‘I’ll leave the door ajar. You won’t need to ring the bell.’
He found himself on a cinder path running up to a small porch. As he moved forward, he saw the front door open, framing the slender figure he couldn’t stop thinking about.
‘Come in, quick,’ she urged. ‘You’ll catch your death out there.’
As consciousness returned, Carl Symons became fuzzily aware that his head was hurting. Hurting as it had never hurt before. The haft of the axe must have struck him on the temple, a blow so sudden that he’d not even had time to raise his hands in an attempt at self-defence. He forced his eyes open, trying to blink away the tears of pain. The skin of his cheeks and hands was grazed and sore. He’d been dragged inside and laid out on the floor of the kitchen. The stone was cold against his flesh. By the flickering light of the candle, he could see a pool of blood. It had leaked from the wound in his temple and on to the ground.
The candle wavered. With a desperate effort, Carl tried to shift his head so that he could follow the pool of light. Even the slight movement made him want to squeal.
A face emerged from the shadows and bent down towards him, as if to judge the extent of his suffering. Carl could see two hands as well. One held the axe, the other a sharpened stave.
The face was familiar to Carl but there was a strange light in the eyes that he had never seen before. The face came closer still but did not answer. Hypnotised, he watched as a tongue appeared and began to lick the pale lips. The axe was held aloft. White teeth bared in a savage smile.
Carl tried to form a single word and heard his own voice, croaky and pleading.
‘Please.’
But even as he spoke, the axe began to move towards him. Carl knew it was too late to beg for mercy. His bowels loosened.
The Making of The Devil in Disguise
My first five books, set in Liverpool and featuring Harry Devlin, were often described by reviewers as “gritty urban thrillers”. However, that phrase did not quite capture the type of books I set out to write. My aim was to create entertaining mysteries which updated the traditions of the classic detective novel in the context of a modern city background, while offering (for those readers who wanted something more than just entertainment, important though entertainment is in genre fiction) some exploration of aspects of character and society.
Because Harry was a rather down at heel individual, with a client base that was scarcely blue-chip, I’d found myself writing about the seamier side of life in Liverpool - especially in the first book, All the Lonely People, but to some extent in its successors as well. Prostitutes, gangsters and seedy nightclubs all featured from time to time. As I’d grown in confidence, I’d tried out different approaches in the way I plotted, and told my stories, and when I started thinking about the sixth novel in the series, it seemed perfectly natural to me to set it in a middle class milieu, with less focus on the mean streets than before.
I was also interested in writing a story that was a more explicit homage to Golden Age detective fiction than my earlier books. I’ve come to the genre as a child by reading the books of Agatha Christie, and although I also delight in the more sophisticated writing of crime novelists such as Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell and Frances Fyfield, I continue to enjoy the work of the Queen of Crime. The idea of producing a mystery that was a modern riff on a Christie theme was very appealing. But I didn’t want simply to write a pastiche. I thought it should be possible to write a book that combined the ingenuity of Christie’s best work with an interesting depiction of people and place that met the expectations and demands of a contemporary readership.
It is a truism that there is only a finite number of plot ideas, even though people disagree about what the precise number is. My first Harry Devlin short story, “The Boxer”, gave a fresh twist to the plot of the Sherlock Holmes story, and this experience prompted me to try to do something similar, but much more elaborate, with the plot of an Agatha Christie novel. The book I chose was one of the very first adult mysteries that I read, the Hercule Poirot classic, After the Funeral (also known by the less subtle title of Funerals Are Fatal). It’s a story which has a simple yet brilliant deception at its heart; having admired the trick for so long, I wondered how to give it a fresh, and different, life, and finally came up with a variation on Christie’s theme that I like to think she would have approved. I’ve never come across anyone who has spotted the connection without my drawing it to their attention, but I did give the Poirot story, as well as Christie herself, name checks in the novel.
I also seized the opportunity to create, as one of my key settings, a Liverpudlian bookshop specialising in crime fiction. How I wish The Speckled Band had really existed! Like Harry, I’d have loved to flip through the battered rarities, and I included mention of the work of some of my favourite Golden Age authors, such as John Dickson Carr, Philip MacDonald, and the largely forgotten Richard Hull, one of the few accountants to write mysteries. As usual in the Devlin books, there are also references to movies that appeal to me, notably Night Moves and Vertigo.
I also indulged myself by integrating into the story-line a performance in Liverpool of the Bacharach and David musical Promises, Promises, Neil Simon’s book for which was based on the screenplay of another classic film, The Apartment. The show was a huge hit on Broadway and in the West End in the late 60s, but then disappeared from view. However, it enjoyed a revival at the Bridewell Theatre in London while I was writing the book, and my agent Mandy Little and I found that the music and the jokes had stood the test of time well, even though more than another decade was to pass before the show returned to Broadway for another successful run. The Bridewell Theatre was an intriguing and unusual venue which I reinvented and relocated to Merseyside as The Pool Theatre.
