John Dean – Crime Writer

The latest book in the DCI Jack Harris series of crime fiction novels (published by the Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) continues to attract encouraging reviews, which is gratifying.

More gratifying than usual, actually, because I deliberately set out to do things differently in Murder on the Pennines, including giving the main character’s back story a central role, something I would normally avoid doing. I also gave Jack’s emotions a much bigger part to play, again something I would not normally do, and I also sent him and his detective sergeant abroad, leaving behind the North Pennines landscape that the fans of the series so love.

The story takes Harris 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).

I needed to do what I could 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.

I chose this plot knowing that some readers may not like it but I feel that myself as author and the readers both benefit from being challenged from time to time. It allows us both to grow and certainly a lot of the reviews would suggest that the readers have appreciated the challenge.

And what next for Harris? Well, as I put the finishing touches to the next DCI John Blizzard novel, my thoughts are already turning to the new Harris and I can tell you that the Northern hills will play a central role and the focus will be on the ramifications of a shocking crime on the people living in the valley where Harris is head of divisional CID.

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/