John Dean – Crime Writer

John Dean talks about the challenges presented by his new novel

My latest crime novel has just been published and I don’t think that I have looked forward to the appearance in print of one of my titles with such anticipation for a long time.

The reason is that Murder in the Pennines (published by The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company) is among my most ambitious novels.

Featuring DCI Jack Harris in the 12th book in the long-running series, the story takes him from his base in the North Pennines to the aftermath of events which took place when he was a teenage soldier seconded to a NATO peacekeeping force after the Kosovo War more than twenty years ago.

The decision to base part of a story abroad offers great scope for storytelling but also presents challenges for the author and the editors that handle his/her manuscript, in my case the excellent Polly, Tarek and Lucy with their forensic approach to the job.

That’s because, although a book set abroad is a work of fiction, and comes with a degree of licence, as do all stories, the author still has a responsibility to view the narrative with a non-fiction author’s eye, making sure that they have done the appropriate research.

In this case, my source material was a series of articles on the Internet and, more importantly, the excellent Kosovo War and Revenge by Tim Judah (Yale University Press 2000).

The reason books like Tim Judah’s are so important is that researching facts and figures only goes so far. The author also needs to do what they can to get under the skin of a place and Kosovo War and Revenge does that superbly, confirming some of what I thought I knew and adding immeasurably with new insights.

Getting the research right when dealing with an area like the Balkans, where complex age-old ethnic disputes and allegiances change in bewildering fashion, rewards the author’s effort and, I hope, helps the reader immerse themselves in my new novel.

Murder in the Pennines  can be purchased in e-book, paperback and hardcover formats by visiting Amazon and keying the title in the search field at https://www.amazon.co.uk/