Elementary, my dear reader

He’s 126 years old, famed throughout the world and is still one of the most beloved and engaging characters ever to investigate a crime. Sherlock Holmes has outlived not only his creator but also some of the people who have portrayed him on TV and in films. What is it about Sherlock Holmes that still fascinates modern readers and viewers?

As I write, Sherlock Holmes features in two TV series, one on either side of the Atlantic as well as a series of pretty awful movies directed by Guy Ritchie. (Holmes as an action hero, not a good idea.) Jonny Lee Miller stars in Elementary and Benedict Cumberbatch is the lead in the BBC’s excellent Sherlock. Both series bring Sherlock and Dr Watson into the 21st century with consummate skill. The American version departs from Conan Doyle’s stories to set Holmes up as a modern TV detective albeit one with a soaring intellect, real drugs problem and a friend called Joan Watson. Lucy Liu plays the female sidekick and it works really well. Steven Moffat who writes the UK version used the original material as a starting point to reimagine the stories for the modern era. Both TV shows are excellent and capture the spirit of those original novels and their characters.

There are other TV characters with similar traits to Holmes that have a devoted following. Gregory House is a rude, abrupt and brilliant doctor, who the creators admit is completely influenced by Holmes. Patrick Jane in The Mentalist is a consulting detective with the ability to read people from apparently trivial information. Would they be as popular without the Holmes influences at their heart?

It’s not only on screen that Holmes is captivating people once again. Anthony Horowitz has written a brand new Holmes novel called The House of Silk. It is a brilliantly authentic tale but with very modern concerns at the heart of it. If you are a lover of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories you will love The House Of Silk.

So with all this focus on the great detective, why do we still find him so interesting? His brusque manner, lack of social graces and general intellectual superiority are not qualities we would appreciate in a real person but I believe those are the very things that attract us to him. We all wish that we could be as insightful and brilliant as Holmes when he reads a person’s life from a few clues. If we were so intelligent, would we suffer fools gladly? Probably not. His disdain for the normal rules of society means he can say all the things we wish we had the courage to; those times when we use white lies to protect people’s feelings, Holmes says what he thinks and doesn’t care for the consequences. All of these characteristics make him wonderful to watch and magical to read.

I wonder how many modern detectives will still be entrancing readers and viewers in 126 years time? I’m pretty sure Sherlock Holmes will be.

The story behind Soulseeker

I thought I would share some of the story behind my latest book, Soulseeker.

The premise for the book developed from watching Terry Pratchett’s television programme about assisted suicide. I began to wonder how someone would feel after they had helped a loved one to die. There must be a lot of mixed emotions as they help someone to end their pain; relief that the pain is over, grief that the person they love has gone and for some, the guilt that they had helped to end a life.

These thoughts then began to spin off in to another direction. What if the person being helped to die hasn’t agreed to it and their loved one was acting out of a misguided and selfish need? If you add a religious upbringing, the confused emotions could easily take control of the ‘assistant’ and lead to their own suicide or something else. From there the Soulseeker was born; a killer who had lost perspective on what is right and wrong.

In the book, the killer focuses on where the soul goes after death. The thought that his loved one may be condemned to hell due to his actions prays on him to the point that he decides he must find the answer to where the human soul goes by killing more people. He sees himself as a hero, relieving people of mental anguish as he searches for his solution. That’s why I combined the two words; like Superman or Spiderman, he believes he is doing the right thing.

The story of a serial killer was not one that I could see my private detective, Craig Campbell being able to resolve. (Although Craig does make an appearance.) The story needed to be told as a police procedural and I decided to take the police officer I had created as Craig’s friend and make her the focus of the book.

Alex Menzies has been promoted and joined the Major Incident Team. Her new boss is Detective Superintendent Tom Russell and together they will form the main characters in a new series of books.

The book presented me with a different canvas, one where impressionistic strokes of police procedure needed to be replaced with the fine detail of a realist painter. There was more research than for any of my previous novels and I loved the passion of the people who were kind enough to help me.

In Soulseeker, the lead characters and the rest of their team feel out of their depth, as Glasgow has not seen a serial killer in over forty years. The motivation of the killer is so alien that Russell and Menzies struggle to think like the killer. The police officer that helped me with aspects of the book, told me that the great detectives were the ones who could think like a killer. As the two leading detectives are both familiar with motives of greed, lust, revenge and hate, a killer with a motive that exists only in his head proves to be a real challenge.

You’ll need to read the book to find out how they meet that challenge.

Soulseeker is available on Kindle and is coming soon for iPad, Nook and in paperback.

Next Big Thing Blog Tour

A huge thank you to Carol Parsons for tagging me in her ‘Next Big Thing’ blog posting at the Tamrion Book Nook. Check out her wonderful fantasy series, The Journals of The Peregrine.

Now to my answers to the Next Big Thing blog tour interview.

What is the working title of your book?

The fourth book in the Reluctant Detective series is tentatively called ‘The Island Murder’ and is my first attempt at a novella. It follows three full novels in the series as well as Soulseeker, the first in a new detective series.

Where did the idea for your book come from?

The book is set on the Scottish island of Little Cumbrae and the idea grew from a recent visit to the island. The fact that it can become isolated in bad weather made it perfect for a ‘locked room’ kind of mystery that Agatha Christie wrote with such panache. Although I wouldn’t claim to be close to the great lady, this book is my homage to her.

What genre does your book fall under?

It is a crime novel and my detective Craig Campbell is a contemporary Scottish derivation of the classic private eye.

Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?

The cast would have to be mainly Scottish and I’ve always thought that James McAvoy would be ideal to play Craig. Denis Lawson would be my choice to play Neil Cairns, a disgraced former church minister. Tiffany Mulheron has the looks to play Debbie Grayson, the femme fatale who is at the centre of the crime. David Tennant is an actor I admire immensely and it would be great to have him play Colin Victor, a man who has lost everything due to the dangerous Ms Grayson. Laura Fraser would bring a lot to the character of Rhona McColl and Richard Madden would be my choice for the young geeky character, Brent Picard.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

The murder of a woman on an isolated Scottish island forces Craig Campbell to investigate and find the killer amongst a long list of suspects.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be self published like the rest of my books. This will be slightly different as it will be a Kindle exclusive, at least for the first few months.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I have been working on it for about two months and I hope to finish it within the next month as it is a shorter story than my previous books.

What other books would you compare this story to?

Compare is a strong word but there are similarities to a book like ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie in the sense that the suspects are trapped in the situation with no means of escape. As a Scot, I can’t help but be influenced by Scottish writers, in particular Ian Rankin, Caro Ramsay and Christoper Brookmyre. Books like ‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald’s ‘The Far Side Of The Dollar’ are a huge influence as all the Reluctant Detective books are written from a first person perspective.

Who or what inspired you to write the book?

Everything I write is driven by the realisation that life is too short to put off what you would love to do. The death of my son at the age of twelve had a huge affect on my perspective. Along with my wife and daughter, Calum is the constant inspiration for everything I do.

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Can the reader spot the killer from a list of six people, all with a strong motive before Craig does?

Next week on the 9th January the tour will move to the blog of David Magowan.