Writing a book that is part of a series of mysteries is - or, at least, can be - different in some ways writing a stand-alone novel. Undeniably, there are drawbacks. One snag is that the reader can be pretty confident that the series detective will survive to fight another day, so it is important to find creative ways of building up the tension. Another is that the main characters’ backstories need to be explained to readers who are not familiar with them, without boring those readers who are. And there is always the risk of slipping into the formula of the tried-and-tested, potentially with damaging results.
Yet there are very real compensating advantages, which to my mind make writing a series a joy. For instance, minor characters can come and go as the needs of the individual story dictate. Here, I enjoyed bringing back Jonah Deegan, the grumpy old gumshoe, as well as introducing a new and contrasting character to support him. Stephanie Hall, his niece and business partner, was someone I thought of as possible future love interest for Harry, but in this book the fun lay in portraying her relationship with Jonah and in establishing her as someone Harry could trust. With this groundwork laid, who knows what might happen between them one of these days?
But in the short-term, I decided to switch Harry’s personal focus from Kim Lawrence to Juliet May. My original plan with Kim has been to contrast her crisp feminism and crusading zeal with Harry’s rather crumpled yet enduring passion for justice. I felt, however, that I’d taken their relationship as far as I could, but I want to match Harry with someone who spelt danger - the glamorous wife of a murderous villain. His risky affair with Juliet created the set-up for the next book I wrote, First Cut Is the Deepest, and even after a long gap in time, their relationship so continued to fascinate me that, a decade after it came into being, it again formed a significant element of the storyline in Waterloo Sunset. Of course, I had no way of foreseeing this when I created Juliet - it just illustrates the point about the benefits and pleasures of series writing.
The sub-plot about Davey Damnation that began in Eve of Destruction was resolved in this book. I like the idea of extending a sub-plot over more than one book in a series, and I returned to this way of writ
ing later, in the first couple of Lake District Mysteries. My aim always, though, is to make sure that the books can be read in any order without any significant reduction in enjoyment.
In trying to give a perspective on areas of Liverpool life different from those in the first five books, I made use of a variety of settings. Not just obvious scenes, like the Albert Dock, but the tunnel lined with tombstones in the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral. To capture the atmosphere of the rooftop above Roy Milburn’s studio, I went on to the roof of the seven-storey office building where I worked from 1980 until moving in 2011. Very windy up there it was, too. Like Harry, I wondered if a sudden gust from the river might pick me up and throw me on to the street far below. The Piquet Club was my own invention; over the years I’ve spent a bit of time in two of Liverpool’s famous private members’ clubs, the Lyceum (which now no longer exists) and the Racquets Club, but rather more as a proprietor (that is, member) of the Athenaeum, a delightful oasis in the midst of the city’s shopping area, and possessing an impressive library. But as far as I know, none of those venerable institutions ever boasted a collection of erotica similar to that with which I endowed the Piquet.
Names of characters in a novel do matter, partly for artistic reasons and also because of the need to minimise the risk of accidental libel. Yet conjuring names up is quite a challenge. The names have to “feel right”. I use various methods for naming characters, but my favourite is to use the names of Derbyshire county cricketers, past and present. When I went to watch the team play a game at Derby not long before I started The Devil in Disguise, I was introduced by a friend to a number of the players, including the South African Test batsman Darryll Cullinan. He expressed enthusiasm for having a character named after him - hence Matthew Cullinan. Some time after the book was published, I received an email from one Anthony Dessaur, who was researching his family’s unusual name. He’d come across the book and wanted to know what had prompted me to invent the name of Luke Dessaur. I explained how I used Derbyshire cricketers’ names, and that Wayne Dessaur had had a spell as one of the county’s batsmen. Wayne turned out to be Anthony’s son, and duly acquired a copy of the book, suitably inscribed. A strangely unexpected but, to me, enjoyable contact.
When I was writing the book, I discussed the work in progress with my editor, Kate Callaghan. She was keen on the story, but felt it needed a dramatic opening, and on reflection, I agreed. So I introduced the prologue, which was not there in the first version. Unfortunately, to my extreme disappointment - and bafflement- Kate’s boss Judy Piatkus, who had taken me on as an unpublished author, and given me much support, really did not care for the book. The less “gritty” style and story-line didn’t appeal to her. I still keep a copy of a letter she wrote to Mandy expressing her concerns - a reminder to myself that opinions about literature are always subjective (and that publishers certainly don’t always get their own judgments right!)
Of course, one has to take criticisms from sensible and experienced judges seriously, but I was convinced Judy was wrong about The Devil in Disguise. She wanted me to put it to one side and write a new Devlin, but I had faith in the book and so did Mandy. Happily, Hodder & Stoughton agreed that the story worked well, and offered to take on the whole Devlin series, starting with this book (they later reprinted the earlier books in paperback for good measure.) So it all worked out for the best in the end. And at least I’d gained experience of the ups and downs of a writer’s career - an experience that has helped sustain me ever since. I still have a soft spot for The Devil in Disguise and it’s a joy to see it enjoy a fresh lease of life.
