Third Degree: Pauline Rowson

Third Degree: Pauline Rowson: "Crime novelist Pauline Rowson, author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into crimetimepreview headquarters for questioning.

This is an interview I did for crimetimepreview. You can also read it on the crimetimepreview web site.

 

Your favourite British crime series or thriller on TV?

I have quite a few favourites so selecting one is rather difficult, but here is my shortlist: Morse because the production, music and acting are superb; Frost, because I like the shambolic air that pervades Frost’s investigations along with the humour; Poirot because I enjoy the classic murder mystery and historical aspect, the latter of which also applies to Foyle's War, which I enjoy because of the gorgeous Michael Kitchen. Then there is New Tricks because of the great actors and that tongue-in-cheek humour, and how can I possibly leave out DCI Gene Hunt. He’s a maverick, a cowboy who rides out into the big bad world seeking justice.

Top TV cop?

And the award goes to … whoever said I was indecisive?

Which unfilmed book/character should be made into a TV drama?

My Inspector Andy Horton of course, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’ve been re-reading the classic novels of Josephine Tey and think her Inspector Grant novels would make a good TV drama or a series. They’re set in the mid 1940s to 1950s. Also many of Robert Goddard’s novels would make excellent TV dramas.

If one of your novels were filmed, who would you cast to be the hero?

That’s such a tough question because how I see Andy Horton, my detective in my marine mystery police procedural novels, is not how others see him. So, I offer up suggestions made by some of my readers: Jason Statham, Daniel Craig, Dominic West, Toby Stephens, Damien Lewis, Robert Glenister. Getting the right actor plays a critical part in the success or otherwise of a television detective series adapted from the novels.

What do you watch with a guilty conscience (or what’s your guilty pleasure)?

I don’t have a guilty conscience when I watch them but I do enjoy old black and white thriller and detective movies, both British and American.

Least favourite cop show/thriller?

Anything that is too gruesome, graphic and contains rape, brutality, kids and torture. I like my crime to entertain, thrill and captivate me, not to give me nightmares.

Your favourite crime/thriller writers?

Reginald Hill, Robert Barnard, R D Wingfield, Robert Goddard and many from the classic Golden Age of Crime.

Favourite non-crime/thriller author

J B Priestley

Favourite crime movie or thriller?

The Long Arm starring Jack Hawkins – superb example of the forerunner of all the classic crime programmes ranging from Softly, Softly, Z Cars to The Bill, Frost, Morse and so on. Plus The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford, and literally anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

You’ve been framed for murder. Which fictional detective would you want to call up?

Depends on who I am alleged to have murdered and how, but I reckon either Sherlock Holmes or DCI Gene Hunt would get me out of a jam.

 

• Blood on the Sand, by Pauline Rowson (9780727868824).

In the fifth Marine Mystery, Detective Inspector Andy Horton’s Isle of Wight vacation is cut short when he encounters what appears to be the scene of a murder – and a woman who seems to be the killer, still holding the murder weapon. But there’s far more to it than that, and soon Andy is deep into an investigation that reaches far into the past.