I become bored very easily. Be
it a long running TV show, a movie in excess of a couple of hours or a concert
that feels like it might never end, I get itchy feet if I think something is overstaying
its welcome or becoming repetitive.
To keep my interest in writing,
it’s essential for me to try new things, to explore territories I have not
delved into before and to push myself. My
first book, When You Disappeared, was
a domestic psychological thriller. My second, third and fourth were all
completely different from that, from their style to their set-ups, but I guess they
all share the underlying thriller theme.
That’s why my latest novel, Her Last Move, is my first foray into
the world of police procedural books. When it came to book five, I needed to
challenge myself. I offer nothing but respect to the authors out there who make
a career from long-running characters and series. But I know that using the
same character is just not my thing; I need to keep it fresh and exciting for
me first and foremost. Because if I think I’m going through the motions, then my
readers will know it. And as police procedural isn’t something I have ever
tackled before, I made a decision to give it my best shot.
While the market for that genre
is huge, I’m very aware it’s also very saturated. According to figures released
at the London Book Fair in April this year, Britain has become a nation
obsessed by crime fiction.18.7 million crime novels were sold in 2017, an
increase of almost 20% since 2015. Industry data from Nielsen BookScan reveals they
make up a whopping 36% of all books sold, which is more than any other genre.
There are many incredible crime
writers out there, from legends such as Val McDermid and Ann Cleeves to the new
school such as Caroline Mitchell and Cara Hunter who are bringing fascinating
and unique perspectives to the crime category.
So I needed to bring something
new of my own to the game. Step forward the Super Recognisers. Never heard of
them? You are not alone. Very few people have.
Her
Last Move follows two lead characters, detectives Joe Russell and
Becca Vincent. They’re paired up to hunt a series of increasingly violent
murders throughout London. Joe was inspired by an interview I read in the
Guardian newspaper about Super Recognisers (SRs) who are a small department in
London’s Metropolitan Police. They’re made up of detectives from across the
force who never forget a face. Most of us will remember up to 20% of faces that
we see in our lifetime. However, an SR has the capacity to recall 80%. Just 2%
of the population have their ability.
To give the department its full
title – the not-so snappily titled Visual Images, Identifications and
Detections Office – it’s the only dedicated team of its kind in the world. It
makes a quarter of all suspect identifications within the Met. To my knowledge
there are less than a handful of novels that have used SRs as main characters,
meaning there was a lot of scope for me to bring them to the reader’s attention
through Joe.
I felt it important that my
second lead, Becca, had a back story a world away from her career. So I made
her a single mum, raising a Down’s syndrome daughter alongside her divorced
mother. Becca’s career is important to her but with the increasing amount of
attention each murder gets, the pressures upon her as a detective and a mum
reach a boiling point.
The toughest challenge I faced in
writing Her Last Move was not the
storyline or the character development, but ensuring each aspect of the
criminal investigation was accurate. My dad was a police officer in Northamptonshire
for 25 years, but he died some 13 years ago now. And had he been alive, much
would have changed in procedure since his retirement.
Thankfully, a Blogger I had
been in touch with suggested a friend of hers, a serving police officer and
book lover. They read a very early version draft and came back with pages of
notes for me. They included everything from the correct terminology for certain
operations, to police rankings and walked me through how each of my
investigations would be carried out. That gave me so much confidence to
continue.
As I write this, my novel still
has a month to go before it’s published and thankfully, my genre hopping has
been a hit with early readers and reviewers. Writing it has also allowed me to
fully appreciate the brilliance of authors who have based their careers around
writing police procedural novels. With other genres, you can be much freer to
use your imagination. But with police procedurals, one hand is always tied
behind your back to ensure what you are writing is also factually accurate.
Because there are plenty of crime fiction lovers out there who will be quick to
point out when it’s not!
Will I write in this genre
again? For the first time, I am actually tempted to. Sticking to procedure
forces you to think smarter, to nail the accuracy and be original as you can.
And as a writer, that’s the challenge I’m always seeking.
Her
Last Move by John Marrs is published by Thomas & Mercer,
Oct 8, 2018 pbk
and ebook