Meet Martin Edwards
Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime writer whose fifth and most recent Lake District Mystery, featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind, is The Hanging Wood, published in 2011. Earlier books in the series are The Coffin Trail (short-listed for the Theakston’s prize for best British crime novel of 2006), The Cipher Garden, The Arsenic Labyrinth (short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year award in 2008) and The Serpent Pool.
Martin has written eight novels about lawyer Harry Devlin, the first of which, All the Lonely People, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year. In addition he has published a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense, Take My Breath Away, and a much acclaimed novel featuring Dr Crippen, Dancing for the Hangman. The latest Devlin novel, Waterloo Sunset, appeared in 2008.
Martin completed Bill Knox’s last book, The Lazarus Widow, and has published a collection of short stories, Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other stories; ‘Test Drive’ was short-listed for the CWA Short Story Dagger in 2006, while ‘The Bookbinder’s Apprentice’ won the same Dagger in 2008.
A well-known commentator on crime fiction, he has edited 20 anthologies and published eight non-fiction books, including a study of homicide investigation, Urge to Kill .In 2008 he was elected to membership of the prestigious Detection Club. He was subsequently appointed Archivist to the Detection Club, and is also Archivist to the Crime Writers’ Association. He received the Red Herring Award for services to the CWA in 2011.
In his spare time Martin is a partner in a national law firm, Weightmans LLP. His website is www.martinedwardsbooks.com and his blog www.doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com/
Bibliography
Harry Devlin Series
All the Lonely People (1991)
Suspicious Minds (1992)
I Remember You (1993)
Yesterday’s Papers (1994)
Eve of Destruction (1996)
The Devil in Disguise (1998)
First Cut Is the Deepest (1999)
Waterloo Sunset (2008).
Lake District Mysteries
The Coffin Trail (2004)
The Cipher Garden (2005)
The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007).
The Serpent Pool (2010)
The Hanging Wood (2011)
Other Novels
The Lazarus Widow (with Bill Knox) (1999)
Take My Breath Away (2002)
Dancing for the Hangman (2008)
Collected Short stories
Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and Other Stories (2001)
Anthologies edited
Northern Blood (1992)
Northern Blood 2 (1995)
Anglian Blood (with Robert Church) (1995)
Perfectly Criminal (1996)
Whydunit? (1997)
Past Crimes (1998)
Northern Blood 3 (1998)
Missing Persons (1999)
Scenes of Crime (2000)
Murder Squad (2001)
Green for Danger (2003)
Mysterious Pleasures (2003)
Crime in the City (2004)
Crime on the Move (2005)
I.D.: crimes of identity (2006)
The Trinity Cat and other mysteries (with Sue Feder) (2006)
M.O.: crimes of practice (2008)
Original Sins (2010)
Best Eaten Cold (2011)
Guilty Consciences (2011)
Non-fiction
Understanding Computer Contracts (1983)
Understanding Dismissal Law (two editions)
Managing Redundancies (1986)
Executive Survival (two editions)
Careers in the Law (six editions)
Know-How for Employment Lawyers (with others) (1995)
Urge to Kill (2002)
Tolley’s Equal Opportunities Handbook (four editions)
Martin Edwards: an Appreciation
by Michael Jecks
Both as a crime writer and as a keen exponent of the genre, Martin Edwards has long been sought out by his peers, and is now becoming recognised as a contemporary crime author at the top of his form.
; Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, Martin went to school in Northwich before taking a first class honours degree in law at Balliol College, Oxford. From there he went on to join a law firm and is now a highly respected lawyer specializing in employment law. He is the author of Tottel’s Equal Opportunities Handbook, 4th edition, 2007.
Early in his career, he began writing professional articles and completed his first book at 27, covering the purchase of business computers. His non-fiction work continues with over 1000 articles in newspapers and magazines, and seven books dedicated to the law (two of which were co-authored).
His life of crime began a little later with the Harry Devlin series, set in Liverpool. The first of his series, All The Lonely People (1991), was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the first work of crime fiction by a new writer. With the advent of his second novel, Martin Edwards was becoming recognised as a writer of imagination and flair. This and subsequent books also referenced song titles from his youth.
The Harry Devlin books demonstrate a great sympathy for Liverpool, past and present, with gritty, realistic stories. ‘Liverpool is a city with a tremendous resilience of spirit and character,’ he says in Scene of the Crime, (2002). Although his protagonist is a self-effacing Scousers with a dry wit, Edwards is not a writer for the faint-hearted. ‘His gifts are of the more classical variety - there are points in his novels when I think I’m reading Graham Greene,’ wrote Ed Gorman, while Crime Time magazine said ‘The novels successfully combine the style of the traditional English detective story with a darker noir sensibility.’
More recently Martin Edwards has moved into the Lake District with mystery stories featuring an historian, Daniel Kind, and DCI Hannah Scarlett. The first of these, The Coffin Trail, was short listed for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the year 2006.
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