When I’m not pounding the keyboard or plotting my crime novels I’m
walking the coastal paths and by ways of Portsmouth and the Isle of
Wight, looking for a good place to put a body! A fictional one that is. I
can't pass a boatyard, beach or bay without thinking there must be a
dead body or a skeleton here somewhere. One day I’m sure I’m going to be
arrested or locked up as a psychopath and if that happens then I hope
either of my heroes, the enigmatic and flawed Portsmouth based
detective, DI Andy Horton, or the rugged ex-marine, Art Marvik, will
come to my rescue because, in fact, it would be their fault if I found
myself in such an awkward position.
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Pauline Rowson at Haslar Marina, Gosport featured in DI Andy Horton, DEATH SURGE
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The sea has always held a fascination for me, probably because I was raised in the coastal city of Portsmouth with its vibrant waterfront, its great contrasts of modern and historic, its diverse multicultural population, its international port, its historic dockyard, fishing fleet and the home of the Royal Navy. Portsmouth Harbour is one of the busiest in the World and the Solent offers up every kind of sailing vessel you could wish for from giant container ships to ferries, naval ships to leisure craft, fishing boats and even a regular hovercraft service. Once the sea is in your blood it never leaves you and it seemed only natural for me to turn to it for inspiration for my crime novels.
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The busy Solent
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For me setting my crime novels against the backdrop of the sea has many advantages. For one thing it is never constant. In one day alone it can change from being glass-like calm to storm-tossed turbulent thus providing a great backdrop for pace in a novel and great settings for a climax. On the surface it can look perfectly safe and yet underneath, hidden from view, can be a sandbank, a rock, a wreck, a dangerous current all of which can cause havoc and kill, and be used to good effect in a crime novel. The sea is also completely uncontrollable. No matter how much you think or wish you can control it, you can't. You need to respect and fear it. In life sometimes you need to go with the flow and other times to swim against the tide, the trick is knowing when to do which. My detective, Andy Horton, hasn't quite got it sussed, or when he thinks he has something happens to throw him completely off course, just as in life.
The great variety of locations also provides diversity of scenes within a novel. Horton can be on a stony or sandy beach, at an expensive marina or a rotting boatyard, on the police launch in the Solent or crossing on the ferry or the hovercraft from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight. Andy Horton’s patch is Portsmouth and there are plenty of interesting locations around the city to choose where to put a body!
I’ve used the fortifications of Old Portsmouth, the Town Camber, Southsea beach, Milton Common, the historic tunnels of Hilsea Lines, Tipner, Portsmouth International Port, the Historic Dockyard and many more in the so far published fourteen crime novels. There are still many more intriguing and interesting locations around the vibrant waterfront city of Portsmouth which indeed could keep a crime author scribbling for years, and DI Andy Horton fully occupied until retirement.
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The Mulberry in Langstone Harbour DI Andy Horton DEADLY WATERS
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Town Camber Portsmouth used in DI Andy Horton crime novels
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Portsmouth - DI Andy Horton's Patch
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Spitbank Fort, Solent, featured in DI Andy Horton DEAD PASSAGE
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Pauline Rowson on research for DEAD PASSAGE
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The Watergate, Portchester Castle featured in DI Andy Horton Footsteps on the Shore
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Rat Island in Portsmouth Harbour in DI Andy Horton, DEAD PASSAGE
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DEAD PASSAGE no. 14 in the DI Andy Horton series available in paperback, as an ebook and on Amazon Kindle.
A mysterious telephone call sends Horton on a complex and twisted investigation into the death of a local politician twelve years ago and uncovers a trail of lies, secrets and revenge with roots deep in the past.
"A detective novel in the tradition of Rankin and Harvey." Mystery People Magazine
