Attended this event last night with my Mum. Sadly, Jane Thynne was not able to attend, but Cath Staincliffe and Margaret Murphy (aka A. D. Garrett) were, so the evening went ahead as planned.
A. D. Garrett is the pseudonym for the writing collaboration of prize-winning thriller writer Margaret Murphy and forensic scientist Professor Dave Barclay.
Margaret Murphy is the author of nine psychological thrillers. She is founder of Murder Squad, a touring collective of crime writers. Professor Barclay is a forensic adviser to the police forces and the media. He is currently working for several UK police forces and a state of Australia on high profile murders. He is part of the 'Murder, Mystery and Microscopes' team which aims to explain the real science behind popular crime fiction via a national series of public lectures. Everyone Lies is their first book'
Cath Staincliffe is an established novelist, radio playwright and the creator of ITV's hit series, Blue Murder, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis. Cath's Sal Kilkenny private eye series features a single-parent sleuth working the mean streets of Manchester. Trio, a stand-alone novel moved away from crime to explore adoption and growing up in the 1960s, inspired by Cath's own experience. Cath's latest stand alone books, Split Second and Blink of an Eye, examine hot topical issues and tell stories of ordinary people, caught up in the criminal justice system. Bleed Like Me is Cath's second novel based on the popular Scott & Bailey TV series.
Margaret and Cath were joint winners of the CWA short story dagger in 2012 with The Message, Margaret Murphy and Laptop by Cath Staincliffe, which both appear in the anthology Murder Squad: Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories. The Murder squad are seven crime writers who produced the anthology, including Barry Forshaw, Ann Cleeves and Martin Edwards.
Cath started by explaining that she has been writing for 20 years and the last 2/3 she has done Private Eye Novels and the Blue Murder series for television and she felt like challenging herself to do something different, but her publishers weren't that keen as the TV series writing was successful, so she wrote some standalone novels and found another publisher willing to take a punt on them. She wrote 3 originally and then another 2 and the common theme to them is what 'would you do in this situation?' e.g. in The Kindest Thing, a husband is terminally ill and he wishes his wife to end his life and she wants the reader to wonder what it would be like to be her and does she do it? Well, she does as the story opens as she is awaiting trial for murder. All her novels are some sort of crime but not detective novels as they are always from the point of view of the families of the victims, the accused etc. In the 4th novel Blink of an Eye, it centres around the family of a daughter who gets into the car drunk and kills a little girl and it is how she and her Mum face this tragedy.
She was writing her 3rd novel Split Second when she got the call from her agent telling her that Transworld wanted her to write a prequel based on the Scott and Bailey TV series. As she had written a police series before, knew Manchester well and she was a fan, she was excited but fearful about getting it wrong. Also it was the end of September when they asked and they wanted it for January! She normally takes a year to write a book, so 80k words in 3 months felt overwhelming, but as her partner agreed to take up the other commitments in order for her to do it, she said yes and although it was intense and hard work, she achieved it. She met with the production company and the writers who had created those characters and asked for background information and suggestions for what to include in the prequel, then when she had written 30/40 pages she sent it to them for a response. She needed reassurance that she had got it right before carrying on and finishing it. After that, it was just little questions like what football team the characters support etc. It was completed for January and the publisher was happy, so wanted another 2 books. She has been writing 2 books a year, but as the end of contract is due soon, she will decide what she wants to do next as this is a heavy workload.
Cath then read from Blink of an Eye, a scene after the tragedy when the parents of the car driver go to see where the accident happened, which was very different from the Scott and Bailey TV series.
Margaret Murphy revealed that she found the Blink of an Eye emotionally terrifying in terms of description in the first chapter. Before Margaret wrote under her own name she was a scientist and teacher, so science always features in her novels.
In 2008 she was approached at the BA Science Festival in Aberdeen to put together a panel where crime writers read from their work and scientists comment on the science in that novel (featuring Val McDermid, Sue Black and Dave Barclay). Lorna Dawson, the professor who approached her can find and identify soil and tell you which is yours and which is your neighbours by going down to the molecular level, which is vital for cases in which a car has been used to dump a body and the pollen/flora within an area can identify a suspect, e.g. in the Ian Huntley case.
In 2010, Margaret was at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and she saw Dave Barclay again and he gave visual proof that a trail of fuel being lit with a cigarette that one sees in TV programmes is not scientifically possible by lighting a beaker of petrol in front of the audience! Dave collaborated with Margaret on Everyone Lies to do the science. Reviewers say that it is grittier/tougher than the other novels she has written as it deals with subjects such as the deaths of drug addicts. Margaret explained that DCI Kate Simms was not fast-tracked in her career because Professor Nick Femanore compromised one of her cases (the murder of his own wife) and although she has gone from London to Manchester for a job to get away from this past, she approaches the Professor in Aberdeen for his advice even though he is the last person she should. She then read from chapter one which was not only funny, but really drew you into the story.
A break for refreshments then followed before the floor was opened up to questions.
Cath agreed that writing is like driving at night in the fog, because you don't always know the outcomes before you start writing. She feels it varies from book to book, within the accepted rules that you have to reveal what/how it happened by the end, the truth if not justice. When she started she was like that, but now she plans a bit more, but she still gets diversions.
Margaret agreed but felt that it is the evolution of the writing process. She has been published for 17 years, but when she wrote The Dispossessed it was following a daydream she had behind a bin lorry, a vision of a woman's body falling out of the back of it. In Everyone Lies, it was interesting in that the forensics of burned bodies was the initial idea, but they were limited, so this body turned up a third of the way through and the ending changed, as it'll be boring to know everything.
When asked what was left that scared them stiff, Margaret said when it is dark and the curtains are still open. In Darkness Falls, she has a character staring out of a kitchen window and there is a man outside that is staring in that she is unaware of. Cath writes about things that scare her. She reads other crime writers a lot and has a completely different response to real crime, but feels that the figuring out of the puzzle is the attraction and that someone else is doing the scary stuff. It allows you to explore the scary notions and how we would react - you feel it, experience it, but yet it is safe. Margaret felt it is about answering questions and understanding/rationalising what you see and experience. Cath feels it is about goodies and baddies, but she has never written from the point of view of the serial killer as she's interested more in the detectives and the victims. Feels it is the fairy tale element in that they are moral tales - setting the world to rights, a resolution at the end.
Crime is the most popular genre borrowed in libraries as it is such a broad genre. It is character based as well and with a series you can revisit the characters lives.
When Cath was asked who her favourite authors were, she listed James Lee Burke, Walter Moseley, Kate Atkinson, Laura Wilson and Ed McBain.
Both authors felt that location was very important, as is lots of research, though via police officers not gangsters. As Cath sets all her novels in Manchester, there are certain places that suggest scenes, i.e. Alderley Edge is perfect for a chase through the woods. Margaret agreed that you need a clear sense of place when you're writing a scene and she described Hope Street, near the Cathedral in Liverpool, which has a sandstone quarry arch and there are tombstones that have been put in the tunnel to protect the sandstone - she felt it was perfect for killing someone off in that scene.
Margaret revealed that she has wanted to be a writer from the age of 10 and when asked if they could commit the perfect crime, Margaret said she had contemplated it, but Cath said that she wouldn't be able to sleep at night and she'd have to turn herself in.
The evening ended with an announcement that York-based author Helen Cadbury (To Catch A Rabbit) will be coming to Dewsbury Library on 12 October.
#MurderSquad
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