Ask the author: G.P. Ritchie

Avoiding spoilers, I’d say that a few things went into it

• A short story I wrote about the Edinburgh festival felt like it could be placed into a larger context
• A piece of research I encountered about aging in mice
• I’ve always liked horror and supernatural fiction, but have also read a fair bit within the crime genre. A short story won me a place in a masterclass with Ian Rankin, which was a great encouragement to trying something in that space

I wouldn’t describe the book as pure crime, although it is certainly has strong aspects of the police procedural. Some horror/supernatural and other bits and pieces are also present, but I guess nothing in fiction ever sits purely within a single genre.

As for why it is what it is? My father was an avid crime fan. He loved Ian Rankin’s Rebus books, and Christopher Brookmyre’s Jack Parlabane novels. I wanted to try something in a genre he loved, and I had an older short story where a crime took place at the Edinburgh Festival which I thought would benefit from being properly investigated. My fondness for speculative fiction, and the nature of the story itself added the other elements.

I know some people love the cozy crime genre, but since childhood I’ve been interested in exploring and understanding my own fears. That naturally takes most of my stories into fairly dark places. Neil Gaiman once described scary stories as a form of inoculation, and that idea certainly speaks to me. I also feel that horrible things ought to be horrible, and I’d personally struggle to represent murder in a cozy way.

Having said all that, the human experience contains humour, and that usually forces its way into any narrative, however dark.

Some of the characters could certainly reappear at some point. I have ideas for a further couple of novels that involve some of the same characters. I’m finishing off a book of short stories first while those ideas gestate a little more.

That’s a hard one. Many of the books that stayed with me are the ones I read as a kid. I’ll never forget Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy, for instance (no longer a trilogy, but back in the day …) Convincing a teacher in a Catholic primary school to read the class The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preussler was a personal achievement, but they’ve since renamed the book.

As an adult I’ve loved anything I’ve read by Stephen King, but I started with The Shining. His son, Joe Hill, is well worth checking out as well. Ian Rankin’s Black and Blue and M.R Carey’s The Girl With All The Gifts both impressed and made me jealous at the same time. And more people should know about George R R Martin’s Fevre Dream. Of course, when writing a novel, the temptation is to pick apart other people’s butterflies, which is a different experience to reading for pure pleasure. I didn’t read much fiction of any kind whilst I was writing this book.