John Dean – Crime Writer

For the first time in years, I am creating a new series of crime novels. No, I am not killing off John Blizzard and Jack Harris (the next books in both series are with my publisher and at different stages of the editing process), and there will be more to come. I already have a strong idea for the next Harris one.

So why am I writing a new one and what are the considerations before I begin work? Well, the answer to ‘why’ is that authors, and readers for that matter, need to keep fresh and, although Blizzard and Harris engage my imagination as much as ever, I felt the need to break out and create a new book with new characters and a new setting. With a new book, I am not constrained by my characters’ past but can create something entirely new. That’s liberating for an author.

I will not give any details of the new book (I have only written 292 words and I’m not sure about them!) and am still in the planning phase (aka lots of cups of tea) but, although authors need to retain control of their creations, they do need to consider questions including will readers of their other series be drawn to the new main character, have you got the right setting (some areas have more fictional detectives than others), are you going to adopt a different style of writing? These are good questions and my editor Polly was invaluable in allowed me to bounce ideas off her.

As a result of all this thinking, the new main detective, who has only had a name for two days, is very different to Harris and Blizzard, who do tend to share some of the same personality traits. As for location, it’s northern Scotland but that is all I will say for the moment.

After that, the story will evolve organically as the new characters begin to make themselves known but I will stick with my usual style of writing. I did toy with something completely different but, as Polly pointed out, my many readers read the Blizzard and Harris books because they like the way they are written. The phrase including the words ‘baby’ and ‘bath water’ came readily to mind.

It’s not the first time I have tried a new series. Before the Book Folks, now an imprint of Joffe Books, started publishing the Blizzard and Harris books, I produced two books under the pen-name John Stanley, featuring fitness fanatic DCI Danny Radford. They stayed true to the police procedural style of crime writing but did allow me to experiment with a different style of writing – more larger-than-life.

If you read the reviews, some readers enjoyed the experiment, others were not so sure.

If you wish to read the John Stanley books (The Numbers Game and Sentinel, a novella)

check out DCI Danny Radford novels – John Dean – Crime Writer or Amazon.