in the bag. There is even a faint chance I might have this first draft done by Christmas. That would be a cracking present to myself.

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To dictate or not to dictate. That is the question...

The joys – and perils – of dictating. I need to say at the outset I have no affiliation whatsoever with Nuance or Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

At the beginning of this year, I took the very difficult decision to ditch my Apple computers and transfer everything back to Windows. Why? Because my hands are increasingly painful with arthritis, even though I continue to play the piano. I have become unable to type 3000 words of my books in one session as I used to be able to do. I tried the integral dictating software and free and cheap software and, to be blunt and honest, they are all rubbish.

Apple does not support the only decent dictation software - Dragon NaturallySpeaking, made by Nuance and that is what fuelled my decision. I sold my MacBook Pro and gave my iMac to my brothers. My husband also decided to switch back to a Windows machine, although he has kept his iMac.

On YouTube, he has been following a computer specialist who has been building and repairing computers for over 30 years. From watching these videos, my husband decided he would build himself a Windows desktop machine. Which he did, and during which he learned a lot. So much so, that when he offered to build me a new Windows desktop machine, I did not hesitate to say yes

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I also bought an HP laptop, which I have to say, drives me crazy, and which I only use when I am working in bed. And once all that was done, I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking. In all, I have spent almost £2000, but I now have a top of the range desktop machine, an adequate laptop and the best dictating software available. And yes, it is expensive.

But, as with all things, Dragon is not perfect. I became interested in Scott Baker’s books and blogs and followed his advice, ditto Chris Fox. Both authors dictate their books and have written about the hows and whys of it. So, what are the pros and cons?

I find the most useful thing about Dragon is that you can train it. It asks you regularly to update new words you have written in either your blogs, emails or Word or whichever software you are using. I use Scrivener and it is less accurate in that software, but I think I have worked out what I’ve done wrong and will experiment with it.

I find that Dragon is about 96% accurate, which, when you think of the different things that people use this software for and the number of accents it has to deal with, is simply amazing. I now dictate all my emails and certainly the first draft of my writing projects. The other huge advantage for me is that when I am walking the dog very early in the morning, I have a hand-held dictating machine into which I dictate ideas, to do lists and notes or text for the current WIP. This little machine has a USB which I plug into the computer and Dragon transcribes everything I have said.

This means I can work on the move, and, as is generally now agreed, moving around when you are trying to be creative is a good thing. The function that asks you to update new words is incredibly useful when you use peculiar terms or names. For example, in my latest WIP, the name Arimanius occurs and I have now trained my Dragon to recognise that name. High Cliff Nab, pictured right, which I can see from my sitting room window features in this book. The book is set in 1970 and the working title is "Shades of Menace". Watch this space!

Where Dragon falls down is usually the little connecting words, such as of, to, in, and of course, it is dependent on the quality of your speech. It cannot recognise the difference between “all” and “or” for example. It is ideal for first drafts, but very much less so when you are editing. Even when your diction is clear, as mine is (trained classical singer), it will still make mistakes and two amusing ones spring to mind.

In the first draft of my Wars of the Roses fantasy crime novel, one of the settings is a manor house in rural Lincolnshire called Eresby. Despite my very best endeavours, this always gets transcribed as “errors be”, so I have had to call it Manchester and then do a global find and replace in Word. In my latest WIP, I have a character called Neil Darke. This has provided quite a few gigglesome incidents because of the words “kneel” and “dark”. So much so, I am going to call him something else!

I have also learned that it is best to not look at what is appearing on the screen and also, more importantly, that to dictate up to 5000 words an hour, you only need to speak very slowly. Scott Baker in his book “How to train your Dragon” highlights this when he asks you to dictate a passage in his book taking two minutes to dictate it. If you dictate at your normal speaking speed, you will only take about 40 seconds.

You need to make extensive notes about to what you want to say and learn a few commands – (this is why editing is such a pain if you use Dragon – the commands you need to learn and remember to say to make the edit). Most people use the command that opens up quotation marks for speech, but I know Chris Fox just uses the command for the next line and put in speech quotes when he edits.

Has it been fun? Absolutely. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I can now dictate on the move and at my desk. Making more extensive notes than I am used to is useful as part of the outlining process. I am more productive. I now have 2 first drafts being edited and the beginning of a new series being dictated. Yes, you have to edit more rigorously then you may be used to, but that in itself could be an advantage, because you are looking more closely and mindfully at your text.

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Places in my writing life: Part 1

Paul McCartney sings about places in his song In My Life:

There are places I'll remember

All my life, though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone, and some remain

And so it is with all of us. I think this chimes with writers, especially those of us who are fascinated by history. I write crime, some contemporary and some – The Tudor Enigma series – set in an alternate Tudor history with a bit of magic thrown in.

When I was younger (so much younger than today), I lived in Worcester, another city chock full of history. I have stood where Charles II stood, high up on the Cathedral roof, as he watched Cromwell’s forces overwhelm his army. I can show you the place where he escaped by climbing out of a window and over the walls of the city.

In the Cathedral itself, the tomb of Henry VIII’s elder brother, Arthur is situated, as is the tomb of an early Plantagenet, King John, himself an interesting character. I have a theory he would today have been diagnosed as bi-polar.

The place that holds my heart will always be Worcester Cathedral. In 1978 in the middle of a Three Choirs concert, the first inkling of the book that would become Dearly Ransomed Soul popped into my head.

In Worcester, we are talking serious Elgar territory. The opening concert was Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius conducted by Sir Charles Groves. He looked just like a jolly Father Christmas but he had a tongue that could strip wallpaper if any of the musicians fell below his standards. Since we were in Worcester, any choir singer on that platform was supposed to have taken this oratorio in with their mother’s milk. I had just come from the wilds of Norfolk! This concert was where I learned to sight-sing very accurately through sheer terror.

The part of the Angel was sung by Sandra Browne and I sat transfixed. But even then, the writer in me was alive to crime story possibilities. What if the Angel, having sung her socks off, was murdered immediately after the concert? The finished book came out in 2008 – yes 30 years after the initial idea - published by Legend Press. Although the characters went through several incarnations and I called Worcester, Temingham, the title never changed from Dearly Ransomed Soul. Since then, I have always chosen musical titles for the Georgia Pattison Mysteries and included links at the end of each book to music mentioned in the text

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I rewrote it a few years later and published it digitally. The second incarnation had a different killer and was set in Worcester. I was much happier with this new version and Georgia Pattison, my early-music soprano was born. Her second full-length adventure is Laid in Earth, also set in and around Worcester.

When I saw the trend for publishing Christmas novellas, I thought Georgia Pattison was ideal for the purpose. I decided she needed an introductory novella, which I set in Whitby and concerned the murder of a young woman Georgia used to babysit. As with all the Georgia Pattison books, the title had to have a music connection but also fit the theme of the book. I decided on Whistles After Dark from Kipling’s Smugglers Song. Being a “first” book, it was not set at Christmas, but there have been several since then that focus on the festive season. Not all have been set in Worcester, but all have had a solid foundation in their geographical place.


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