CultureBooksThe 64-year-old's latest novel returns much loved characters, in a career that is remarkable for its longevity and consistency

Friday, 7th February 2020, 7:00 am

One of the most difficult things about writing a long-standing crime series is knowing when to stop. Val McDermid, the author of the best-selling Tony Hill and Carol Jordan books, admits there have been times when she has come close to pulling the plug.

I did wonder whether the last Tony and Carol book [2017s] Insidious Intent might be the final one, because where do you go after that? she says, referring to the shocking ending, which left Tony in prison and Carol out of the police force. But I was also sure that I didnt want to leave them on that note. I wanted a sense of hope.

That said, Im always very conscious that the series does have a shelf life. So far Ive never been bored with Tony and Carol but Im aware that if I have to be ruthless, I will be. I would never want readers to be picking them up in the hope that this one is the return to form.

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This seems highly unlikely. McDermids career is remarkable for its longevity and its consistency. Her debut novel, Report for Murder, was published in 1987. She has since written 38 more books in a career that has also included short stories, non-fiction and an award-winning childrens book.

However it is crime, and particularly procedural crime, which remains her bread and butter. Her new novel, How the Dead Speak, is the 11th to feature Hill and Jordan. But McDermid also writes another crime series set in her home county of Fife, centring on cold-case detective Karen Pirie.

I enjoy those because cold cases allow for a very different tone, angle and direction, she says. All the blood happened a long time ago and the violence is off stage.

A confident voice

The mystery that launches How the Dead Speak happened off-stage, too: it begins with the discovery of human remains in an old convent and quickly builds into a dark, multi-stranded story, concluding in an expertly unfurled denouement.

Not that the 64-year-old is satisfied. What keeps me going with each book is the hope that I do better than the one before, she says, adding that shes her own harshest critic. Ive never written a book I was happy with.

She does, however, retain a soft spot for the first Hill and Jordan book, The Mermaids Singing, because it was so different to what I had done before. Finding the voices to tell that story gave me a bedrock of confidence.

For all those doubts, it is clear that McDermid, who has been married to academic Joanne Sharp since 2016, is at a great stage in her life. Apologising for the cold she is trying to shake off, she goes on to laugh about the fact I last interviewed her almost 20 years ago, soon after the birth of her son Cameron.

That baby is now about to go to university, she says. I know, its hard to believe.

Despite a busy workload, McDermid also finds time to relax, notably as the lead vocalist in a band, the Fun Lovin Crime Writers, alongside fellow authors Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre, Stuart Neville, Luca Veste and Doug Johnstone. The rock and blues group has played everywhere from local book festivals to Glastonbury and will perform at the Shepherds Bush Empire in March.

I really enjoy it because writers spend most of their time stuck in a cupboard looking at screens, so its nice to do something collaborative that gets us out of that cupboard and meeting people, she says.

Harsher industry

McDermid is conscious that publishing is a harsher industry than it was when she started in the late 80s. I took 10 years to be an overnight sensation, she says. These days, if you havent broken out by your third book, youre not going to have much of a career.

The industry fetishises novelty, but writers need time to develop. Giving a seven-figure advance to a debut is a terrible thing to do to a writer.

A great promoter of others work she curates the New Blood panel at Harrogates Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival and recently announced the forthcoming publication of an anthology of Scottish writing she has little time for tropes and admits that she is always looking for something that suggests that the genre is changing.

I get very bored of reading books where the detective is a loner with no friends, she says. It just doesnt ring true. None of us fit that easily into a box; we all have jagged edges.

What Im reading now

Motherwell, By Deborah Orr. Its a remarkable memoir, the candour of it Having grown up working-class in Scotland, there are a lot of resonances.

What Im reading next

One of the 43 submissions I have for the New Blood panel at Harrogate. Between 50 and 70 debut crime novels will pass across my desk.

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Val McDermid: 'Giving a seven-figure advance to a debut is a terrible thing to do to a writer' - inews